Top 12 Hip hop Dance Styles

Posted by Oliver On July 7, 2013 In Art 12 Comments

Hip hop dance remains to be one of the most popular, if not the most popular, dance styles today. Hip
hop music enthusiasts also often are enthusiasts of hip hop dance, so it is not that difficult to see the
connection. So what are the most popular and important dance styles? Check the list below and see.

12. Krumping

Krumping is increasingly gaining popularity in hip hop and electronica circles because of the energy and
freedom is encourages. It has four basic moves: jabs, arm swings, chest pops, and stomps, or, if you look
at it in a simpler way, basically anything you wanted to do with your body. It is very improvisational and
expressive, at times even violently so, thus gaining popularity among younger performer.

11. Harlem shake

It gained popularity again this year because of a viral Youtube video called “Harlem Shake,” but sadly no
Harlem Shake was done in the video. And Harlem Shake originally came from the 80s. The shake’s
origins are said to be from an East African dance called Eskista, but dancers most often compare the
Harlem Shake to drunken dance. The Harlem Shake has no strict code of dance moves as it only involves
creative convulsions of the body. No wonder the Harlem shake is popular even to those who are not
adept at dancing.

10. Jerkin’

Jerkin is a fairly recent hip hop dance trend. It involves twitchy dances moves called ‘jerks’ wherein the
performer executes a set of leg stretches in and out. Jerkin’ is more of a sub-culture trend, if taken
together with its dress code of neo-coloured skinny jeans and Chuck Taylors. And yes, it looks much like
the Dougie. And we’re quite unconvinced that it can be called a dance; more like jerkin’ around. Well…

9. Liquids and digits

Liquid dancing is oriented more towards dance hip hop and more laidback settings such as in glitch hop
and drum n’ bass. It often involves smooth, ‘liquid-ish’ hand movements called hand flows, and digital
manipulation, creating illusions and movements with the fingers. The performer’s body is used as a
contour to express a feeling or a series of interpretative gestures. Liquids and digits, like turfing, is
pantomime-like in nature, often involved in telling a story and creating a visual representation of the
music.

8. Robot/Mannequin

Robotting is pretty much similar to popping, but still many dancers use robot dance moves as their
primary style. Robot dance is simply acting like a robot, (not necessarily in jive with the beat) and doing
stiff arm and head movements that often contrast with smooth flow of the music.

7. Turfing

An acronym for Taking Up Room on the Floor, turfing is a dance style hailing directly from Oakland,
California. It is much based on non-traditional ways of storytelling or ‘representing’ a particular ‘turf’ or
place which a particular performer seeks to represent. Turfing is very improvisational and free-form,
having dance moves that come from different traditions in order to fully express or narrate a particular
life story.
6. Floating

Hence the name, floating emphasizes slick ‘floating’ movements that gives the impression that the
dancer is dancing in the air. Its three basic moves are ‘the float,’ ‘gliding,’ and ‘sliding.’ All three moves
are focused on creating the illusion that there is no friction between the dancer’s shoes and the floor.

5. Electric Boogaloo

Closely connected to popping, boogaloo is related to funk and its associated dance styles. Its often
involves ‘rolling’ of the limbs and and twitching legs.
4. Popping

Often confused with locking, the popping style is a much different style from the others. It is often done
standing up, in which the body is twitched or jerked in a way that goes with the beat. These twitches are
called “pops” or “hits.” Many moves are related to popping, one popular example is the moonwalk as
popularized in the 80s by Michael Jackson. Popping involves a great deal of motion manipulation such as
animatronic moves (think of the Jabbawokeez, etc), miming to the beat, and isolation (creating illusions
that isolate a limb or a section of the body).

3. Locking

Locking is characterized by sudden pauses or freezes, often in jive with the beat. Originating way back
into 1969 as popularized by Campbellock Campbell and his crew, The Lockers, locking has endured
transitions from its funky origins into a common hip hop dance idiom. Some of its most popular move
are the Scoo B Doo, Muscleman, Floor Sweep, Funky Guitar, and a lot of others.
2. Crip-walking

Crip-walking was popularized by the infamous rivalry between the Bloods and Crips gangs. Crips
members are known to execute this move after killing a rival, thus capping off the kill with their
signature. Nowadays, crip-walking has gone beyond its violent origins and is now often part of every hip
hop dancer’s repertoire of moves. Snoop Dogg and Xzibit are known to have shown these in their songs’
music videos, “Drop It Like It’s Hot” and “Get Your Walk On,” respectively.

