When looking at hip-hop dancing, you must look at the history of hip-hop music and how it gave birth to

specific dance styles. You'll see an evolution from what started in the streets of America on both the East
Coast and West Coast to a style of dance that has transcended and become a staple of pop culture. With
the advent of the television and the internet — especially post-2000 — we've seen widespread adoption
and consumption of hip-hop culture in the dance world and beyond.

As mentioned, hip-hop dance originated in Black and Latino communities — much like voguing did with
the drag queen community in the ballroom scene of the 1960s — in both New York City and California in
the 1970s. These individuals created styles such as uprock, break dancing (with those doing this style
known as b-boys), roboting, boogaloo, and popping and locking. Each of these styles, which consisted of
unique dance steps often made up on the fly, giving these talented street dancers an opportunity to
improvise as the music would change over time.

While there was a distinct rise in hip-hop music in the 1990s, which would often feature people dancing
in hip-hop videos, it wasn't until the advent of the internet — specifically YouTube, beginning when it
was created in 2005 — which saw hip-hop dance videos dominate the web. By showing their best hip-
hop dance moves, these choreographers and dancers proved that they could gain and reach massive
audiences by simply showing their ability to dance hip-hop to some of the best hip-hop dance songs of
the time.

Television, though it had been around prior to the internet, only saw a shift in focusing on hip-hop dance
with the increase in dance-focused shows such as So You Think You Can Dance, which began in 2005,
America's Got Talent, which premiered in 2006, America's Best Dance Crew, which got its start in 2008,
and, most recently, World of Dance, which hit the small screen in 2017. These TV programs gave
contestants a nationwide platform to showcase their work and, in thanks to YouTube, those hip-hop
videos have a place to reside for a long time, such as Kyle Hanagami's recent clip featuring dancers
performing to Taylor Swift's "Look What You Made Me Do," and Brian Friedman's recent routines set to
Becky Hill's "Rude Love" and Vera Blues' "Lady Powers."

Given how much hip-hop dance songs have been able to permeate into society, it was only a matter of
time before it began to have an influence on other styles. We have seen the rise of genres such as hip-
hop ballet that have been able to thrive alongside other niche styles such as salsa dance and swing
dance — just to name a few. There's no telling how the style will continue to thrive and expand in the
coming years. Now it's super easy for those who want to learn how to dance hip-hop because, in addition
to dance classes for other styles, many dance studios will have specialized hip-hop dance classes — with
some dance studios even being specifically hip-hop dance studios. With access to hip-hop classes —
whether they be purely academic or performance in nature — everyone can become a hip-hop star if they
excel at learn to embrace the history of hip-hop.
Street dances, are dance styles that evolved outside of dance studios in any available open space, such
as streets, dance parties, block parties, parks, school yards, raves, and nightclubs. They are often
improvisational and social in nature, encouraging interaction and contact with spectators and the other
dancers. Some examples of street dance include breakdancing and hiphop dances

Hip-hop dance refers to street dance styles primarily performed to hip-hop music or that have evolved as
part of hip-hop culture. It includes a wide range of styles notably breaking, locking, and popping which
were created in the 1970s and made popular by dance crews in the United States. The television show
Soul Train and the 1980s films Breakin', Beat Street, and Wild Style showcased these crews and dance
styles in their early stages; therefore, giving hip-hop mainstream exposure.

Breaking was created in the South Bronx, New York during the early 1970s. It is the first hip-hop dance
style. Locking, originally called Campbellocking, was created in Los Angeles, California by Don
"Campbellock" Campbell and popularized in the United States by his crew The Lockers. Popping was
created by Sam Solomon in Fresno, California and performed by his crew the Electric Boogaloos. It is
based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in a dancer's body,
referred to as a pop or a hit. House dance is a social dance primarily danced to house music that has
roots in the clubs of Chicago and of New York. The main elements of House dance include "Footwork",
"Jacking", and "Lofting". House dance is often improvisational in nature and emphasizes on fast and
complex foot-oriented steps combined with fluid movements in the torso, as well as floor work.

The commercialization of hip-hop dance continued into the 1990s and 2000s with the production of
several other television shows and movies such as The Grind, Planet B-Boy, Rize, StreetDance 3D,
America's Best Dance Crew, Saigon Electric, the Step Up film franchise, and The LXD, a web series.
Though the dance is established in entertainment, it still maintains a strong presence in urban
neighborhoods which has led to the creation of street dance derivatives turfing, krumping, and jerkin'.

What is hip hop and street dance?