Flare (acrobatic movement)

B-boy making flares in Washington DC

The flare is an acrobatic movement in which the practitioner alternately balances the trunk between the two arms while swinging the legs below the body in a continuous circle. It is a fundamental breakdance power move and can be used when doing gymnastics on a pommel horse or as a floor exercise . The movement is usually written Flair in gymnastics and can also be called "Thomas Flair" after the inventor, Kurt Thomas .

Step-by-step execution

The description assumes a counterclockwise rotation.

The left leg begins about 10 inches behind the right (not parallel). If the breaker already has momentum, he quickly places his left hand near his left leg with the fingers pointing away from the body to the left. Next, swing your left leg around as forcefully as you can while jumping off. The breaker is now prepared to put down the right hand. All the weight of the exerciser is shifted to the right hand, and the left leg kicks up as forcefully as possible. The right leg swings under the left, then the left hand is set down so that both hands are now in front. Arching the back and not touching the ground, the breaker kicks the right leg up again and swings the left around for another rotation. An increase in this movement would be two-legged circles on a so-called mushroom (similar to a pommel horse, but rounder and with less distance to the ground). This exercise consists of rotating the leg 360 degrees around the mushroom with a floor distance of approximately 40 centimeters with only the hands touching the device.

Variations

There are several different variants of the flare:

Elbow Flares - The forearm (and therefore the elbow) is used instead of the arms to support the body. This is a difficult variation due to the low leg clearance.
Lotus Flares - A flare with your legs in a lotus position .
Half-Flares - Similar to Lotus Flares, with the difference that the continuous swinging movement is done in a leg position that represents Figure Four (instead of the V position).
New Yorker Flares / Atomic Flares / Power Flares - starts with the other hand than usual with flares. For example, when moving the legs to the right, the left hand is placed on the floor first.
Chair Flares - a flare that is so exaggerated that the forward swing looks like an Air Chair Freeze.
Double Chair Flares - a chair flare performed with two Air Chair Freezes (both arms bent) and without jumping between hand changes.
Circles / Virgin Flares - The legs stay together and straight. In gymnastics this is called a circle and is seen as a preliminary stage to the flare.
Threaded Flares - A special form of flare where the practitioner uses the supporting arm (before assisting the swing movement) to thread both legs together . The legs become free during the forward movement of the flare (B-Boy Lilou was the first to perform this movement).
V-Flares - An advanced style of flare in which the legs stay straight and close to the body in a V position and all of the swing is exerted by the hips, which leaves the legs immobile and not providing support. It takes a lot of force to master V-flares.
British Flares - A flare that starts from a handstand position. It is used as a transition from airflares to flares.
Solar Flares - A flare with your hips very high in the air. This is similar to an Airflare, which is combined with a Chair Flare, but without the jump when changing hands.

Airflare

The Airflare is an advanced movement that follows a similar concept to the Halo. During the airflare, the breaker is upside down and with its torso at an angle of about 45 degrees to the ground. (The angle can be different. The smaller the angle, the more difficult it is to perform.) The legs are in a V position and the hands are straight. The latter are the only parts of the body that touch the ground during movement. The B-Boy swings his legs and arms around so that he moves in a circular path.

Variations

There are many variations of the airflare. Examples worth mentioning are:

Elbow Airflares / Elbow Tracks - The elbows are used instead of the hands.
Bent Leg Airflares - One leg is bent continuously throughout the movement. B-Boy Blond and B-Boy The End are known to use this technique.
Hopping Airflares - Both hands never touch the ground at the same time. A jumping motion is used to continuously jump from one hand to the other. In this variation, the legs are sometimes bent to initiate the jump.
Tombstone Airflares - The legs are both closed and stretched during the flight phase of the movement.
Lotus Airflares - Similar to Airflares, but with the legs in a lotus position .
Toe Touching Airflares - When one hand is on the ground, the other is used to touch the toes of a foot.
Clapping Airflares - Clapping both hands in a handstand between airflares.
Threaded Airflares - moving one leg through the loop created from the other leg and the non-supporting hand.
Walking Airflares - At least one hand is always in contact with the ground, even during the flight phase of normal airflares. This variation requires a high degree of flexibility in the shoulders.
One-handed air flares - A very difficult variation on the air flare. The same swinging hand turns a whole swing 180 degrees with just one hand. B-Boy Punisher , B-Boy Clil and others are famous for it.
Airflare 1.5 (Airflare Bombs, Airflare Suicides) - The body rotates 540 degrees, and the b-boy lands on his back instead of his hands.