1. B-boying or breaking

Perhaps the most well-known of hip hop dance styles, b-boying or break dancing is one of the first pillars
of the original hip hop movement. It is traditionally done within a circle or cypher where b-boys will
execute their dances moves, often competing improvisationally with other b-boys. It remains to be the
one of the most popular dance styles affliated to hip hop.
There you go, a list of the most popular and important hip hop dance styles of date. I have my own
opinions regarding this styles and trends, maybe we can talk about it below. Hit the comment section
and tell me your thoughts.
Introduction
Hip Hop culture originated in New York amongst young Hispanic and African American communities during the late
1960's. Synonymous with rap, scratch music and graffiti art, the style encompasses the movements of break-dancing
and body-popping, and has been internationally recognized since the 1970's.

The 1980's saw the emergence of a new style of hip hop into rap videos, distinguished from original break dancing
styles by its concentration on footwork as opposed to acrobatics. Hereafter, the emergence of house music saw hip
hop re-invent itself again with a broader range of influences and freer expression.

Old School / New School, General History

The Old School Hip Hop Styles such as Locking, Popping and Break dancing or B-boying emerged from the USA in
the 1970’s, and were a result of improvisational steps and moves from the streets and clubs. Old-school music had
fast beats which matched the breaking moves.

Music videos of artists such as Bobby Brown, Bell Biv Devoe, Heavy D, and M.C. Hammer proved that a new way of
dance was coming alive and young dancers were ready to explore this new form. New moves were and are
continually being invented by creative and innovative versions and mixing of the Old School Styles. Current trends,
cultures and disciplines such as Martial Arts, Reggae and Soul Train also had an effect and resulted in New School
Hip Hop styles evolving in the late 1980’s. Moves were very simple with steps such as Running man, Roger Rabbit,
and Robocop were popular in this era. These were moves that everybody could do unlike the Old School Styles.
However, new school dance in present time is much more evolved and complex. Many dancers have ‘twisted’
popping or electric boogie and put in their own moves.

Today, Funk and Hip Hop have many individualized styles but the roots are still in Old School Hip Hop and in New
School Hip Hop. The blending of music styles and dance moves influenced by many factors which are then
personalized by a choreographer, makes it impossible to define Funk and Hip Hop styles unambiguously.

General - Locking & Popping

Both locking and popping, or ticking, originally came from Los Angeles. Popping was created by street dance crew
Electric Boogaloo. Locking was created by The Lockers. Both locking and popping existed a long time before
breaking was born. During the breaking era, b-boys started to put popping and locking into their dance. Nowadays,
so-called "Breakdance" consists of breaking, locking, and electric boogie or popping.

Locking
Locking (originally Campbellocking) can be traced back to the late 1960’s and was created by Don Campbell. It is a
style of funk and street dance and originally danced to traditional funk music such as James Brown.

The name is based on the concept of locking which means freezing from a fast movement and "locking" in a certain
position, holding that position for a short while and then continuing in the same speed as before. It relies on fast and
distinct arm and hand Hip Hop Manual movements combined with more relaxed hips and legs. The movements are
generally large and exaggerated, and often very rhythmic and tightly synced with the music.

Locking includes quite a lot of acrobatics and physically demanding moves, such as landing on one's knees and the
split. These moves often require knee protection of some sort. Other important stylistic features are waving of arms,
pointing, walking stationary and grabbing and rotating the cap or hat. Don Campbell created the original freezes,
incorporating his unique rhythm and adding gestures such as points and handclaps.

In the early 1970s this set off a movement of Locking dance groups, notably Campbell's group The Lockers. Another
locker called Greggery 'Campbell Jr.' Pope and others set the foundation for locking dance and clothes style. Lockers
commonly use a distinctive dress style, such as colorful clothing with stripes, suspenders, pegged knee length pants,
hats and gloves.

