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Hip hop dance

Hip hop dance is a range of street dance styles primarily performed to hip hop music or that have evolved as part of hip hop culture. It is influenced by a wide range of styles that were created in the 1970s and made popular by dance crews in the United States. The television show Soul Train and the 1980s films Breakin', Beat Street, and Wild Style showcased these crews and dance styles in their early stages; therefore, giving hip-hop dance mainstream exposure.

Hip-hop dance

Memphis Jookin' – Turfing – Jerkin' – Krumping

Commercial/New Style – Jazz-funk – Lyrical hip hop

Turntables – Hip hop music – Social dancing/Party dancing - African-American culture

Crews – Freestyle – Battles

The dance industry responded with a commercial, studio-based version of hip-hop—sometimes called "new style"—and a hip-hop influenced style of jazz dance called "jazz-funk". Classically trained dancers developed these studio styles in order to create choreography from the hip-hop dances that were performed on the street. Because of this development, hip-hop dance is practiced in both dance studios and outdoor spaces.


The commercialization of hip-hop dance continued into the 1990s and 2000s with the production of several television shows and movies such as The Grind, Planet B-Boy, Rize, StreetDance 3D, America's Best Dance Crew, Saigon Electric, the Step Up film series, and The LXD, a web series. Though the dance is established in entertainment, including mild representation in theater, it maintains a strong presence in urban neighborhoods which has led to the creation of street dance derivatives Memphis jookin, turfing, jerkin', and krump. What distinguishes hip-hop from other forms of dance is that it is often "freestyle" (improvisational) in nature and hip-hop dance crews often engage in freestyle dance competitions—colloquially referred to as "battles".


Films, television shows, and the Internet have contributed to introducing hip-hop dance outside the United States. Since being exposed, educational opportunities and corporate dance competitions such as World of Dance and Hip Hop International have helped maintain its presence worldwide. Hip-hop dance can be a form of entertainment or a hobby. It can also be a way to stay active in competitive dance and a way to make a living by dancing professionally.

Entertainment[edit]

Movies[edit]

The entertainment industry has been largely responsible for introducing hip-hop dance to mainstream audiences around the world. Early hip-hop films Wild Style, Beat Street, and Breakin' were made in the 1980s. When Wild Style opened in Japan, Rock Steady Crew performed breaking in Tokyo's Harajuku shopping district to promote the film.[85] Wild Style was the first movie centered around hip-hop culture; however, Flashdance was the first commercially released film to feature breaking.[86][note 7] In 1984, Beat Street was released in West Germany and screened at the Cannes Film Festival which helped to introduce breaking, graffiti writing, and turntablism to this part of Europe.[87][88] Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo brought the funk styles to the cinema. Breaking, locking, popping, and waacking were performed in these films.[89] At this time in the 1980s, the United States was not the only country producing hip-hop films. In 1985, Yuen Woo-ping directed a hip-hop themed romantic comedy in Hong Kong called Mismatched Couples starring Donnie Yen.[90] Another hip-hop film, Electro Rock, was released the same year in the United Kingdom.[91] This film featured a then 14-year-old Hanifa "Bubbles" McQueen Hudson, the UK's first b-girl.[91]


Several hip-hop dance films were produced after the millennium. The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy, Neukölln Unlimited, B-Girl, Bouncing Cats, Planet B-Boy, and Battle of the Year: The Dream Team all showcase breaking. Films such as Honey, Save the Last Dance, You Got Served, the Step Up film series, StreetDance 3D, Hype Nation, Saigon Electric, Berlin Dance Battle 3D, and ABCD: Any Body Can Dance showcase all forms of hip-hop dance, especially new style hip-hop. Rize, The Heart of Krump, and Shake City 101 are documentaries about krumping. All of these movies and documentaries are examples of films where the plot and theme surround hip-hop dance and how it affects the characters' lives. Bouncing Cats is the story of b-boy Abraham "Abramz" Tekya who uses b-boying to empower youth in Uganda. In 2010, the film won "Outstanding Achievement in Documentary Filmmaking" at Newport Beach Film Festival and "Best Documentary Feature" at Urbanworld Film Festival.[92] Saigon Electric was Vietnam's first hip-hop film.[93] It was written, produced, and directed by Vietnamese-American filmmaker Stephane Gauger. The film is about two female dancers (a ribbon dancer and a hip-hop dancer) and how their respective romances, the threat of their community center being torn down, and the stress of an upcoming dance battle affects their friendship.[94][95] The film was choreographed by Viet Max and Ricky Cole.[96] In 2012, it won a Golden Kite Prize (the Vietnamese equivalent of The Oscars/BAFTAs) for "Best Film" and "Best Actress".[97]

