LESSON #1: INTRODUCTION AND HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF

HIP-HOP DANCE

Hip-Hop
➢ 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 primarily breaking which was created in the 1970s and
made popular by dance crews in the United States.
➢ Cultural movement that attained widespread popularity in the 1980s and ’90s.
➢ The backing music for rap, the musical style incorporating rhythmic and/or rhyming
speech that became the movement’s most lasting and influential art form.

HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE HIP-HOP DANCE

Origins and The Old School

❖ Although widely considered a synonym for rap music, the term hip-hop refers to a
complex culture comprising four elements:
➢ Deejaying or “turntabling”
➢ Rapping, also known as “MCing” or “rhyming”
➢ Graffiti painting, also known as “graf” or “writing”
➢ B-boying - which encompasses hip-hop dance, style, and attitude, along with the
sort of virile body language that philosopher Cornel West described as “postural
semantics.”
■ Knowledge of Self/Consciousness - a fifth element sometimes added to
the list of hip-hop elements, particularly by socially conscious hip-hop
artists and scholars.
❖ Hip-hop originated in the predominantly African American economically depressed
South Bronx section of New York City in the late 1970s.
❖ Graffiti and Breakdancing, the aspects of the culture that first caught public attention,
had the least lasting effect.
 ❖ Graffiti Movement - started about 1972 by a Greek American teenager who signed, or
“tagged,” Taki 183 (his name and street, 183rd Street) on walls throughout the New York
City subway system.
❖ By 1975, youths in the Bronx, Queens, and Brooklyn were stealing into train yards
under cover of darkness to spray-paint colorful mural-size renderings of their names,
imagery from underground comics and television
❖ Soon, influential art dealers in the United States, Europe, and Japan were displaying
graffiti in major galleries.
❖ DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell) - the first major hip-hop deejay, an 18-year-old
immigrant who introduced the huge sound systems of his native Jamaica to inner-city
parties. Using two turntables, he melded percussive fragments from older records with
popular dance songs to create a continuous flow of music. Widely credited as the
“Father of Modern Rapping” for his spoken interjections over records.
❖ Breakdancing - created by the best dancers in contests. It is a style with a repertoire of
acrobatic and occasionally airborne moves, including gravity-defying head spins and
backspins.
❖ Scratching - a rhythmic effect that involves sliding the record back and forth underneath
the needle.
❖ Rap - first came to national prominence in the United States with the release of the
Sugarhill Gang’s song “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) on the independent African
American-owned label Sugar Hill.
❖ “Rapper’s Delight” (1979) - a song by Sugarhill Gang that within weeks of its release,
had become a chart-topping phenomenon and given its name to a new genre of pop
music.

New School

❖ In the mid-1980s the next wave of rappers, the new school, came to prominence.
❖ Run-D.M.C. - a trio of middle-class African Americans who fused rap with hard rock,
defined a new style of hip dress.
❖ Def Jam featured three important innovators:
➢ LL Cool J - rap’s first romantic superstar.
 ➢ Beastie Boys - a white trio who broadened rap’s audience and popularized digital
sampling (composing with music and sounds electronically extracted from other
recordings)
➢ Public Enemy - invested rap with radical black political ideology, building on the
social consciousness of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five’s “The
Message” (1982).

Rap’s Classical Period (1979–93)

★ Included significant contributions from De La Soul—whose debut album
on Tommy Boy, 3 Feet High and Rising (1989).

❖ Hip-hop artists from places other than New York City began to make their mark:
➢ DJ Jazzy Jeff and the Fresh Prince (Will Smith) from Philadelphia
➢ 2 Live Crew from Miami
➢ M.C. Hammer from Oakland, California - experienced short-lived but massive
crossover success with a pop audience.
❖ The most significant response to New York hip-hop, though, came from Los Angeles,
beginning in 1989 with N.W.A.’s dynamic album Straight Outta Compton.
❖ N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude) and former members of that group—Ice Cube, Eazy E,
and Dr. Dre—led the way as West Coast rap grew in prominence in the early 1990s.
Their graphic, frequently violent tales of real life in the inner city,
❖ Ice-T - remembered for his 1992 single “Cop Killer”.
❖ Ice-T, Snoop Dogg, and Schoolly D - gave rise to the genre known as gangsta rap.
❖ Tupac Shakur - also entered into a rivalry with New York City’s Bad Boy Records.
❖ Hip-hop became the best-selling genre of popular music in the United States in the late
1990s.
❖ Its impact was global, with formidable audiences and artist pools in cities such as:
➢ Paris ➢ Cape Town
➢ Tokyo ➢ London
➢ Sydney ➢ Bristol, England
❖ It also generated huge sales of products in the fashion, liquor, electronics, and automobile
industries that were popularized by hip-hop artists.
 ❖ Hip-hop was the wellspring of several staple techniques of modern pop music, including
digital drumming and sampling.

