Hip hop dance

For other uses, see Dance (disambiguation).

Template:Infobox generic Hip-Hop dance refers to dance styles primarily danced to hip-hop music or that have evolved as part of hip-hop culture. This includes a wide range of styles notably breaking, popping, locking, and krumping. Breaking, locking, and popping were developed in the 1970s by Black and Latino Americans. Krumping followed in the 1990s from African American communities in Los Angeles. What separates hip-hop dance from other forms of dance is that it is often improvisational (freestyle) in nature and hip-hop dancers frequently engage in battles—formal or informal one-on-one dance competitions. Freestyle sessions and battles are usually performed in a cipher, a circular dance space which forms naturally once the dancing begins.

Hip-Hop dance has over 25 years of history with the first movies showcasing breaking coming out in 1982. It is now accepted as a member of the African American vernacular dances (dances that have developed in the streets/clubs rather than in dance studios) which include tap, jazz, house, and lindy hop. It was DJ Afrika Bambaataa that outlined the five pillars of hip-hop culture including breaking as one of them (along with MCing, DJing, graffiti writing, and knowledge). The spread of hip-hop culture domestically and abroad has led to the birth of new hip-hop dance moves and dance styles. Today hip-hop dance is practiced both at studios and outside spaces. To some, it has even become a lifestyle: a way to be active in physical fitness, a hobby, or competitive dancing, and a way to make a living by doing it professionally.

History

The earliest hip-hop dance style, breaking, began as elaborations on how James Brown danced on TV. People would mimic these moves in their living rooms, in hallways, and at parties. It is at these parties that breaking flourished and came into its own with the help of a young Clive Campbell. Campbell, better known as DJ Kool Herc, was an up and coming Jamaican American DJ who would frequently spin records at neighborhood teenage parties. In Jeff Chang's novel on the history of hip-hop Can't Stop Won't Stop he describes DJ Kool Herc's eureka moment:

"I was smoking cigarettes and I was waiting for the records to finish. And I noticed people was waiting for certain parts of the record." It was an insight as profound as Ruddy Redwood's dub discovery. The moment when the dancers really got wild was in a song's short instrumental break, when the band would drop out and the rhythm section would get elemental. Forget melody, chorus, songs—it was all about the groove, building it, keeping it going. Like a string theorist, Herc zeroed in on the fundamental vibrating loop at the heart of the record, the break.

In response to this revelation, Herc developed the Merry-Go-Round technique in order to extend the breaks. He would play a break on a record on one side of the turntables. On the other side he would have a copy of the same record ready to play the break at the beginning after the first record finished. He would loop these records one after the other in order to extend the break as long as he wanted. It was during these times that the dancers later known as break-boys or b-boys would perform what today is known as breaking.

Breaking started out strictly as toprock, dance moves done while standing up, and uprock also called Brooklyn uprock or rocking. The uprock style of breaking has its roots in gangs. Uprock is an aggressive form of toprock involving fancy footwork and movements that mimic fighting. When there was an issue over turf the two warlords of the feuding gangs would uprock. Whoever won this preliminary battle would decide where the real fight would be.

"We didn't know what the f--- no capoeira was, man. We were in the ghetto! There were no dance schools, nothing. If there was a dance it was tap and jazz and ballet. I only saw one dance in my life in the ghetto during that time, and it was on Van Nest Avenue in the Bronx and it was a ballet school. Our immediate influence in b-boying was James Brown, point blank."

Richard "Crazy Legs" Colón;
Rock Steady Crew

Because the uprock style of breaking was most commonly performed within gangs it never crossed over into mainstream breaking as seen today. Although similar in purpose, uprock did not come out of the Afro-Brazilian martial art capoeira (see quote box). Some capoeira moves have been integrating into modern breaking but seeing how there were no capoeira films or capoeira schools in the South Bronx in the '70s it is very unlikely breaking would have been birthed out of it. With the South Bronx being a disenfranchised African American and Puerto Rican American community the young innovators at the time would have no frame of reference to draw from.

