Hip-hop Dance Styles

HIP-HOP DANCE DEFINITION: Hip-hop - 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. Source: https://www.britannica.com/topic/hip-hop (Alan Light and Greg Tate) -a dance style, usually danced to hip-hop music, that evolved from the hip-hop culture. -The first dance associated with hip-hop was breakdancing. -While breakdancing consists primarily of moves executed close to the ground, the majority of hip- hop moves are executed standing up. Although widely considered a synonym for rap music, the term hip-hop refers to a complex culture comprising four elements: 1. deejaying, or “turntabling”; 2. rapping, also known as “MCing” or “rhyming”; 3. graffiti painting, also known as “graf” or “writing”; 4. 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.” History: ORIGINS AND THE OLD SCHOOL Hip-hop originated in the predominantly African American economically depressed South Bronx section of New York City in the late 1970s. Graffiti and break dancing, the aspects of the culture that first caught public attention, had the least lasting effect. Reputedly, the graffiti movement was 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 colourful mural-size renderings of their names, imagery from underground comics and television, and even Andy Warhol-like Campbell’s soup cans onto the sides of subway cars. The beginnings of the dancing, rapping, and deejaying components of hiphop were bound together by the shared environment in which these art forms evolved. The first major hip-hop deejay was DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell), 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. 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. Even the massively popular “boy bands,” such as the Backstreet Boys and *NSYNC, drew heavily on hip-hop sounds and styles, and rhythm and blues and even gospel had adapted so fully to the newer approach that stars such as Mary J . Blige, R. Kelly, and Kirk Franklin straddled both worlds. Types of Hip Hop Dance Styles: 1. Locking 2. Popping 3. Electric Boogie 4. Breakdance / B-Boying 5. Uprock 6. Funk 7. Streetdance 8. Tutting/Tetris 9. Battle 10. Liguid Dancing 11. Boogaloo 12. Ragga 13. House Dance 14. Lyrical 15. Stepping 16. Free Running 17. Punking 18. Waacking 19. Voguing Classifications/Types: 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. 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 - 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. Tutting/Tetris • 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. Liquid Dancing - a form of gestural dance that sometimes involves pantomime - invokes the word liquid to describe the fluid- like motion of the dancers’ body and limbs - primarily the dancers’ arms and hands which are the focus, though more advanced dancers work in a full range of body movements - similar to the styles of popping or locking. Boogalo - 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 - 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 - 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 - House Dance - 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 hiphop 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 - Lyrical - 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 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. 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 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 - Waacking However, this dance style reacted to changes of music: a. 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 However, this dance style reacted to changes of music: b. 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. Voguing - 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