A Brief History About Hip Hop Dance Moves

Hip Hop dance as we know it today, for example, the dance we see in music videos is a fusion of a wide range of conventional and unconventional dance styles and techniques. This includes jazz dance, indigenous folk dance, and even martial art.

Due to its robust nature, Urban Dance might perhaps be a more appropriate title for what we commonly classify as Hip Hop Dance. Despite the variety of styles and techniques added to its current repertoire, Hip Hop Dance’s roots can be traced to America’s street dancers. For many of these dancers, the art forms they created are the most accurate classification of Hip Hop Dance.

Breaking & Funk Styles

During the 1970s, DJs in America would set a whole new trend, mixing what are called drum breaks, which are drum solos in funk and soul music, one after the other, between two turntables. The result would produce a completely new sound containing a repeating track of drum breaks. In essence, the dance that grew out of this new form of music was called rip or B-boying (not break dancing). These ways of breaking would include, but are not exclusive to:

• Footwork – A series of steps executed with the feet both standing and on the ground before creating power movements.
• powerful moves – A series of mind blowing moves that are usually performed on the floor which would include moves like back spins, head spins, windmills and more. Usually when people hear about Breaking or b-boying or the incorrect term, “break dancing”, they think of these moves.
• Rock Up/Rock Up – A series of movements following a specific rhythmic and systematic pattern.

Although breaking was predominant among street dancers on the East Coast, the West Coast nevertheless indulged in its own art form using Funk and Soul music called funky styles.

The birth of Funk Styles on the West Coast occurred within the same era as break and encompasses a variety of genres. The style set would include:

• popping – Robotic and/or sudden movements. Strobbing and Ticking are also similar move types within the Popping family.
• Undulation – Fluid and smooth movements.
• Gliding/Floating – Gravity-defying movements that create the illusion that a person is moving effortlessly and effortlessly across the floor.
• Closing – A series of animated movements involving sharp and distinctive poses.
• tutting – A series of movements that emulate Egyptian hieroglyphics.