Hip-Hop in the 21st Century

❖ As the century turned, the music industry entered into a crisis, brought on by the advent
of digital downloading.
❖ Hip-hop suffered at least as severely as or worse than other genres, with sales tumbling
throughout the decade. Simultaneously, though, it solidified its standing as the dominant
influence on global youth culture.
❖ Dr. Dre remained a crucial figure.
❖ Eminem - Dr. Dre’s protégé who perhaps became the world’s biggest pop star when 8
Mile (2002), the loosely autobiographical film in which he starred, enjoyed huge popular
and critical success (Eminem’s “Lose Yourself” won the Academy Award for best song)
❖ With Eminem, Dr. Dre then supported New York City-born 50 Cent, who achieved multi
platinum status with 2003’s "Get Rich or Die Tryin”.
❖ In the 21st century the music—born from the sonic creations of the deejay—saw its
greatest innovations in the work of such studio wizards as:
➢ Timbaland
➢ Swizz Beatz
➢ Neptunes
❖ Many of the biggest figures continued to rise from the South, including:
➢ Atlanta’s T.I.
➢ Lil Wayne from New Orleans
❖ Hip-hop celebrities now often came hand-in-hand with multimedia success, such as a
burgeoning film career for Ludacris.
❖ Jay-Z - represented the cultural triumph of hip-hop like no one else. He went from
performing artist to label president, head of a clothing line, club owner, and market
consultant—along the way breaking Elvis Presley’s Billboard Magazine Record for the
most number one albums by a solo artist.
 ❖ Candidate Barack Obama made references to Jay-Z during the 2008 presidential
campaign, and on the rapper’s 2009 album The Blueprint 3 he claimed to be a “small
part of the reason” for Obama’s victory.
❖ Kanye West - one of Jay-Z’s producers, emerged as one of the most fascinating and
polarizing characters in hip-hop following the success of his 2004 debut album The
College Dropout.

LESSON #2: HIP-HOP DANCE STYLES

B-Boying

➢ The words 'Break Boy and Break Girl' originated from the Bronx of New York.
➢ In the early 70's, Dj Kool Herc would play the 'breaks' of songs. Meaning, he would
only play parts of the songs where it was beat only, no lyrics. This would excite the
people to dance.
➢ So, in turn girls and guys who danced to these 'breaks' were called 'B-Boy’ or 'B-Girl'.
➢ B-boying started with James Brown's “Get on the Good Foot” (1969). When on stage,
James Brown would dance around with such energy and almost acrobatic moves, many
people began mimicking his moves, so they called it the “Good Foot”.
➢ B-Boys (for the most part) incorporated martial art stunts to 'wow' the crowds. And
today b-boying has evolved into a highly demanding dance physically and mentally.

🔴 The term b-boy cannot be used for an emcee, DJ or rapper. Only breakers can
be called b-boys.

Four Movements of B-boying:

1. Top rock – footwork-oriented steps performed while standing up.

2. Down rock – footwork performed with both hands and feet on the floor.
3. Freezes – stylish poses done on your hands.
4. Power moves – comprises full-body spins and rotations that give the illusion of defying
gravity.
Popping

➢ Popularized by Samuel “Boogaloo Sam” Solomon and 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.
➢ Popping forces parts of your body outwards, similar to an explosion within parts of your
body.
➢ It contracts muscles, but it is followed by relaxation that gives it the jerking appearance
of popping.

Different Kinds Of Popping:

1. Animation – it was inspired by the Dynamation films by Ray Harryhausen. This move
is performed to simulate an animated character moving frame-by-frame. The technique
involves abrupt tensing of the muscles to create a stop-motion illusion.

2. The Boogaloo - it was invented by Boogaloo Sam, this step is a fluid motion that gives
the impression of the body having no bones, it also incorporates isolated circular rolls of
body parts.

3. The Robot – this step is like mimicking the movements of a Robot or mannequin using
several different Popping dance techniques.

4. Dime Stop - Moving at a steady pace, then coming to a clean halt without any shaking or
reverb.

5. Gliding/ Floating/ Sliding - this is a dance step creating the illusion that your feet are
moving smoothly across the floor. The Backslide or also known as “Moonwalk” is an
example of this step.