From toprock and uprock, breaking progressed to being more floor oriented as seen today involving spins, freezes, windmills, and swipes. As breaking was developing and evolving in the New York, other styles of dance were developing at the same time in California. Unlike breaking the funk styles, notably locking, popping, and electric boogaloo were not originally hip hop dance styles. They are actually older than breaking considering the robot dance, a predecessor to locking, was performed by The Robot Brothers (crew) in the late 1960s. In addition, the funk styles were danced to funk music rather than hip hop music and they weren't associated with the other cultural pillars of hip hop (DJing, graffiti writing, and MCing). Like breaking the different moves within the funk styles came about with the formation of crews. The Lockers were founded by Don "Campbellock" Campbell who is credited with inventing locking. At first the Lockers were all black males but later women and Latinos were added to make up for the complaints of the lack of racial diversity. One of these additions included choreographer Toni Basil who served as their manager. The Electric Boogaloos are another influential funk styles crew founded by Sam "Boogaloo Sam" Solomon. Boogaloo Sam is credited for developing popping and electric boogaloo. This style got its name because when Boogaloo Sam (Sam Solomon) was performing it, he would say "pop, pop, pop" under his breath as he was popping his muscles to the music. Members of the electric boogaloos are still active traveling and teaching rather than doing competitive dance. Timothy "Poppin Pete" Solomon, Suga Pop, and Steffan "Mr. Wiggles" Clemente are all faculty members at Monster of Hip Hop dance convention.

Though breaking and the funk styles are different stylistically they have always shared many surrounding elements such as their improvisational nature and the way they originated from the streets within Black and Latino communities. The funk styles were integrated into hip-hop in the 1980s when the culture reached the west coast of the United States.

Parallel with the evolution of hip-hop music, hip-hop dancing evolved from breaking and the funk styles into different forms. Some moves hit the mainstream and became fad dances such as the Running Man, the Cabbage Patch, and the Humpty Dance. The dance industry in particular responded with studio/commercial (L.A. style) hip-hop and street jazz. These dance styles were created by technically trained dancers who wanted to create choreography to hip-hop music and to the hip-hop dances they saw being performed on the street.

See also: Hip-Hop Dance: Dance Industry

Krumping came about in the early '90s within the African American communities of Compton, CA. It was only seen and practiced in the Los Angeles metro area until it gained mainstream exposure by being featured in music videos and showcased in the krumping documentary Rize. This aggressive style of dance was most commonly performed to bass heavy rap music but is now, like most hip hop dances, performed to any song with a strong beat. Tommy Johnson, an early pioneer of krumping, founded The Battle Zone competition in L.A. where krump crews could come together and battle each other in front of an audience of their peers. The cultural similarities between breaking, the funk styles, and krumping brought them together under the same subculture of hip-hop which has helped to keep them alive and evolving today.

Naming debates

Breakdancing vs. Breaking/B-boying

Due to the 1970s media, the term "breakdancing" was applied to what was called breaking or b-boying in the street. A break is a musical interlude during a song—the section on a musical recording where the percussive rhythms are most aggressive and hard driving. 1970's hip-hop DJs, notably DJ Kool Herc, would scratch breaks on their records when playing at parties and it was during those times that the dancers anticipated and reacted to the breaks with their most impressive steps and moves. DJ Kool Herc coined the terms "b-boy" and "b-girl" which stood for "break boys" and "break girls."

Breaking/B-boying vs. Funk Styles

When the movies Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo came out, they put all the styles of dance performed under the "breakdance" label causing a great naming confusion. In addition Breakin was released internationally as Breakdance: The Movie causing a naming confusion abroad. Going off of these films the media further perpetuated the confusion by following suite and calling all represented styles "breakdancing". Breaking originated in the Bronx while the funk styles came from the west coast during the funk era. They are called funk styles because they were originally danced to funk music rather than rap music.

Worldwide exposure

Hip-Hop dance is now practiced worldwide. There were many steps in its history for it to come to the international acceptance it has today.

