AY! Buckle up your seatbelts kids because this week I am schooling you on the history of hip-hop dancing! OH YEAH! Get ready to pop it lock it and get jiggy with it as you learn about this dance style that has stolen my heart and captured a generation.
Hip-hop dancing is believed to be originated in New York City during the late 1960s and early 1970s. It infuses different rhythms and traditional African style of movement. The people who first started dancing hip-hop moves wanted to bring this type of dance to the people, so they took it to the streets. They wanted this type of dance to be something that people did not have to practice at a fancy academy, but a type of dance that could connect people to others. Hip-hop is a class of dancing all on its own because of its competitive atmosphere and use of improvisation.
On the other side of the country, the west coast was making up their own type of hip-hop style that would soon infuse with the techniques of the east coast. Together, the style of hip-hop grew. They added isolations and moves such as the robot to the growing hip-hop culture. Hip-hop dancing also contains elements from other dancing styles such as tap, modern and swing.
During the 1980s, hip-hop started to become more institutionalized where dancers would perform and compete in venues. At first, dancers, known as "B-boys" and" B-girls" at the time, would hit the streets to show off their moves for others. Informal competitions or "battles" would occur right there, and that began hip hop's nature of competitiveness and innovation to invent new moves.
There is definitely a certain kind of attitude associated with hip-hop. Whenever I am performing a hip-hop dance, I feel powerful. I feel like my body is telling a story, that I am strong and fierce. This attitude came from both the east and west coast styles of hip-hop dancing. This attitude puts hip-hop in its own unique category of dance.
This is an example of tutting. It is hard to capture the intricate moves required for it through a picture so I highly recommend watching a video such as this on it Incredible!
Breaking (break dance) is another example I bet comes to your mind when thinking about hip hop dancing.
Check out this amazing talented children at a break dancing competition!
Another fabulous technique are isolations! Pictures do not to do it justice, gaze upon it in wonder. This is a head isolation.
Today, hip hop still continues to wow the crowd. Dancers are focusing more and more on how to tell a story with their body using isolation, power moves (moves that require aerobatics such as flips), freeze moves (poses) and tutting. Like many forms of dance, it is a form of expression that humans will enjoy forever. Dance is life.