6. Hitting – is a step that the dancer continuously hits chosen body parts in a steady rhythm,
combined with different poses and pathways.

7. Isolation - a step where a dancer keeps the rest of his/her body still while he/she
separates and moves a part of it.
 8. Miming – it is the utilization of Isolation where dancers do pictures or illusions of an
object that isn’t actually there. It is Inspired by classic mimes.

9. Scarecrows – the dancer moves their body with pictures that imitate a puppet or
scarecrow with strings attached to your joints.

10. Snaking – the dancer is making fluid rolls in their chest and body. It's a style that
involves full body waves as if you are slithering around with your body like a snake.

11. Strobing – the dancers move and stop their body quickly in steady increments using
dime stops to make it look like you’re moving within a strobe light.

12. Strutting - It involves hitting angles with your limbs as you hit.

13. Ticking – the dancers break up their pathway of movement into small increments and
hit/pop at each one, just like a ticking clock

14. Waving – it is a dance step that you imitate literally the waves of the ocean fluidly with
your body.

Locking

➢ Locking or Campbellocking, was created by Don Campbellock Campbell in 1969 in

Los Angeles, California. It was popularized by his crew, The Lockers.
➢ It can be identified by its distinctive stops. It is usually performed by stopping the fast
movements that you are doing, locking your body into a position, holding it, and then
continuing at the same speed as before.
➢ In locking, dancers hold their positions longer. The lock is the primary move used in
locking; it is similar to a freeze or a sudden pose.
➢ A locker's dancing is characterized by frequently locking in place and after a brief freeze
moving again.

Krumping

➢ Krumping is a dance style to release anger. It is reported that gang riots in the United
States decrease because of krumping style.
 ➢ It is a form of dancing that originated in the African-American community of South
Central Los Angeles, California and is a relatively new form of the “Urban” Black dance
movement.
➢ It is free, expressive and highly energetic. Most people paint their faces in different
designs.

Tutting

➢ It is a creative way of making geometric shapes forming right angles using your body
parts.
➢ The style was originally practiced by young funk dancers. It is derived from the
positions people were drawn in during the days of the Ancient Egyptians.
➢ It is the positions seen in these portraits that have been adopted by dancers today. Tutting
is still a greatly respected move and King Tut aka Mark Benson is widely acclaimed by
pioneering the style.

Shuffling

➢ The Melbourne shuffle (also known as Rocking or simply The Shuffle) is a rave and
club dance that originated in the late 1890s in the underground rave music scene in
Melbourne, Australia.
➢ The basic movements of the dance are a fast heel-and-toe action with a style suitable for
various types of electronic music. Some variants incorporate arm movements.
➢ People who dance the shuffle are often referred to as Rockers, due in part to the
popularity of shuffling to rock music in the early 1990s.

Waacking

➢ An African-American form of street dance originating from the 1970s disco era of the
underground club scenes in Los Angeles and New York City.
➢ Consists of stylized posing and fast synchronized arm movements to the beat of the
music.
TERMINOLOGIES

1. Practitioner - a person actively engaged in an art, discipline, or profession, especially

medicine.
2. Breakdance - perform an energetic and acrobatic style of street dancing, typically to
hip-hop or funk music, developed by black people in the US.

LESSON #3: INTRODUCTION OF CHEER DANCE AND ITS ORIGIN

Cheer Dance
➢ an activity in which the participants (called "cheerleaders") cheer for their team as a
form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense physical activity.
➢ It can be performed to motivate sports teams, to entertain the audience, or for
competition.
➢ It is a routine composed of cheer, yells, gymnastics skills and dance. It is coined from the
words, cheer and dance.
➢ Team activity in which elements of dance and acrobatics are combined with shouted
slogans in order to entertain spectators at sporting events and to encourage louder and
more enthusiastic cheering.
➢ Cheerleading has long been considered an iconic American activity symbolizing school
spirit, leadership, youthfulness, and sex appeal.
➢ The Southern United States (including Texas) is usually considered the heart of modern
cheerleading, although the activity is well established throughout the United States as
well as abroad, having gained a foothold in countries around the world.

Who invented cheerleading?