Locking is quite performance oriented, often interacting with the audience by smiling or giving them a high five, and
some moves are quite comical in nature.

Popping
The best way to describe the movement of popping would be to imagine a force of energy going through the body
causing it to move like a wave. This style is difficult to manage at the technical level as it requiring command of
isolations, a perfect knowledge of the body, and a good sense of the rhythm with major use of counter-tempo. The
style demands continuous contraction of the muscles to the beat to give a jerky/snapping effect – a bouncy style.

Electric Boogie
Electric boogie is a style of popping (ticking) but the major difference is that Popping creates a soft wave whereas
Electric Boogie creates more jerky waves with micro wave moves, executed with a high velocity more difficult than
classical popping. The Robot, and the more smooth and controlled movements of mime are characteristic. Instead of
throwing the body in and out of control like locking, or in total hydraulic control like The Robot, energy is passed
through the body popping and snapping elbows, wrists, necks, hips and just about all the body joints along the way.
Electric Boogaloo is more like mime in the sense that it imitates a live wire of electrical current or rippling river, but it
still needs the control of The Robot to give it style.

Breakdance / B-Boying
Breaking or b-boying, commonly called breakdancing, is a style of dance that evolved as part of hip-hop culture
among Black and Latino American youths in the South Bronx during the 1970s. It is danced to both hip-hop and other
genres of music that are often remixed to prolong the musical breaks.

Four basic elements form the foundation of breaking. The first is Toprock, a term referring to the upright dancing and
shuffles. The second element is Downrock which refers to footwork dancing performed on the floor. The third
element is the Freeze, the poses that breakers throw into their dance sets to add punctuation to certain beats and
end their routines. The fourth element is the Power Moves. These are the most impressive acrobatic moves normally
made up of circular motions where the dancer will spin on the floor or in the air.

Uprock
The term breakdancing, though commonly used, is frowned upon by those immersed in hip-hop culture because the
term created by the media to describe what was called breaking or b-boying in the street. The majority of the art
form’s pioneers and most notable practitioners refer to the dance as b-boying.

Uprock is a soulful, competitive street dance using the rhythms of Soul, and Funk music. The dance consists of foot
shuffles, spins, turns, freestyle movements, sudden body movements called "jerks" and hand gestures called "burns".
Uprock is said to be mastered with discipline, patience, heart, soul, and knowledge.

Funk
Funk dancing originated on the West coast of the United States, where it developed in the late 60’s as a reaction to
the fusion of Soul and Disco, as well as early R’n’B and Hip Hop music.
It is a highly choreographed dance form, similar to dances seen on commercial video clips. It features a mixture of
sharp and fluid movements, popping & locking and animated expression.

Streetdance
Streetdance is very physical and incorporates dance moves from all over the world. Various dance styles are mixed
with a multi-cultural influence and funky tunes. Generally a Streetdance routine can include locking and popping,
street style and funk. Streetdance is a FUSION of styles from the Hip Hop genre.

Tutting/Tetris
Tutting or Tetris is a dance style that mimics the angular poses common to ancient Egyptian art. Whoever coined the
term probably imagined that this was how King Tut danced. The style is rapidly evolving but there are some constant
rules that define it.

The most important stylistic convention is that limbs form 90 degree angles. While this constraint is fundamental, and
for the most part is not violated, other aspects of the dance are in flux. Dancers used to utilize a limited set of static
hiero-inspired poses, but they now have begun to create more complex geometric patterns involving interaction
between multiple limbs.

Battle
A battle is a freestyle where dancers 'fight' against each other on the dance floor without contact. They form a circle
and take turns trying to show each other up by using either a better style, more complex combinations, or harder
moves.

Liguid Dancing
Liquid dancing (or liquiding) is a form of gestural dance that sometimes involves pantomime. The term invokes the
word liquid to describe the fluid-like motion of the dancers’ body and limbs. It is primarily the dancers’ arms and
hands which are the focus, though more advanced dancers work in a full range of body movements. Liquid dancing is
similar to the styles of popping or locking.

