Lesson 1: What Is Hip-Hop Dance?

Where did hip hop come from?

Hip-hop dance started on the streets in New York City in the 1970s. It grew out of parties and clubs, with dancers doing new moves to breakbeats. Basically, hip-hop dance is a range of street dance styles done to hip-hop music . It includes breaking (aka breakdancing), popping, locking and lots of other moves. You might have heard of crews (teams of dancers) battling and dancing at block parties or on TV shows. Even though it began long ago, hip-hop dance is still changing today!

Think of hip-hop as a big family of dances. Early stars like Kool Herc and Afrika Bambaataa put on records and people loved to dance on the break (the coolest part of the music). That gave birth to moves like toprock and downrock (floor moves) . Over time, more styles (from the West Coast to the East Coast) joined in. What makes hip-hop special is that it’s freestyle – dancers often improvise and “freestyle” to the beat. But even in freestyle, there are steps and grooves underneath.

So in short: hip-hop dance = fun street moves + music . It’s a way to express yourself, but it also has roots and structure (just like any craft). Many modern dances (like the Running Man or the Dougie) come from this hip-hop scene. We’ll learn some of these as we go!