❖ The first cheerleaders were a group of six men.
❖ In the 1870’s a gentleman by the name of Thomas Peebler brought together six guys to
lead a yell on the sidelines in front of the student body at a Princeton University football
game.
Origins

❖ Cheerleading originated in the United States as a means of motivating participating

athletes.
❖ It is thought that the first organized cheerleader was a Minnesota student Johnny
Campbell, who first directed a crowd in cheering at a football match in 1898.
❖ In the early 1900’s after the first cheerleading fraternity, Gamma Sigma, was organized,
the cheerleading megaphone became widely used and again these cheerleading squads
consisted of men..
❖ It wasn’t until the 1920’s (post-First World War period) that women became more active
in cheerleading and in the 1940’s when many men went to war, women became the
dominant participants in the cheerleading sport.
❖ These days, it is estimated that 97% of cheerleading participants overall are female.

GROWING INTEREST AND POPULARITY

❖ Cheerleading is a very physical activity requiring a great degree of skill and often a
serious risk of injury.
❖ There are frequent competitions which see cheerleading groups put to the test. Some of
these are broadcast on network TV and the success of movies such as the Bring it On
franchise has led to a growing interest in cheerleading across the world.
❖ In addition to its popularity in the US, cheerleading is also regularly participated in many
other countries including:
➢ Canada ➢ Germany
➢ Australia ➢ Japan
➢ China ➢ New Zealand
➢ France ➢ UK
❖ Cheerleading is also seen at a range of sports including:
➢ Football ➢ Volleyball
➢ Soccer ➢ Baseball
➢ Basketball ➢ Twenty20 Cricket
➢ Ice hockey
Six Elements Of Cheerleading

● Jumps ● Sequence
● Dance ● Pyramid sequence
● Stunt ● Standing tumbling

TERMINOLOGIES
1. Cheer - to shout out words or phrases that may help motivate and boost the morale of the
playing team and perform better during a game.
2. Dance - is a physical activity where one expresses emotions or gestures while performing
bodily movements usually in time with rhythm.
3. Cheer Dancer - a leader in a cheer dance group.
4. Megaphone- it is a megaphone that is used to amplify a person’s voice or other sound.
5. Pompoms - it is used by dancers when cheering an individual or a team.
6. Pyramid - it is a pyramid like a triangle shape that is the formation will always be done
by a cheer dancer.

LESSON #4: BASIC ARMS/HANDS MOVEMENTS

1. Beginning stance - Stand with both feet together, hands down by the side in blades.
2. Cheer stance - The feet are more than shoulder width apart, hands down by the side in
blades.
3. Clasp - Hands clasped at the chin and elbows in.
4. High V - Arms extended up forming a “V” and relax the shoulders.
5. Low V - Arms extended down forming a “V” and the feet are more than shoulder width
apart.
6. T Motion - both arms extended straight out to the side and parallel to the ground,
relaxing the shoulders.
7. Punch - one arm extended straight up and the other arm on hip, in a fist.
TERMINOLOGIES
1. Arabesque: One leg is down straight and the other leg is behind you almost at a ninety
degree angle to your back.

2. Arch: A position in which the back is curved.

3. Aerial: A cartwheel without hands touching the ground or floor. Sometimes called a
walkover.

4. Attack the Crowd: A technique used to whip the crowd up and get them involved in a
cheer, dance or song.

5. Base: The bottom person/persons in a stunt who remains on the ground while lifting a
flyer into a stunt.

6. Basket-toss: A stunt involving three or more bases, two of whom have their hands
interlocked and toss the flyer into the air.

7. Buckets: A move where a cheerleader holds their arms straight out in front, fists facing
down, almost as if holding the handle of a bucket in each hand.

8. Candlesticks: A cheer motion where a cheerleader extends their arms out in front with
fists facing each other as if they were holding a lit candle in each hand.

9. Cradle Catch: An end movement where a base catches the flyer and hold her under her
thighs and around her back.

10. Cupie: A base holds up a flyer with one hand. The base's arm is fully extended and both
of the flyer's feet are in the base's one hand. Also known as a kewpie or awesome.

11. Dead man: Used to describe a move when the flyer falls backwards or forwards out of a
stunt. They are caught by several bases.

12. Dismount: A method used to return to a floor position following a stunt.

13. Elevator: Two bases hold a foot each of one flyer to elevate them. Both feet are held at
shoulder height.
14. Extension: Arms of each base extended fully above the head to support the flyer who
stands on their palms.

15. Flyer: The brave person who is lifted or thrown into the air to perform a mount.

16. Handstand: Springing from your feet to your hands to your feet again.

17. Jump: A springing move where both feet leave the ground.

18. Liberty: A base holds up a flyer with one of her feet in both of the base's hands. The
flyer's other leg is bent. It is called a ‘Liberty’ because the pose is thought to be similar to
the Statue of Liberty.

