Although other DJs of the era played records from Herc’s Merry-Go-Round—Pete DJ Jones, Disco King Mario, Tex DJ Hollywood, and others—Herc uniquely amplified the raw energy of Burning through a specific part of his set, creating an underground craze. If you knew about Herc’s parties, you wanted to be there. The music, the clever callouts by Coke La Rock, the sheer power of the sound system, and the dance were irresistible by all accounts. Before long, DJs followed suit elsewhere, with younger individuals like Flash, Theodore, Afrika Bambaataa, Supreme, Hutch, Breakout, Baron, and many others innovating new techniques to isolate breakbeats and create extended, seamless loops, all with an ear to the dance.

As breakbeats began to take on a life of their own in parks, community centers, and clubs around The Bronx—including Sal Abbatiello’s Disco Fever—younger dancers flooded the scene. Some, like Cholly Rock (of the Zulu Kings) or MC Sha Rock, came up from Burning at Herc’s jams. Others, like Trac 2, drew from Rocking in other parts of the borough. Dancers from this era evolved and combined these traditions of street dance with footwork (steps done on all fours, later called “downrocking”), extended floorwork, and acrobatic power moves, creating the foundations of a shared movement vocabulary.