Year	Contributor	Event
1970	Don Cornelius	Cornelius creates and executive produces Soul Train—the song-and-dance television program featuring R&B, funk music, soul music and social dancing. Before officially becoming a group, The Lockers made several appearances on this show.
1973	Don Campbell	The Lockers are founded in Los Angeles by Don Campbell.
1974	The Jackson 5	The Jackson 5 performs "Dancing Machine" on Soul Train popularizing the "Robot" dance.
1977	Sammy "Boogaloo Sam" Solomon	The Electric Boogaloos are founded in Fresno, California by Sam Solomon. Their name was originally the Electric Boogaloo Lockers but "Lockers" was dropped the following year.
	Rock Steady Crew	The Rock Steady Crew is founded in New York City by b-boys Jimmy D and Santiago "Jo Jo" Torres.
1982	Ruza "Kool Lady" Blue	Manager Kool Lady Blue organizes The New York City Rap Tour featuring Rock Steady Crew, Afrika Bambaataa, Cold Crush Brothers, the Double Dutch Girls, and Fab 5 Freddy. This tour travels to travel to England and France.
	Rock Steady Crew	Wild Style opens in Japan. Rock Steady Crew b-boys from the film perform breaking in Harajuku shopping district in Tokyo.
1983	Michael Jackson	Jackson performs the moonwalk (called the backslide in popping context) on ABC's Motown 25 TV special. This performance is broadcast all over the world.
	Richard "Crazy Legs" Colón	Flashdance is released and becomes the first Hollywood film to feature b-boying with a young Crazy Legs (from Rock Steady Crew) serving as a body double for Jennifer Beals character Alex.
1984	Breakin films	Although Breakin' and its successor Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo caused a naming confusion, it did contribute to the exposure of popping, breaking, locking, and electric boogaloo upon international release. Dancers featured include Michael "Boogaloo Shrimp" Chambers, Adolpho "Shabba Doo" Quinones, Timothy "Popin Pete" Solomon, and Bruno "Popin Taco" Falcon.
	New York City Breakers, Rock Steady Crew	Beat Street a film about hip-hop culture is released in West Germany introducing breaking, graffiti, and DJing to this part of Europe. The film features a battle between the Rock Steady Crew and the New York City Breakers.
1985	Tony "Go Go" Lewis	Tony Go-Go, one of the original members of The Lockers, opens a locking school in Japan.
1990	MC Hammer	U Can't Touch This music video premiers. The video features heavy use of the Running Man and the Hammer Dance.
Battle of the Year	The largest international breaking competition is founded in Germany.
1994	Asia One	The first b-boy summit is held. It was founded by b-girl Asia One of Rock Steady Crew.
2003	Hip Hop International	The largest international hip-hop dance competition featuring breaking, popping, and locking is held in Los Angeles.
2005	Rize	Pioneers of krumping Tommy the Clown, Miss Prissy, Christopher "Lil' C" Toler, Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti, and Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis all appear in this krumping documentary directed by David LaChapelle. This film premiered at the Sundance film festival and was later screened internationally at several other film festivals. abroad.
2007	University of East London	UEL's Institute for Performing Arts (IPAD) starts intake for the only urban dance Bachelor degree program in the world specializing in hip-hop, urban, and global dance forms.

Television, film, music videos, international performances, dance classes offered abroad, and now the Internet have all contributed to the spread of hip-hop dance all over the world. Although these styles first appeared on their own independent of each other they are now being accepted within the bigger hip-hop dance schema.

Main styles

Though the main hip-hop dance styles, breaking, locking, popping, and krumping, evolved separately today they are associated with the hip-hop scene because they came from the street and are danced to hip-hop music. This list gives a general overview of the main styles and touches on sub-genres within those styles. Both the main styles and their sub-genres are explained further in their own articles.

Breaking/B-boying

Main article: Breaking

Breaking, the original hip-hop dance style, performed at MTV Street Festival, Thailand.

Breaking appeared in New York City during the early 1970s and came to be popularly classified as one of the five primary "elements" of hip-hop culture. Due to this status it is considered the purest form of hip-hop dance.

A b-boy performing a one-handed freeze in Copenhagen.

Breaking includes five primary dances: Toprock, dance moves done while standing up, Brooklyn uprock, a more confrontational form of toprock where two opponents face each other and engaged in "war dance" like moves, downrock, foot oriented dance moves done on the floor, freezes, poses done on your hands, and power moves, the most difficult and most impressive centerpiece moves. In breaking, a variation to the traditional cipher is the Apache line. Ciphers work well for one-on-one b-boy battles; however, Apache lines are more appropriate when it is crew versus crew. In contrast to the cipher opposing crews can face off in this line formation and execute their burns. In 1981 the Lincoln Center in New York City hosted a breaking battle between the Rock Steady Crew and The Dynamic Rockers. "This event, which was covered by the New York Times, the Village Voice, the Daily News, National Geographic, and local news stations helped b-boying gain the world’s attention."