19. Mount: Any skill in which one or more persons is supported in the air. Another word
used is stunt. The person being supported is a mounter or flyer.

20. Pyramid: A stunt involving one or more mounters supported by one or more bases
linked together.

21. Routines: A choreographed sequence of moves.

22. Scorpion: While in a Liberty, a cheerleader grabs the toe of their bent leg and brings it up
to almost behind their head.

23. Spotter: The person who stays in contact with the ground and watches for any hazards in
the stunt or mount. They help with the dismantling of the mount and are responsible for
trying to catch the flyer if they fall.

24. Straddle: A position where the legs are straight out and apart.

25. Touchdown: Motion where both arms are held directly overhead, tight against the head.
Hands have palms facing each other. This motion is used when a touchdown is scored.

26. Tuck: A position in which the body is bent at the hips and the knees are pulled in tightly
to the chest

27. V Motion: A motion where both arms are up forming a V.

LESSON #5: CHEERLEADING STUNTS

Stunts

➢ Defined as building performances displaying a person's skill or dexterity. Stunting in

cheerleading has been previously referred to as building pyramids.
➢ Stunts range from basic two-legged stunts, to one-legged extended stunts, and high flying
basket tosses. Each of the six levels increases in difficulty of stunts.
➢ There are two recognized styles of stunting:
○ Co-ed
○ All-girl
➢ In most situations, club cheer, also known as all-star, does more of a classic type of
stunting which is not as common in school cheer.
➢ A "group stunt" will typically involve a flyer, two bases (one main and one side), and a
back spot, or occasionally include a front spot. These can be all-girl or co-ed.
➢ A "partner stunt" will involve two athletes: one flyer and one main base. These tend to
be co-ed, but all-girl versions do occur.
➢ A third athlete, a spotter, will be involved depending upon the skill level of the stunt
executed and the rules and regulations for that skill.
➢ Flyers - typically the shorter and leaner people on the team, requires a high level of
flexibility. The flyer's main job is to squeeze her muscles together in order for her bases
to be able to perform stunts from below her. The flyer can make or break the stunt
since she has control over what is put up in the air.

Bases

➢ The athletes that hold the flyer or top girl in the air during the stunt.
➢ Bases are very strong and are usually assigned together based on height to create a level
platform for the flyer to perform an action.
➢ Are responsible to understand grips on the flyer's shoes so that the stunt can flow
smoothly. Different levels of stunting come with different styles of grips for the bases.
Main Base

➢ This base is the left side of the stunt and helps with the stability of the flyer's foot.
➢ Their grips tend to be simpler and easier to adjust.
➢ The main base must also be the first to react if the stunt seems to be unstable to keep it up
in the air.
➢ In a one-leg extension stunt, the main base will lift the toe and heel of the foot to
increase stability and prevent the flyer from tilting forward or backward and will be
almost directly under the stunt.

Secondary Base

➢ This position can also be referred to as "side base".

➢ The secondary bases help lift the flyer up into the air and support the flyer's foot.
➢ The side base mainly controls the rotation of the foot.
➢ They hold the "ball" of the foot where the flyer's weight should be. Their grips include
throwing and catching, but occasionally they will be more complicated.

Back Spot

➢ The back spot is also called a "third" and gets their name by standing behind the stunt.
➢ They are not essential but extremely common since in a typical stunt group they are
included.
➢ They normally will organize a stunt by calling out its name and the necessary counts to
ensure group synchronization.
➢ Back spots can help save a stunt if it appears to be falling and serve as almost a kickstand
for the top girl. Actively stabilizes the stunt, commonly supporting or lifting the flyer's
ankles, calves, thighs, or buttocks
➢ Due to the backe spot's responsibilities, they are generally the tallest members of the
stunt group.

Spotters

➢ Are additional athletes whose primary responsibility is to watch the stunt and assist the
flyer in the case of a fall or accident.
 ➢ Their main goal is to protect the flyer's head and neck from injury.
➢ Spotter involvement can range from nearly constantly holding the stunt, such as a back
spot, to standing at the back of a cheerleading routine should an incident occur.

Front Spot

➢ Supports and stabilizes the stunt from the front.

➢ They are fairly rare, as most stunts are designed to be performed without one, but are
sometimes added due to weaker bases or an uneven number of athletes.

Additional Spot

➢ Are typically used as a safety precaution, such as when a group is trying new or difficult
stunts.
➢ Generally, they will only help the stunt if it shows serious signs of falling.