Overview of urban dance styles

What are urban dance styles?

The birth of funk music in the 1960s in America came with the development of new dance styles. Some of these dance styles were developed on the streets, which is why these dance styles were first referred to as street dance styles. But when other dance styles were developed in clubs and places where dancers come together to dance, the term street dance styles wasn't appropriate enough anymore. That's why today we use the term urban dance styles. Urban dance styles are all dance styles that originated in city environments and that are heavily influenced by hip hop culture and street movements. Below we will cover the most prominent urban dance styles.

Hip hop

Hip hop is an urban dance style that blends party dance steps with elements of breaking. It started in the late 1960's and early 1970's. In that time, there were many parties on the streets and in clubs, bringing people together to dance. During these parties, various party dance steps were often combined, leading to the development of hip hop dance.

Key components of hip hop dance include the standing steps from breaking, known as toprocks, which are mixed with dance elements from other styles, such as popping and house dance. Hip hop dancers often incorporate moves from various urban dance styles in their performances. 

Hip hop dance is all about how well you bounce, groove and express yourself to the music. Like most urban dance styles, there are certain foundations and techniques in hip hop dance, but the goal is to develop your own unique style and stand out in your expression of hip hop dance.

There are actually two types of hip hop dancing:

• Freestyling (where the dancer expresses him/herself spontaneously to the music)
• Choreography (where specific moves are done on a specific part of the music).

Breaking

Breaking, also known as breakdance, originated alongside the hip hop culture in the early 1970’s in the South Bronx, New York. Breaking is known to be the original hip hop dance style.

Breaking consists of four elements, namely:

• Toprock. Toprock is the standing part of breaking, where the bboy or bgirl prepares to go down to the floor.
• Footwork. When the dancer gets down to the floor, they start doing footwork. In these moves, you lean on the floor with your hands and twist your legs around your body by doing different steps. The most famous footwork sequence is the 6-step.
• Power moves. These are the most difficult moves in breaking. Power moves are moves where you spin on your back, head, elbow or jump from hand to hand. Power moves are actually somewhat like acrobatics. 
• Freezes. A proper breaking round usually ends with a freeze. A freeze is a moment in which the breakdancer stands completely still. Often this is also in a position that requires a lot of strength and balance, such as inverted on your hands. 

Breaking is all about rhythm, flow, execution and originality.

Popping

Popping is a funk dance style from the West Coast of America invented by the Electric Boogaloos. At disco parties in the early 1970s, people danced to funk music. Several dancers here sometimes imitated the robot, or made waves with the body. Popping Pete of the Electric Boogaloo's began by rapidly contracting and relaxing different muscle parts. Many people believe this inspiration came from the dances done during church services in African American communities. After Popping Pete started doing this, it was called hitting or popping. The combination of hitting, imitating the robot, and waves was the beginning of popping.

Later, several new popping styles were developed, such as strutting, tutting, ticking, strobing and more. Some of these styles were developed by the Electric Boogaloo's, but there were many other influential dancers as well.

Locking

Locking is invented by Don 'Campbellock' Campbell and his dance crew The Lockers. Like popping, locking emerged in the 1970's during  funk music parties. Don Campbell combined locks, wrist rolls and points. These are different moves and poses, where you lock your body for a moment and then continue dancing. Don Campbell combined these locks with wrist rolls, where he rotated his wrists and swung them up and down. The dance that Don Campbell did was initially referred to as Campbellocking, and was later shortened to locking.

Locking is a social dance: interaction with the audience and with fellow dancers is a crucial element of locking. Moreover, locking is known for being the first urban dance style where dancers were paid and seen as professional dancers.

Krumping / clowning

Krumping was developed in the early 2000's by Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis, and Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti in South Central, Los Angeles. However, as early as 1992, there was already a dance style called clowning, created by Thomas "Tommy the Clown" Johnson in Compton, California. Tight Eyez and Tommy the Clown performed a more aggressive version of clowning. Since the clowning community felt this new style was too intense to still be considered clowning, it was renamed krumping.

Clowning is a dance style that expresses opposition to violent gang culture. It was often performed at children's parties in Compton to entertain the kids. This is reflected in the dancer's happy expressions and clown-inspired outfits, as they would paint their faces and dress as clowns. In contrast, krumping expresses a more dramatic, intense form of emotion and is frequently performed in intense dance battles

There are five basic moves in krumping: stomps, jabs, chest pops, buck hop, and arm swings. These are pretty much always performed in freestyle rather than in choreographed routines.

House dance

House dance is an urban dance style that emerged during the rise of house music in the 1980's. In the clubs and house music parties of New York and Chicago, movements naturally arose to this flow of the music. House dance is a social dance. This was especially true in the begining of house dance, where almost everyone at the house music parties experienced a shared sense of ecstasy and connection.

One important move in house dance is called the jack, where dancers bounce their torso back and forth on the beat, creating a ripple effect. House dance is also known for its footwork. A lot of footwork in house dance was added invented later, which shows that the dance style has continued to evolve.

Whaacking

In the early 1970's, with the rise of disco music, a dance style called punking emerged. Punking was created primarily by gay dancers who attended disco parties in Los Angeles, USA. These dancers were inspired by Hollywood movies and actresses, martial arts and also comic book heroes from the 1960's and 1970's.

One key movement of their dance, called the 'whack', was a move in which the arms swung over the head in a rhythmic flow. This type of arm swinging moves is seen a lot in whaacking. This arm-swinging technique is a hallmark of whaacking, and it was directly inspired by martial artists' use of nunchucks.

Because society often had a negative perception of the term "punks," the punking dance community decided to rename the style to whaackin'. Later, a dancer named Jeffrey Daniels added a "g" to the name, changing it to whaacking, which is how most people know the style today.

Vogueing

Vogueing is a dance style that originated in the late 1970's and early 1980's in New York City. It was inspired by a dance style that emerged in Harlem, New York in the 1930's called performance. The dance styles of performance and vogueing were very similar: both dance styles imitated the poses of fashion models seen in magazines and on the catwalk. Many of the iconic poses were inspired by the famous magazine Vogue, which is how the dance got its name.

Both dance styles developed within predominantly gay communities. Vogueing is known for its elegant transitions between poses, drawing inspiration from fashion models, yoga, and catwalks. Vogueing is typically performed to old disco and house music.

Dancehall

Dancehall refers to both an urban dance style and the matching music genre. While the music genre has roots dating back to the 1940's, it only entered the mainstream in the late 1970's. The dance style is actually a mix of various music genres and the matching dance styles from Jamaica and the Caribbean, such as rastafari, myal (a healing dance) and junkanoo. All these dance styles are spiritual dances that originated from cultural beliefs.

Some well-known dancehall moves are the Log On, Go-Go Wine, Dutty Wine, Della Move, Bogle, Gully Creeper, Willy Bounce, Tek Wey Yuhself & Pon Di River.

Improve your dance skills

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