Locking Dance
The style of locking began when while Don Campbell was attempting to learn some dance moves and he would keep on forgetting what to do next and freezing up.
This was a habit of his observed by a dance teacher and from here on he decided to make a dance using these distinct stops.
Locking only began with a handful of moves but as it grew and other dancers were brought into the genre, other moves and steps were created also.
Most of the dance steps that you see today were created by Don Cambell and member of 'The Lockers' dance crew. Each of the dancers in this group would create their own funky dance steps or bring in moves from other styles of dance into the dance solos that they would perform.
So certain moves would become characteristic of each locker. Most of these popular moves that they helped create are learnt by most new dancers that decide to take up locking.
Also it is worth mentioning that the general social environment during that era also had a role to play in the formation of many locking steps and moves.
At the time when these dancers were hitting the clubs, they were surrounded by the then popular dances of the time. These social and fad dances were not ones that stuck around long enough to become long lasting dance styles but more a small collection of steps that were faily easy to pull off.
Many of the lockers would bring these fad dances into the dance or create their own versions of them when they were locking. So many of the steps that you see when you see the lockers dancing are similar to what you would have seen around you if you were in the black soul and funk clubs in LA during the 60s and 70s.
The Lockers would also share these moves or moves that they created with one another and sometimes do them in unison when they were not solo-ing such as the 6 step.
There were also Lockers who were not part of the main lockers group but were also part of the scene such as Tony GoGo (who would later join the Lockers when some of the members left) and also dancers like Scooby Doo who was also involved in locking. These dancers also contributed greatly to the history of locking.