Television[edit]

Before reaching movie audiences, hip-hop dance was already being broadcast on television. Soul Train was a syndicated, music variety show that featured social dancing and performances by African-American soul, funk, and R&B singers. The show was broadcast in South Korea via the US Armed Forces Korea Network.[98] Before officially becoming a crew, The Lockers made several appearances on this show.[99] After becoming a crew, The Electric Boogaloos also appeared on the show.[14][100] Soul Train premiered in 1970.[101] During its 36 year run, the resident freestyle dancers were referred to as the Soul Train Gang.[102] Auditions were held in 1971 when the show moved from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. Dancers who wanted to get on Soul Train after this time had to rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from dancers who were already employed by the show.[102][103] A regular feature during the broadcast was the Soul Train Line.[104] To participate, the dancers formed two lines of equal length facing each other with a large space in between them. Each dancer in line would take their turn dancing down the middle.


Other music variety shows on television at this time were American Bandstand, Solid Gold, and Top of the Pops. Unlike Soul Train which focused on soul and funk, these shows promoted Top 40 music and pop acts. Solid Gold employed a permanent dance troupe called the Solid Gold Dancers who performed choreographed routines to musical performances. Lucinda Dickey, an actress and dancer who played the lead role in the Breakin' films, appeared on the show during the 1982–1983 season as a Solid Gold dancer. In 1983, street dancers Marc "Mr. Freeze" Lemberger from Rock Steady Crew, Timothy "Popin' Pete" Solomon and Dane "Robot Dane" Parker from the Electric Boogaloos, and locking dancers Alpha "Omega" Anderson and Lewis "Deputy" Green also appeared on Solid Gold during a performance to the song "What a Feeling" from the movie Flashdance.[105] In 1982 during a performance in London on Top of the Pops, street dancer Jeffrey Daniel performed popping and the backslide during the song "A Night to Remember". This was the first time popping was shown on British television, thus spreading its popularity in the United Kingdom.[106][107] A year later, Michael Jackson also performed the backslide during a performance of "Billie Jean" on the Motown 25 TV special.[108] He called it the moonwalk and his performance spread its popularity all over the world[109] to much larger extent than Daniel's performance did. It was Jeffrey Daniel who taught Michael Jackson how to do the backslide/moonwalk.[note 8][112][113]

was founded by DJ Hooch in 1996 in London.[159][160] There are four world championship titles: breaking crew champions, solo b-boy champion, solo popping champion, and solo hip-hop champion.[161] The world finals also include the "Fresh Awards" (best dressed) which are hosted and judged every year by Richard "Crazy Legs" Colón—the president of Rock Steady Crew.[162] In 2011, DJ Hooch wrote a book about the competition called B-Boy Championships: From Bronx to Brixton.[163]

UK B-Boy Championships

Freestyle Session was founded in 1997 in California by graffiti writer and DJ Chris "Cros1" Wright.[165] It is the largest breaking competition in the United States.[166] The main competitive event is for b-boy crews, but there are also popping and locking competitions for solo competitors.[14][165] Although the US is the flagship location for Freestyle Session, it is not the only country where it is held. Promoters outside the US pay Cros1 to use Freestyle Session's name and fly him to their location to judge the competition.[167] Using this method, Freestyle Session has been held in 18 other countries including Poland, Russia, Switzerland, and Venezuela.[167]

[164]

(HHI) was founded in 2002 in the United States by Howard and Karen Schwartz.[116][168] There are two categories of competitions: World Battles and World Hip Hop Dance Championship. Within the World Battles category, there are four titles including three-on-three breaking champions, one-on-one popping champion, one-on-one locking champion, and one-on-one all styles (freestyle) champion.[168] The World Hip Hop Dance Championship is for hip-hop crews. There are four divisions: junior (ages 8–12), varsity (13–17), adult (18+), and mega crew (all ages).[16] Each crew must have at least five but not more than nine people (mega crew must have 15–40)[169] and must perform a routine that showcases three styles of hip-hop dance.[116] For the 2009 competition, there were 120 crews representing 30 countries.[116] HHI also created the USA Hip Hop Dance Championship and the television show America's Best Dance Crew.[168]

