Understanding Hip Hop Dance: 5 Types of Hip Hop Dance

Hip hop dance is a style of street dance form that evolved from hip hop culture and hip hop music. It borrows elements from a number of different styles like African dance, tap, and ballet. Hip hop dance began as a freestyle dance performed in the streets by dance crews, mostly to hip hop music. Today, hip hop dance may involve choreography, along with various points of improvisation, especially during dance battles or freestyle competitions. Some classic hip hop dance moves include the running man, the humpty dance, and the cabbage patch, and techniques often involve body isolations and other unique movements, like popping, locking, and krumping.

Hip hop is a style of dance that originated on the East Coast in the late 1970s in the Bronx, New York City. Groups of people would often perform the dances in the streets, clubs, and underground venues of New York. It evolved closely with many other elements of hip hop—like DJing, graffiti writing, and MCing—and borrowed certain signature elements from the funk styles of the 1960s.

Television shows like Soul Train (1971) thrust funk and hip hop into the mainstream, showcasing dance crews in their earliest forms. Jamaican artist DJ Kool Herc was one of the first DJs to incorporate dance breaks into his mixes, which allowed hip hop dancers to get creative. Eventually, West Coast dancers took the basics of East Coast hip hop dance and crafted their own signature movements, like popping and locking. Hip hop dance became so popular that the dance industry developed its own style of hip hop dance called “new style”—which is choreographed instead of improvisational—that would accompany many musical artist performances in music videos or on stage. Hip hop dance classes often teach “new style” hip hop.

Hip hop dance still continues to be commercially popular to this day. New hip hop dances also frequently find their way into popular media, like “the Dougie,” “the wobble,” and the Cupid shuffle.

Hip hop dance is a recognizable style with a few defining characteristics, which include:

1. 1. High energy: Hip hop music provides a heavy beat for quick-paced movements requiring high endurance and stamina.
2. 2. Complex footwork: Hip hop dance puts emphasis on the footwork, pulling off special moves that often look effortless. Choreographers will often push the boundaries of their routines, finding new and innovative ways to create pictures with their body.
3. 3. Versatility: Hip hop dance can be performed at a venue with friends or alone in a studio. It contains a diverse range of movements that can be fitting for any age or level of experience.
4. 4. Attitude: Hip hop dance reflects the attitude of the music that is being danced to, which is often full of confidence, boldness, and irreverence.

Hip hop dance contains a variety of elements borrowed from other dance genres. As such, there are different styles of hip hop dance that exist:

1. 1. Freestyle: Freestyle hip hop dancers improvise their movements in the moment, using their skills and techniques to create a flow of dance that requires little to no choreography. Experienced freestylers already have an idea of certain movements that work well together, which can make it easier to spontaneously create fluid movements.
2. 2. Krumping: This African American form of dance is driven by pure emotion and force. Krumping is defined by energetic and powerful movements like chest bumping, often expressing strong feelings in a lyrical way.
3. 3. Popping: This dance style is marked by a quick contraction of muscles to create a jerking effect in the dancer’s body. Nearly every part of the body can be popped, which can create a surreal and robotic effect.
4. 4. Locking: In this style of hip hop dance, the dancer quickly and frequently moves their body and freezes it in place. It is similar to popping, but holding positions longer than with popping.
5. 5. Breakdancing: Breakdancing is very closely associated with hip hop, though it’s often seen as its own distinct style of dance. This acrobatic style popularized by B-boys and B-girls is marked by complicated floor-work, often involving spinning and contorting.

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