Believe in the Beat

From Broadway to Breakin’ and beyond, Godfather of Street Dance the late Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quinones discusses the Lockers, Lionel, and his legacy in his final interview from 2020

Adolfo “Shabba-Doo” Quiñones

What are your first real memories of dance in your life?

Watching my mom. This was before my mom became a Jehovah’s Witness. She used to frequent many nightclubs around on the north side of Chicago. On division and so forth. So, a lot of salsa closed in the south because they would also play popular music after the club. They would somehow find their way back to our house. And late at night my mom would throw these afterparties. And I would watch them, you know, set up the dancing and doing it. Of course, these were the popular dances of the day. Couple that with watching Saturday morning television, because in the early 1960s, TV played the old 40s musicals. I saw Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers, the Berry Brothers and Sammy Davis Jr. Then, of course, I grew up watching the Supremes, Jackie Wilson and The Temptations, namely David Ruffin. He was a prolific storyteller on stage. Those were my early influences, watching, getting turned on by dancing like that, and doing something really, really different.

Chaka Khan “I Feel for You”

Now, what would you say are the origins of the moves that you are associated with?