Hip Hop International

Juste Debout was founded in 2002 by Bruce Ykanji in Paris.[170] Competition categories include popping, hip-hop, locking, house, toprock, and experimental.[170] Breaking is not included to put more focus on dance styles performed while standing up, hence the name (French for Just Standing). There are not any team trophies at Juste Debout. The experimental and toprock categories are only for solo dancers; popping, new style, locking, and house are for duos.[170] In 2008, Ingrid "Shéyen" Gamboa, the editor-in-chief of Juste Debout magazine, wrote a book called Hip-hop: L'histoire de la danse (Hip Hop: A history of the dance).[171]

[14]

(UDO) was founded in 2002 in the United Kingdom.[172] UDO operates the British Street Dance Championships, the European Street Dance Championships, the North American Championships, and the World Street Dance Championships. The European championships are held in Germany rather than in the UK.[173]

United Dance Organisation

Street Dance Kemp Europe (SDK Europe) is a competition and dance convention founded in 2004 in , Czech Republic.[174] There is a hip-hop crew battle and solo battles for house, krumping, locking, hip-hop male, and hip-hop female dancers.[174] SDK Europe begins every year in the summer and lasts seven days. Daytime hours are reserved primarily for dance workshops and classes taught by an international pool of instructors; competitive events are held at night. All of the classes, workshops, and competitive events are held outside.

Jedovnice

EuroBattle was founded in 2005 in Portugal by Max from Momentum crew. There are five competitive events for solo dancers including b-boying, b-girling, hip-hop, locking, and popping.[176] The international final is held in Porto but the winner of the Spanish qualifying tournament also gets to compete at the UK B-Boy Championships in London.[175]

[175]

World Supremacy Battlegrounds is a hip-hop dance competition based in Australia. The heritage of World Supremacy Battlegrounds goes back to 2002 when it began as GROOVE, a local hip-hop competition held in Sydney. Over the three years that followed, the competition was renamed Battlegrounds and went national to include dance crews from all over Australia.[177] It became international in 2006 when crews from the Philippines, Japan, and New Zealand entered the competition.[177] There are four dance crew categories: open (all ages), junior (12 and under), varsity (12–18), and monster (all ages, 20–40 members). For the 2011 competition, teams from Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, Guam, New Zealand, Samoa, and South Africa came to compete.[178]

[177]

(WOD) was founded in 2008 by Myron Marten and David Gonzales in Pomona, California.[179] It differs from other competitions because there is no final championship. WOD travels to different cities in the United States, Canada, and Europe and holds a competition in each location; therefore, WOD distinguishes itself as a tour.[180] Each tour stop is a stand-alone competition; they are all related to each other in name only. In 2013, WOD traveled to New York City, Vallejo, Seattle, Vancouver, Berlin, Dallas, Toronto, San Diego, Montreal, Eindhoven, Boston, Orlando, Houston, Chicago, Seattle, Honolulu, Los Angeles, Union City, and Antwerp.[180] WOD reached a larger audience in 2017 when NBC started airing a television show based on the competition.

World of Dance Tour

World Dance Colosseum is a two-on-two dance competition founded in Japan. There are five two-on-two world championship titles: b-boying, locking, popping, hip-hop, and house. Japanese dancers qualify for the international final through preliminary tournaments held in the country but foreign dancers do not qualify through tournaments because 30 of the top-ranked foreign dancers are automatically invited to participate in the final. At the final, the winning duos from the Japanese tournaments compete against the top-ranked foreign duos to determine who is the best.[181]

[181]

Vibe Dance Competition is a choreography competition that was started by Joseph Lising in 1995 as a Greek Talent Show at UC Irvine. It later evolved into one of the biggest competitions for choreography hip hop teams in the world, hosting teams from all over the US, Canada, the Philippines, and Japan.

Education[edit]

In 2004, Safi Thomas founded the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory (HHDC) in New York City.[65] Thomas' goal was to provide a comprehensive education to hip-hop dancers that was comparable to what ballet, modern, and jazz dancers experience at their respective institutions.[182] HHDC provides a formal curriculum with dance classes (breaking, freestyle, locking, etc.) and academic classes (dance theory, physiology, kinesiology, etc.) to people who want to pursue hip-hop dance as a career.[65][183] It is the only educational institution in the United States that is exclusively dedicated to hip-hop dance instruction.[183] HHDC does not grant degrees. It is a non-profit organization and repertory company that grants certifications to dancers that complete the three-year program.[65]


Three years later in 2007, the University of East London's Center for Performing Arts Development (CPAD) started intake for the only bachelor's degree program in the world specializing in hip-hop, urban, and global dance forms.[184] The CPAD's program also lasts three years, but it is not exclusive to hip-hop. Students also study African dance, kathak, Bollywood, and capoeira.