Funk Styles

Funk styles refers to a group of dance styles that originated in California in the 1970s during the funk era. These mainly include popping, electric boogaloo, and locking. Popping and electric boogaloo were created by Sam Solomon in Fresno, California and performed by his crew the Electric Boogaloos. Locking, originally called Campbellocking, was created in Los Angeles by Don Campbell and introduced to the country his crew The Lockers. Electric boogaloo is sometimes mistakenly called electric boogie. The boogaloo dance, at its purest form, was created in New York City by Cubans and Puerto Ricans and danced to mambo, soul, and R&B music. Electric boogaloo is a combination of boogaloo and popping. Therefore calling it electric boogie would be leaving out the original essence of where the dance came from. This style lost popularity after the '70s but it is still a respected dance form.

Popping

Main article: Popping

A popping performance in Europe

Popping is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit. Each hit should be synchronized to the rhythm and beats of the music. Popping is also used as an umbrella term to refer to a wide range of 10+ other closely related illusionary dance styles such as strobing, liquid, animation, and waving that are often integrated with popping to create a more varied performance. In all these sub-genres it appears to the spectator that the body is popping hence the name. The difference between each genre is how exaggerated the popping is. In liquid the body movements look like water. The popping is so smooth that the movements don't look like popping at all. They're fluid. The opposite of this would be (ro)boting where the body is made to move like a robot would. The movements are static, sudden, and jerky. Sometimes it is assumed that (ro)boting came out of popping; however, the robot dance existed before popping. It came around in the late 1960s and was created by Charles "Robot" Washington before his crew The Lockers were ever formed.

"While Sam was creating popping and boogaloo, others were creating and practicing unique styles of their own. Back in the day many different areas in the west coast were known for their own distinct styles, each with their own rich history behind them. Some of these areas included Oakland, Sacramento and San Francisco."

The Electric Boogaloos

Popping—as an umbrella term—also includes gliding, floating, and sliding which are lower body dances done with your feet. When done correctly a dancer looks like they are gliding across the floor as if on ice. Opposite from gliding is tutting which is an upper body dance that uses the arms, hands, and wrist to form right angles and make geometric box-like shapes. Sometimes the arms aren't used at all and tutting is only done with the hands and fingers. The movements are intricate and always use 90° angles. When done correctly tutting looks like the characters on the art of ancient Egypt hence the name, a reference to King Tut. Many of these related styles (animation, strobing, waving, tutting, etc.) can not be traced to a specific person or group. The Electric Boogaloos themselves acknowledge this (see quote box).

Locking

Main article: Locking

Modern locking looks similar to popping and thus gets confused with popping all the time. In locking a dancer holds their positions longer. The "lock" is the primary move used in locking. It is similar to a freeze or a sudden pause. You lock in place and after a quick pause you move again. Although locking was created by Don Campbell, a lot of the moves a dancer uses in locking were created by Greg "Campbellock Jr" Pope. It is incorrect to call locking pop-locking. Popping and locking are two distinct funk styles with their own set of dance moves. A dancer can do one or the other but not both at the same time. It was only after seeing The Lockers perform on TV that a young Boogaloo Sam was inspired to create popping and electric boogaloo. The Lockers were composed of a prior smaller group of lockers and robot dancers. Other than Don Campbell, some of the original members were Fred "Mr. Pinguin" Berry (Rerun on the 1970’s TV sitcom What's Happening!!), James "Skeeter Rabbit" Higgins, Adolpho "Shabba Doo" Quinones, Tony "Tony Go Go" Lewis, Charles "Charles Robot" Washington, and Toni Basil—the group's manager. In honor of her instrumental role in giving locking to the country's attention, Basil was recently honored at the 2009 World Hip Hop Championships as the first female recipient of the Living Legend Award.

Krumping

Main article: Krumping

"You would never imagine black hip-hop clowns really doing nothing until I brought it to this world. God allowed me to bring it to this world."

Thomas "Tommy the Clown" Johnson

Krumping appeared in Los Angeles during the 1990s. Unlike other hip-hop dances krumping is entirely freestyle; it is rarely, if ever, choreographed and is mostly performed in a battle within a cipher. Krumping includes four primary moves: wobbles, arm swings, chest pops, and stomps. Clowning (not to be confused with the clown walk, see fad dance article), the less aggressive predecessor to krumping, was created in 1992 by Tommy the Clown in Compton, CA.

"Expression is a must in krump because krump is expression. You have to let people feel what you're doing. You can't just come and get krump and your krump has no purpose."

