Without warning, Karl Hedderich springs abruptly from his chair and begins dancing.

Although no music is playing, Hedderich does a windmill - flipping onto his hands, pushing his feet up in the air and spinning his body around, using his palms to balance on the floor of the Temple Club, 500 E. Grand River Ave. in Lansing.

Hedderich organized Break Mecca, a break-dancing competition, Saturday to bring attention to the East Lansing area break-dancing scene.

"I wanted to help support the scene in Michigan," said Hedderich. "I'll help by throwing an event basically to help bolster East Lansing."

Around Hedderich fellow B-boys and B-girls - the gender-specific terms for break-dancers - enjoy each other's company as they talk and share the floor, showing off their breaking talents. The event at the Temple Club attracted groups from outside Michigan and featured music from local DJs Benny Ben and Ruckus.

MC of the competition and 2003 MSU graduate Ryan Abenes said the event was something positive for the community.

"Some people think B-boys and B-girls are no good and don't do anything, but this is something they really love," Abenes said. "Instead of doing something really negative in the community, (break dancing) is positive.

"It gives you an outlet to express yourself. If you're a shy kid, but you love dancing, you can express yourself this way."

Okemos resident Eric Sartorius, who has been dancing for more than a year, said he could attest to the positive effect it has had on his life.

"In high school I fell into drugs," he said. "Break dancing got me right out of it."

The competition was organized as a bracket system, with three B-boys from one crew, or group, facing off against three others from a different crew.

The competitions for B-girls was one-on-one because there were few women competing.

Break dancing attracts more men than women because of the amount of upper body strength it requires, Hedderich said.

For both competitions, $50 was awarded to each winner.

The dance style began in 1969 when James Brown performed "Get On the Good Foot"live.

He jumped down to the ground and inspired B-boys and B-girls, Hedderich said.

"He just went down on the floor and people thought it was dope," he said of Brown. "Eventually someone just went down and stayed on the floor."

Since that time, break dancing evolved into two forms. One involves "power moves," such as spinning around on one's head, and focuses on acrobatics. The other focuses on foot work and is more concentrated in dance.

Influences on these styles have came from 1970s Kung-Fu movies and gymnastics. They helped bring rise to power moves such as the windmill, a more acrobatic part of break dancing, Hedderich said.

Capoeira, a style of Brazilian martial arts, influenced the foot-work style in breaking. English junior Bill Evon studied capoeira for four years before he got into break dancing.

"It teaches you a lot about body control," he said. "It's a lot different breaking though when moving to hip hop instead of traditional Brazilian music."

At the end of the night, the Milwaukee-based break-dancing crew Motion Disorder won the competition.

Hedderich said he was just glad everything went off well and the scene got some good exposure.

"It lets people know that (break dancing) is still out there," Hedderich said. "People thought it was a fad from the '80s. This shows people that it didn't die out, but is getting more intense and better."

Joseph Montes can be reached at montesjo@msuedu.