Boogaloo
A fluid style, that uses every part of the body and involves using angles and smooth movements to make everything
flow together. It often uses rolling of the hips, knees, and the head and is often used as a transition.

Ragga
This is a dance style originating (in the late 70’s) from street dance by Afrojamaïcans, Afrocarabians, which uses
music which evolved from classical Reggae with a hip hop influence. The style used is a combination between hip
hop moves, afro moves with latin influences with sensuality. It requires very good physical condition, as many
muscles are involved in the Raggajam, particularly in the lower part of the body. Correct execution requires good
technique.

House Dance
House is a group of dance styles primarily danced to house music that have roots in the clubs of Chicago in the late
70’s and early 80’s. The main styles include Footwork, Jacking and Lofting. Like hip hop dance it was created by
black and latino Americans and is often improvisational in nature. It emphasizes fast and complex foot oriented steps
combined with fluid movements in the torso.

House dance incorporates movements from many other sources such as Capoeira, tap, jazz, bebop, and salsa. It
includes a variety of techniques and sub-styles that include skating, stomping, and shuffling. One of the primary
elements in house dancing is a technique called jacking and involves moving the torso forward and backward in a
rippling motion, as if a wave were passing through it. This movement is repeated and sped up to match the beat of a
song. This technique is the most important movement in house dancing. All footwork in house dancing is said to
initiate from the way the jack moves the center of gravity through space. Other than footwork, jacking, and lofting,
house dance has grown to include other related styles such as vogue, wacking and hustle.

Lyrical
Lyrical hip-hop is a fluid and more interpretive version of new style hip-hop most often danced to downtempo rap
music or R&B music. Lyrical is "hip-hop with emotion". It focuses more on choreography and performance and less
on freestyles and battles.

The name lyrical comes from the word "lyrics" because dancers use the lyrics of a song or instrumental music to
inspire them to do certain movements or show expression. The goal of a lyrical dancer is to use gesture, facial
expression, and controlled movements in order to execute their movements and emotions fully. Besides emotional
connection to music, lyrical dance typically encourages use of articulation, line, weight, and movement qualities.

Stepping
Stepping or step-dancing is a form of percussive dance in which the participant's entire body is used as an instrument
to produce complex rhythms and sounds through a mixture of footsteps, spoken word, and hand claps. Though
stepping may be performed by an individual, it is generally performed by groups of three or more, often in
arrangements that resemble military formations.

Stepping may also draw from elements of gymnastics, tap dance, march, or African and Caribbean dance, or include
semi-dangerous stunts as a part of individual routines. Some forms of stepping include the use of props, such as
canes, rhythm sticks and/or fire and blindfolds.

The tradition of African stepping is rooted within the competitive schoolyard song and dance rituals practiced by
historically African American fraternities and sororities, beginning in the mid-1900s

Free Running
Free running or freerunning is a form of urban acrobatics in which participants, known as free runners, use the city
and rural landscape to perform movements through its structures. It incorporates efficient movements from parkour,
adds aesthetic vaults and other acrobatics, such as tricking and street stunts, creating an athletic and aesthetically
pleasing way of moving. It is commonly practiced at gymnasiums and in urban areas (such as cities or towns) that are
cluttered with obstacles.

The term free running was coined during the filming of Jump London, as a way to present parkour to the English-
speaking world. However, the term free running has come to represent a separate, distinct concept to parkour — a
distinction which is often missed due to the aesthetic similarities. Parkour as a discipline emphasizes efficiency, whilst
free running embodies complete freedom of movement — and includes many acrobatic maneuvers. Although the two
are often physically similar, the mindsets of each are vastly different.

The founder and creator of Free running Sébastien Foucan defines free running as a discipline to self development,
following your own way, which he developed because he felt that parkour lacked enough creativity and self-
expression as a definition of each free-runner to follow your own way.

Punking
This style came in 1970s from the West coast, directly Los Angeles, where it was developed in clubs and
underground scene. Punking was first spotted in gay clubs in Hollywood. Dancers began to represent it on television
and it became well-known thanks to Soul Train. Punking then became a part of many shows from Hollywood to Las
Vegas.