Robert "Phoolish" Jones;
Krump Kings

In the 90's Tommy and his dancers would paint their faces and perform clowning for children at birthday parties or for the general public at other functions as a form of entertainment. In contrast, krumping focuses on highly energetic battles and movements which Tommy describes as intense, fast-paced, and sharp. "If movement were words, [krumping] would be a poetry slam." In krumping the arms and torso pump aggressively to the music. Music videos such as Missy Elliott's "I'm Really Hot", Madonna's "Hung Up", Christina Aguilera's "Dirrty", and Black Eyed Peas' "Hey Mama" helped give this dance form national exposure. Compared to the other main styles of hip-hop dance, krumping is relatively new.

International competitions

There are many hip-hop dance competitions around the world. Some of them allow all styles to enter while others focus on specific styles, most of the time breaking. What differentiates hip-hop dance competitions from others is that much emphasis is placed on freestyle battles—battles that take place between two solo dancers: two poppers or two breakers for example. Sometimes dance crews battle also but they are judged on choreographed routines. These competitions often have guest speakers and workshops or classes along with their scheduled competitions. They also have regional tournaments for a specific country or continent. These tournaments not only offer crews or soloists a regional title but also serve as qualifying rounds for the final international championship.

• Battle of the Year (BOTY) was started in Germany in 1990. It is exclusively a breaking competition for crews. There are several BOTY regional competitions that lead up to the final international competition that is always held in Germany.

• Hip Hop International: World Hip Hop Championships is an international competition based in the US where both crews and solo dancers compete. For the crews there are three divisions: junior (ages 7–12), varsity (12-18), and adult. Each crew must have five to eight people and must perform a routine that showcases three styles of hip-hop dance. Solo dancers compete in breaking, locking, and popping. For the 2009 competition there were 120 crews representing 30 countries. HHI also runs the USA Hip Hop Championships.

• Juste Debout is a large European street dance competition held annually in France. Competition categories include popping, new style, locking, and house. Breaking is not included to put more focus on hip-hop dance styles done while standing up, hence the name (French for Just Upright). Juste Debout also publishes a hip-hop dance magazine of the same name.

• United Dance Organization: World Street Dance Championships is a hip-hop dance competition based in the UK. People can compete as solo dancers, in duos, in quads (4 people), or in teams. UDO also host the European Street Dance Championships and the USA Street Dance Championships.

• Freestyle Session is an international breaking competition for b-boy crews started in 1997. Every year the international final is held in a different country.

• Red Bull BC One brings together the top 16 b-boys from around the world that are chosen by an international panel of experts. It was created in 2004 by Red Bull and, like Freestyle Session, is hosted in a different country every year. Past BC One participants have included Ronnie from Super Cr3w and Italian b-boy Cico (pronounced CHEE-co).

• B-Boy Summit is an international four day conference that was created in 1994. The conference includes competitions, panels, workshops, and a marketplace. The difference between the B-Boy summit and other hip-hop dance competitions is that the B-Boy Summit places a lot of emphasis on the history of hip-hop culture and the importance of b-boys/b-girls across the world understanding the roots of where it came from. For this reason the conference brings together rappers and DJs for a talent showcase and graffiti artists to do live paintings so that "each element of Hip-Hop combine[s] together to make the cipher complete." There's also competitions for Lockers and Poppers as part of the "Funk Fest" portion of the conference and a Battle of the Sexes Super Jam.

Impact

Dance crews

A dance crew at its most basic definition is a group of dancers who get together and create dance routines. In the mid '70s on the east coast as hip-hop culture was catching on and spreading throughout the Bronx, the gangs started dissolving into crews; they were doing less violence and doing more breaking, DJing, graffiti writing, and rapping. The more breaking crews got together to practice and to battle each other the more different dance moves within breaking would develop organically. The same can be said about different dance moves within the funk styles and later on in the '90s with krumping. Forming and participating in a dance crew is how you practiced, improved, made friends, and built relationships. When breaking, the funk styles, and krumping were created there were no dance studios teaching these moves due to the fact that these dances were not created in a studio. Being apart of a crew was the only way to learn. In the beginning crews were neighborhood based and would engaged in battles in their respective cities. Now crews can battle in national and international competitions with other crews from around the country and around the world.

