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street dance is a dance style—regardless of country of origin—that evolved outside dance

studios in any available open space such as streets, dance parties, block parties, parks, school
yards, raves, and nightclubs. The term is used to describe vernacular dances in urban
context.  Vernacular dances are often improvisational and social in nature, encouraging
interaction and contact with spectators and other dancers. These dances are a part of
the vernacular culture of the geographical area that they come from. Examples of street dance
include b-boying (or breakdancing), which originated in New York City.

Clogging is thought to be considered a very early form of street dance, since it evolved in the
streets and factories of northern Englandin the mid-19th century.

Street dancing is any style of dance that got its start outside the dance studio, typically in urban
streets, schoolyards and clubs. From its roots in the late 1960s African American street culture of
New York, the edgy, syncopated moves have earned global acceptance as a vibrant
contemporary dance discipline. Street Dance Background

What is called street dancing today developed in a rec room party in the Bronx in 1973 when DJ
Kool Herc mixed records, 'breaking' and scratching them to prolong the instrumental sections so
the dancers could show their moves longer. The extended dance was called breaking, and the
emcee patter that covered the breaks became rap. Competition heated up over fancy moves as b-
boys and b-girls worked out their styles to funk, soul, rock and percussion riffs in the streets and
schoolyards.

The West Coast created some signature moves to rock and funk as well. Waacking came from
the gay dance clubs that featured 1970s disco music in L.A. Locking and popping also developed
in L.A. in the 1970s and crossed over into an umbrella hip hop category that expanded to include
a fight style called krumping in the 1980s.

Street Styles

Hip hop in all its forms can be found everywhere from the hit Broadway musical Hamilton to
TV reality shows like So You Think You Can Dance. As an art form, street dancing requires real
mastery, but an amateur enthusiast can pick up a few smooth moves in a dance studio or by
watching videos online.

Breaking

Breaking, b-boying or b-girling is often referred to as "breakdancing," a generic term coined by

the media that the dancers don't use. Breaking features close-to-the-ground improv and acrobatic
head, shoulder, back and hand spins choreographed to hip hop, funk and solo percussion riffs, or
"breakbeat" music. The gravity-defying spins and footwork came straight out of those original
parties and clubs in 1970's Harlem and the Bronx.

Locking and Popping

Locking and popping look similar but they are really two distinct styles. Locking is a kind of
funk that involves freezing a move and then resuming it at a fast pace, a series of rapid
contractions that focus on exaggerated arm and hand movements. Lockers use splits and drops to
their knees as well as interaction with the audience. Their routines frequently combine locking
moves with popping. Popping features jerky, explosive moves that thrust outward from a quick
contraction. Advanced poppers work their upper and lower bodies at the same time.

Tutting

Tutting looks like a flip book of Egyptian frieze paintings. It's a series of angular moves,
primarily for the arms, shoulders and hands. The style was named for King Tut and tutters create
intricate and improbably perpendicular angles with their hands and arms, syncopated to the
music. Finger tutting is an elaborate specialty, a product of the 1990s Big Apple rave scene.
Fingers form a series of shapes made from 90-degree angles and continuous moves in which the
fingers always remain touching.

Animation

Animation is twitchy, glitchy and weird - waves and zigzags that sweep through the body,
interrupted by constant tics and sudden freezes into poses derived from cartoon characters. The
Guardian describes animation as a "jerky, freeze-frame style" in which a dancer seems to have
no bones and to be electronically controlled. Animation dancers such as tWitch and Spencer
have popularized the form on shows like So You Think You Can Dance and show their new
moves in performances and master classes at dance conventions.

Krumping

Krumping is very fast and aggressive hip hop dance that incorporates locking, popping,
improvisational or freestyle moves and upright posture. It's a bi-coastal mash-up of gang culture
and clowning. Rhythmic bobbing and jerking, spine flexing and chest popping are staged in
mock battles between two or more dancers. Krumping started as a nonviolent alternative to street
violence and has been picked up by artists from Missy Elliott to Madonna in music videos.

Waacking

Waacking often incorporates 1960s East Coast voguing, and mimics signature poses of old-time
movie stars such as Bette Davis and Lauren Bacall. It's a '70s West Coast punk style that started
in the LGBT clubs of Los Angeles and was popularized on the TV show Soul Train. The
freestyle diva-ish choreography is danced to 1970s disco and music by artists such as Diana Ross
and James Brown. Dancers show off their musicality, sense of rhythm and emotional
interpretation with fluid arm-over-and-behind-the-shoulder moves, fancy footwork and voguish
runway poses.