Some of the first dancers of punking : Billy Goodson, Tinker, Lanny and Aka Micheal Angelo, Adolfo "Shabba Doo"
Quinones, also dancers from the group Dancing Machine, which was founded in 1975 by Jeff Kutachem, who later
created the show , called Splash in Las Vegas. Show was danced in the 70s and early 80s. Dance Machine was
dancing this show, members were: Stever' Sugarfoot 'Notario, Gino, Dino, SugarBop, Fast Freddy, Topaz Lanet,
Diane, Flame, Dallas and Ana 'Lollipop' Sanchez.

Waacking
Waacking is a name that some of the Soul Train dancers began to use instead of the initial term punking.
Some say that punking was the correct name for the underground style, while waacking or whacking came later,
when the dance became popular.

However, this dance style reacted to changes of music:

• Punking-1970-1974 - at this time the music is moving in more funk direction. Clothing was very colorful, funky.
Dancers had a funky feeling. This is why this style mixed with lockin. In fact, these two styles were very close to each
other thanks to a funky feeling.

• Waacking-1974 - about this time broke out "Disco Madness". Music began to take a different direction. Dancers
started to wear completely different clothes. Women danced in a dress and heels, men exchanged a funky T-shirts
for shirts and jackets. The style began to change more in the direction of jazz. The dance included a lot of lines,
poses (which was mostly inspired by movie stars of 1930s’) and other technical design movements of hands that you
wouldn’t definitely find in the punking. In particular, the overall attitude of the body has changed thanks to the
footwear and clothing. Dancers began to dance everything more in upright stand unlike in punking, which was far
more in the knees.

This style was "forgotten" for a while and survived in a small group of dancers who are so devoted. Today waacking
and punking is experiencing a "rebirth" in different forms. For example, in NY you will see primarily jazzy form, but
more funky in Japan.

Some of the biggest pioneers were: Shaba Doo, Ana 'Lollipop' Sanchez, Tyrone Proctor, Brian Green and others

• Names of elements: Bowls, Aligan, Cortez, Wall Around the Word, Mamma mia, waack ...

Voquing
Vogue is a form of modern dance, as well as waacking and was created by the gay community. The style is inspired
by photos of models in poses in various positions such as posturing hands, feet, body movements in linear, angular
and precise, fixed position.

Inspirational material for the dancers were fashion magazines like Vogue, Elle ... which often drew inspiration from
photos of extravagant models. This style of dance arose from Harlem ballrooms by African Americans and Latino
Americans in the early 1960s. It was originally called "presentation" and later "performance”.

Over the years, the dance evolved into the more intricate and illusory form that is now called "vogue." Voguing is
continually developed further as an established dance form that is practiced in the gay ballroom scene and clubs in
major cities throughout the United States—mainly New York City, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Philadelphia, Washington
D.C., Miami, Detroit, and Chicago.
Currently there are 3 different styles, or we can say "schools" in Voguing.
- Old Way (pre- 1980)
- New Way (1990)
- Vogue Fem (started around 1985)

• Old way-is characterized by the formation of symmetrical and precise lines, creating a wonderful variable action with
proper attitude. Egyptian hieroglyphs and fashion poses serve as the original inspirations for old way voguing.

• New way-is characterized by a more precise geometric patterns associated movements called "Click" (arm twisting
in the joint) and "arms control" (agility hands and wrist illusions, which usually make "tut" or "tutting" and locking or
stopping movement. New Way can also be described as a modified form of mime. Where imaginary geometric
shapes such as boxes, are presented during the move, that move progressively around the body of dancer and
showing dancers dexterity.

• Vogue Fem-is largest extreme flexibility and fluidity, exaggerated feminine movements, influenced by ballet, modern
dance and in the case of "dramatic" Vogue Fem, emphasize jumps and tricks.
Vogue also includes other forms of dance moves such as: Modern jazz, ballet, gymnastics, martial arts, break
dancing, yoga ... Some dance historians even point out that breakdance and vogue evolved together in a bilateral
loan of movement, with artists from both parties interacting one another in Central Park, Christopher Street pier,
Harlem and Washington Square Park.