Arguably the most mainstream American dance crew is Jabbawockeez. Early in their history they performed at Carnival: Choreographer's Ball and America's Got Talent. However, they received an incredible amount of exposure and success on season one of America's Best Dance Crew when they were crowned the winners. Since ABDC they appeared in a Pepsi commercial, danced on the The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and on Live with Regis and Kelly, made a cameo in Step Up 2: The Streets, toured with New Kids on the Block, and launched their own clothing line. Crews still form based on friendships and neighborhoods (Diversity - East London). They also form for a variety of other reasons such as theme (Jabbawockeez), gender (Beat Freaks), ethnicity (Kaba Modern), and dance style (The Architeckz - turfing). Crews are not exclusive. It is common for dancers to be involved in more than one crew especially if one particular group is style specific (popping only for example) and a dancer wants to stay well rounded. Furthermore dance crews aren't just formed within the hip-hop context anymore. The footworKINGz is a dance crew that performs footwork, which is a style of house dance and Fanny Pak, who appeared on season two of America's Best Dance Crew, does contemporary.

Dance industry

"Street dancing was never ever ever to a count. You do not count a 1,a 2,a 3,a 4, a 5, a 6 to hip hop. It should be a feeling by making noise like "ou" "ah" "aw" "tsi", that's how we count, right there."

Timothy "Poppin Pete" Solomon;
The Electric Booglaoos

The dance industry responded to hip-hop dance by creating a more commercial version of it. This "studio hip-hop", sometimes called L.A. style is the kind of hip-hop dancing seen in most rap and R&B music videos. From the point of view of someone deeply immersed in hop hop culture, anything that looks like hip-hop dance that didn't come from the streets is not a true hip-hop dance form. In an interview with Dance magazine hip hop teacher Emilio "Buddha Stretch" Austin, Jr explains how he sees it:

"There are a lot of jazz dancers out there doing pseudo hip hop. A lot of teachers don't know the history, they're just teaching the steps. They're learning from videos, but they don't know the culture. If all you see is Britney Spears, you think that's hip hop, but that's never been hip hop. It's completely watered down. And studios could care less, because hip hop is one of their biggest moneymakers."

Many people like Austin echo this sentiment. This is because stage performance can restrict the free flowing process of improvisation which defined hip-hop dance early in its development. Also meshing different dance styles together dissolves their structures and identities. From a technical aspect, hip-hop dance (L.A. style hip-hop that is) is characterized as hard hitting involving flexibility and isolations (moving a certain body part independently from others). The feet are grounded, the chest is down, and the body is kept loose so that a dancer can easily alternate between hitting the beat or riding through the beat. This is in contrast to ballet or ballroom dancing where the chest is upright and the body is stiff. In addition, L.A. style hip-hop is very rhythmic and there's a lot of emphasis placed on musicality—how sensitive your movements are to the music—and being able to freestyle (improvise).

• Dance Studios around the world famous for their hip-hop dance classes include Millennium (LA), Boogiezone (LA),Edge Performing Arts Center (LA), Debbie Reynolds (LA), Broadway Centre (New York), Pineapple Studios (London), Sunshine Studios (Manchester), The Vibe - The International Hip Hop Dance Center (Oslo, Norway), DREAM Dance Studio (Canada), and Ones to Watch (Japan & Hong Kong).

• Monsters of Hip Hop is the first all hip-hop dance convention. It was founded in 2003 in Baltimore by Andy Funk, his wife Becky, and her sister Angie Servant. Since its beginnings Monsters now travels to multiple US cities and internationally to Mexico and New Zealand. Its faculty roster includes Dave Scott, Mr. Wiggles (Rock Steady Crew), Teresa Espinosa, and Marty Kudelka (Justin Timberlake) among others. Monsters also offers seminars/lectures about the history of hip-hop and how to get a dance agent.

• Nappytabs is the first line of dancewear made specifically for hip-hop dancers. Because Nappytabs is made for the urban dance community they don't sell leotards/unitards, tights, or leg warmers. Their line consist of tanks, b-ball shorts, tees, sweats, and hoodies. They are currently endorsed by Beat Freaks—the runner up on season three of America's Best Dance Crew.

• Dance Jam is a social networking site specifically for dancers. It was founded by Geoffrey Arone, Anthony Young, and MC Hammer in 2008. Other than providing an online community for dancers to create profiles and interact, Dance Jam also provides a place for people to compete in online dance battles and view online tutorials and lessons on how to do popular hip-hop dance moves.

• West Coast Poppin is a social networking site focused toward poppers and lockers. Like DanceJam they provide videos for popping and locking tutorials. They also post events/competitions, have a forum, a history of popping section and an interview section with notable poppers and DJs.

