Hip Hop has emerged since its introduction in the early 1970s and now includes far too many styles to list. Hip Hop is an edgy, fresh and powerful urban dance style also known as Street Dance. The beginning of locking, popping and crumping, Hip Hop is mostly performed to rap, urban and not surprisingly, hip hop music. Funky, high-top dance sneakers are normally worn by dancers. What sets Hip Hop apart from several other dance styles is that its unusual street dance was freestyle in nature and did not follow a predefined choreography. A style of dance that is free to own expression, Hip hop dancers were free to interpret the dance in any way they could, and this lead to several innovative and interesting dance styles.
HIP HOP STYLES
1) B-boying (Breakdancing)
Thought to be one of the very original styles of Hip Hop, B-boying is characterized by acrobatic Vigour Movements, upright movements, and footwork. Dancers also punctuate their routines with a movement known as the Freeze. Break dancing is mostly improvised, with no “standard” routines or movements. The emphasis is on movement, energy, innovation, comedy, and a hint of danger. It is intended to represent the harsh world of the streets from which it is claimed to have emerged. It is also connected with a certain type of clothing, such as baggy pants or sweatsuits, baseball caps are worn sideways or backwards, and sneakers.
2) Locking and Popping
While technically two styles, Locking and Popping usually go hand in hand. Locking requires fast actions, sharp pauses, and extravagant gestures. Popping, on the other hand, is a bouncy style that demands extreme use of counter-tempo. For a long time, popping and locking have inspired hip hop, dubstep, and other modern dance techniques. However, the moves of these two dancing styles differ. While both dance genres tend to overlap, popping and locking is a blended style with a separate beat. This one-of-a-kind manoeuvre combines two movements: the pop and the lock.
3) Funk
Funk, which is a coalition of Disco and Soul, uses a blend of fluid and sharp moves and is usually extremely choreographed. Locking and Popping are also frequently combined into this dance style. This is a lively dance style that is frequently seen in video clips and nightclubs. It’s a terrific place to start for new dancers (especially if you’ve never attended a dance class before) and it provides a wonderful exercise — you won’t even realise you’re working out! Break it down to some of the most recent music trends and learn how to rule the dance floor!
4) Up rock
Up rock uses a blend of many dance moves to build soulful dances. Uprock is a competitive, soulful street dance. It is performed to the beats of Soul, Rock, and Funk music. The dance consists of foot shuffles, spins, turns, freestyle motions, “jerks” (sudden body movements) and “burns” (hand gestures). Uprock is believed to require discipline, patience, heart, soul, and knowledge to master. Nobody used to teach Uprock back in the day. It was all about watching and studying, then applying what you’d learned in a dancing competition. Every two weeks, there were contests in Brooklyn, with crews competing. Typically, this dance style includes:
- Shuffles
- Spins
- Freestyle Movements
- Jerks
- Hand Gestures
5) Liquid Dance
As its title implies, Liquid Dance is a fluid and delicate dance with a centre on the arms and palms. It may include some forms of pantomime and exceptional dancers will use a range of body moves. Liquid dancing is an illusion-based kind of gestural, interpretive dance that is one of the most expressive and flexible dance genres available today. In other words, it is a dance form that uses smooth gestures and body motions to create the illusion that the dancer’s body is as movable as liquid, hence the name of the dance. The arms and hands are mostly in emphasis, though expert dancers move the entire body. Study the liquid dance is not easy and takes a lot of practice and learning. It takes practice to learn how to move your body in such a way that it creates the illusion of a flowing or moving liquid.
6) Boogaloo
Another fluid-like style, Boogaloo as directed by Hip Hop dance studios near me, uses the complete body sliding smoothly like butter, often with the rolling of the hips, head, and knees. The Boogaloo is a lively dancing form that originated in the 1970s. It is well-known for incorporating a variety of various street dancing techniques. We’ll show you how to do the most fundamental boogaloo dance moves in this article. From there, you can hone your abilities and become a true pro!
7) Reggae
If we had to pick a Hip Hop style that invokes sensuality, it would be Reggae for its Latin influences mixed with more modern Hip Hop moves set to the modern evolution of Reggae music. The secret to reggae music is to relax and do what seems natural, rather than following a tight set of rules. There is no “correct” way to dance to reggae music; your movements should be a reflection of how you feel. Approach the dance floor with an open mind, try to concentrate on the music, and let your body do the rest.
8) Lyrical
Lyrical is a unique style of Hip Hop in that it tells a story and is danced to the words of the music instead of the beat. It is usually fluid and more interpretive than other styles of Hip Hop. Lyrical dance got its name from the definition of the word lyrical, which means “having a poetic, expressive nature; musical; characterised by or expressing spontaneous, direct feeling; conveying profound personal emotions or observation; very rhapsodic or impassioned.” Lyrical dance expresses emotions through movement and is expressive, nuanced, and dynamic. It combines sophisticated, highly technical, and pedestrian/naturalistic elements.
9) Stepping
Stepping is a group dance that includes using body actions to create percussive beats. Synchronized motions and percussive beats are featured in the dances. Step dancing is a showcase for a team’s individual style as well as its cohesiveness. Its origins may be traced back to competitive drill teams and marching bands, and its movement patterns are inspired by African and slave dances such as patting juba and ring screams. This is accomplished through:
- Stomping or Steps
- Clapping or Slapping
- Spoken Word