Popin’ Pete (born Timothy Earl Solomon, August 5, 1961) is an American dancer, choreographer, innovator, one of the originators of the “popping” dance style and member of the Electric Boogaloos. Pete’s career has spanned over thirty years since the emerging of popping dance to developing funk culture as a whole.
Popin’ Pete is a first generation member of The Electric Boogaloos, joining the group in 1978, Pete began to learn the popping style. According to Pete, he learned to pop first because boogaloo was too difficult. Boogaloo Sam as a creator of the group taught basics to the members of The Electric Boogaloos. As all the members were very talented dancers, the group soon became successful. During that time, Pete and the other members of The Electric Boogaloos appeared on many popular shows including: The Midnight Special, Kicks and Soul Train in the USA.
In 1982, Michael Jackson, after seeing their Soul Train performance, approached members of The Electric Boogaloos to choreograph both the Thriller and Beat It videos. Their relationship with Mr. Jackson spanned almost two decades working in various roles — from numerous music videos (Beat It, Captain EO & Michael Jackson’s Ghosts, etc.) to multimedia movies, live performances, choreography, and lessons.
One scene in Yeah 3x is dedicated to Popin’ Pete who dances with Chris Brown at a storefront labeled “Popin Pete’s” . Pete and Brown do a dance routine which was choreographed by Pete. Then they each go on with short dance solos.
Popin Pete has also worked alongside Justin Timberlake, Janet Jackson, Mya, Gwen Stefani and more.
If you want to find out more about Popin’ Pete then you can follow him on Facebook and Twitter (@PopinPete1)