History of Hip-Hop Dance

 History of Hip-Hop Dance

Compared to other well known dance styles, hip-hop is fairly new.  The beginning of hip-hop dates back to the 1960’s and 70’s in the East Coast of the United States.  Though hip-hop is very young it’s roots go back, dating much further in time.

Hip-Hop is thought to officially begun in New York City.  Individuals without professional dance training, but with a natural instinct of movement started dancing in the streets.   Hip-hop movement is inspired by complex rhythms, and groundedness, and syncopations. Though hip-hop has influences of modern, tap, swing, and African it truly is a style all of it’s own with emphasis on improvisation and competition.

     DJ Herc first moved to Brooklyn from Jamaica at age 12 and started his informal performance career that quickly turned him into the most popular D.J. in New York City. He made the first unique music with two record machines playing at the same time. He created rhythms and extended interludes that helped lay the foundation for hip-hop dance.

Hip-hop did not just develop on the East Coast.  West Coast has a style all of it’s own that helped attribute the development in the East.  On the West Coast, hip-hop dancing was inspired by robots in the movies being made in Hollywood during the 60’s and 70’s.  Wanting to replicate the movement of artificial life some of the pioneers such as Boogaloo Sam (creator of popping) and Campbellock (creator of lock) helped shape hip-hop in the West.

Though hip-hop dancers see the styles as completely different (popping and locking from the west and breaking from the east) the two regional variants often get blended and grouped into the genre of hip-hop. As the dance style continues to evolve many dancers retain their original regional style while others combine them and add other styles together.

When hip-hop first started it was a performative, but informal, dance culture.  B-boys and b-girls were terms introduced by DJ Herc.  Dancers would be invited to show off their skills on the street, basketball court, or wherever the group of people happened to be. As the hip-hop movement became more institutionalized and more well known venues started to arise. Though these venues were more formal the competitive nature of hip-hop remained. When truly exceptional dancers were noticed on the floor everyone else would back off and allow the leaders to duke it out. .  Observers would circle the dancers and cheer on who they thought had the most skills. Eventually the informal competitions became more common and popular. Competitions became part of a night out at hip-hop clubs. 

Now hip-hop battles can arise organically or be advertised in advance. The competitive nature of hip-hop has been retained throughout its history and has helped keep the “battle” culture that has existed since the beginning.  The same competition can be found in earlier dance forms like tap dancing in the early 20th century.

 Now hip-hop is a dance form that is also practiced on stage.  Though the roots of hip-hop were informal, the art form has become so popular that it can now have an audience base in a formal performance venue, which developed in the 1990’s. Popular hip-hop dancers can rock the club scene but also mesmerize audiences on a stage.

Since it’s creation hip-hop has became an important influence in music videos.  Though there is a fine line between street dance and hip-hop much of current pop culture incorporate it on stage during their concerts as well.

Thanks to irresistible rhythms and eye-catching steps that break many of the conventions of classical dance, hip hop has caught the attention of the modern public. Hip-hop started on the streets in some of the United States' ghettos, and has made its way to illustrious performance venues across the globe. In a short period of time, hip-hop has carved a substantial chunk of dance culture out for itself, and dance lovers celebrate the innovative nature of hip hop choreography and style.

 The authors