• Street Jazz, also called jazz funk, is a hybrid of hip-hop and jazz dance. This style is used by artists like Beyonce. Although it borrows from hip-hop dance it is not considered a style of hip-hop because the foundational movements are jazz. In hip-hop, even in lyrical hip-hop, there are no pirouettes or arabesques and you don't dance on releve’ (on the balls of the feet). In street jazz and in jazz dance in general you do.

Lyrical Hip-Hop

Lyrical hip-hop is a fluid more interpretive version of L.A. style hip-hop most often danced to downtempo rap music or R&B music. It focuses more on choreography and performance and less on freestyles and battles. Lyrical hip-hop first gained mainstream exposure, and a name, on season 4 of the reality dance competition So You Think You Can Dance. The actual term has been credited to Adam Shankman, a choreographer and judge on the program, who made a comment in reference to a routine choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo to Leona Lewis' "Bleeding Love".

"The great thing about this show is that we've really explored a totally new thing which is lyrical hip-hop and [Tabitha and Napoleon] nail it. This show has shown that hip-hop is just a completely legitimate beautiful genre in and of its own and you can tell such beautiful and heart breaking stories."

Adam Shankman

Due to Shankman's comment and their subsequent work on seasons 4 and 5, Tabitha and Napoleon are often credited with developing this style. According to Dance Spirit magazine what differentiates lyrical hip-hop from standard L.A. style hip-hop is that dancers interpret the beat differently.

What makes lyrical hip hop unique is that your dance movements have to tell a story to the lyrics of a song. Expect isolations (especially of the chest), slow, fluid movements (like gliding and body waves) and contemporary-inspired turns (but not pirouettes). There’s popping, but not the hard-hitting kind. Dancers are meant to look like they’re unwinding, unraveling and floating.

Some hip-hop purists feel the interpretive and softer style means it isn't hip hop at all. Others, such as hip-hop choreographer Shane Sparks, feel that it is hip hop but the style isn't different enough for it to be in its own genre. Out of all the sub genres of hip hop dance, lyrical hip-hop is the newest and least developed.

Entertainment

• Movies such as Wild Style, Beat Street, Breakin, Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo, You Got Served, Step Up 2: The Streets, How She Move, Rize, B-girl, Shake City 101, and Planet B-Boy are all examples of films where the plot and theme surround hip-hop dance and how it affects the main character(s) life. Wild Style was the first movie centered around hip-hop culture; however, Flashdance was the first Hollywood film to feature breaking.

• Theatre/Stage productions are few in number but growing. Rennie Harris' Puremovement started in 1992 as a hip-hop theatre company based in Philadelphia. The company has toured all over the world showcasing its original works such as March of the Antmen, P-Funk, Endangered Species, Facing Mekka, and Rome & Jewels. RHPM also organizes the annual Illadelph Legends Festival which brings together the originators and renowned practitioners of hip-hop dance to teach master classes, give lecture demonstrations, and participate in panel discussions. Groovaloo is another hip-hop theatre company based out of Los Angeles. It started out in 1999 as a dance crew, The Groovaloos, and progressed into a stage show that is a series of stories based on the true life experiences of the dancers. Members include Kid Rainen and DJ Wish One (Jabbawockeez), Ivan "Flipz" Velez (You Got Served), Affion "Oskamill" Crockett (Nick Cannon's Wild ’n Out), Daniel "Cloud" Campos (Madonna), Do Knock (Super Cr3w), and several members of Beat Freaks. Monsters of Hip Hop: The Show is a Broadway style production created every year for the most talented participants of Monster of Hip Hop dance convention. It showcases their dance skills to musical artists and dance agents in order to give them exposure so that they might get signed to an agency and become professionals.

• Musical Artists such as Usher, Black Eyed Peas, Justin Timberlake, MC Hammer, Chris Brown, Omarion, Ciara, Missy Elliott are a sampling of the singers/rappers who only use hip-hop dancing for their choreographed concerts and music videos. Because they are entertainers, most of the time they use L.A. style hip-hop.

• America's Best Dance Crew is a reality hip-hop dance competition on MTV created by Howard and Karen Schwartz, founders of Hip Hop International, the organization that runs the USA and World Hip Hop Championships. Different crews from across the country compete in dance challenges and battle against each other each week. ABDC has contributed to the exposure of Jabbawockeez, Quest, Kaba Modern, Beat Freaks, Super Cr3w, Supreme Soul, Breaksk8, and SoReal Cru. These crews now have official websites, make club appearances, perform in different locations/competitions, and appear as guests on news programs.

See also: America's Best Dance Crew

International

Tecktonik

Main article: Tecktonik

Tecktonik is a style of dance combining vogue, breaking (toprock), and popping (waving) that started at the Metropolis Club in Paris, France. Like hip-hop dance it is associated with urban youth and tecktonik dancers do engage in battles (both on the street and in the clubs). It is unclear whether or not it is a style of hip-hop dancing because it didn't come out of hip-hop culture and it's danced to techno music rather than hip-hop music.

Other venues

Tricking

Main article: Tricking

Tricking is a type of choreographed martial arts that came out of the Xtreme Martial Arts movement. It involves a lot of flips and acrobatics similar to those used in breaking and borrows moves from tae kwon do, wushu, and capoeira. Because of this, tricking is more performance based than traditional forms of martial arts which are about self defense.

Fitness

Today hip-hop dance is recognized by dancers and trainers alike as an alternate form of exercise. Hip Hop International, the organization that runs the USA and the World Hip Hop Championships, was founded as a subsidiary of Sports Fitness International. According to Lance Armstrong's health and fitness website LiveStrong.com, hip-hop dancing is particularly helpful in building abdominal muscle:

Many of the hip-hop movements isolate the abs, so this area really gets a good muscle-sculpting workout. There is a great deal of hip rolling, waist and pelvic rolling and popping in hip hop and all of these work the abs. The hip-hop "popping" is a technique that is a quick punch on the emphasis of a beat, many times danced in a combination with arm movements and the abdominal area being "popped" in the same count sequence. Doing these popping movements in repetition is an excellent abdominal workout.

In the mid '90s MTV's The Grind premiered. It was a television program that showcased social hip hop dancing to rap, R&B, and house music. On the heals of the show's success MTV released two MTV: The Grind Workout videos hosted by Eric Neis with assistance from choreographer Tina Landon (Janet Jackson, Ricky Martin). In the early 2000s Nike launched an international campaign promoting dance as sport and enlisted the help of choreographer and creative director Jamie King (Madonna) to developed the Nike Rockstar Workout for use in gyms worldwide. He later released a companion workout book and DVD titled Rock Your Body. Other choreographers have used fitness as a platform to promote hip-hop dance as a way to stay in shape. Titles include Darrin's Dance Grooves Vol. 1 - 2, Groovin' with the Groovaloos Vol. 1 - 3, Tina Landon's Behind the Moves, and Breakin' It Down with Laurie Ann Gibson.

Novelty and Fad dances

Main article: Novelty and fad dances

There are many hip-hop novelty and fad dances. These are popularized dance moves rather than dance styles that are most are most often performed at parties. Many times they are either regional dance moves or nationally known dance moves that became wildly popular and then faded as the song they were associated with lost popularity. Some examples include the running man, beet ya feet, Harlem shake, soulja boy, aunt jackie, crip walk, the Humpty dance, and the snap dance.

See also

• Hip-Hop culture
• Funk music
• African American culture
• House dance

Sources

• Chang, Jeff. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of the Hip-Hop Generation. New York: St. Martin's Press., 2005. ISBN 0-312-30143-X
• Kugelberg, Johan. Born in the Bronx. New York: Rizzoli International Publications Inc., 2007. ISBN 978-0-7893-1540-3
• Wisner, Heather. "From Street to Studio: Hip Hop Comes Inside." Dance Magazine 80.9 (2006): 74-76.

External links

Websites

• Battle of the Year
• Hip Hop International
• United Dance Organization
• Juste Debout
• Monsters of Hip Hop
• History of uprocking retold

Videos

• Breaking - ABDC Season 3 Finale: Quest and Beat Freaks on YouTube
• Locking - Hilty and Bosch at BOTY Asia 2008 on YouTube
• Popping - SYTYCD Season 4 Finale: Phillip 'PacMan' Chbeeb and Robert Murain on YouTube
• Tutting - Moon Zhang of Marvelous Motion on YouTube
• Krumping - Rize movie trailer on YouTube
• Studio/L.A. Style - Nick DeMoura dance reel on YouTube
• Lyrical Hip Hop - SYTYCD Season 5 Episode 6: Phillip and Jeannine "Mad" on YouTube
• Tecktonik - YELLE "A Cause Des Garcons" TEPR Remix on YouTube