Funk was created in the 1970s in California. It is a culture, and a movement, with signature music and dance. The funk sound is the perfect fusion of several genres including jazz, hip hop, and disco. It’s also a type of dance that is used to describe many street dance styles from this era including tutting, the robot, popping, and locking all of which you can read more about in our dance styles guide here.
Freestyle dancing is complete improvisation of movement by the dancer. Dancers do not plan or choreograph their motions beforehand and there is not a rehearsal of the routine. All movements are decided intuitively and in the moment, creating an original dance experience.
Hip Hop as a dance type is a popular form of movement that has evolved since the ’70s from its origins of break dancing. It was when musical rhythms slowed down that hip hop and its cruisy head-nodding beats developed.
Most people can easily recognize the street style of dance commonly referred to as breakdance by moves such as people spinning on their heads, acrobatic tricks and basic rocking movements.
When we use the term Hip Hop it is often in reference to music or dance, but what needs to be emphasized and understood is that Hip Hop is a culture, “a way of life,” as many put it. What we often see on TV or social media today when Hip Hop dance is being performed is the commercialized, streamlined, and often diluted form of what it was at its origination.
Hip hop is a style of dance that originated not in a dance studio, but in the streets of New York City in the 1970s and 80s so the types …
The 3 original and most well-known styles of Hip Hop Dance are Breaking, Popping, and Locking. Within these types are different forms of dance such as TopRock, Footwork or DownRock, Freezes and Power Moves. You also have the Hip Hop Party Dance genre which is where a lot of the more popular commercial hip hop moves are derived from today!
As more and more dancers delve into learning, and more studios offer hip hop classes, you will undoubtedly have a hip hop dancer in your life soon if not already. Inevitably, the question will arise: what kind of gift do you get a hip-hop dancer? What do they even need? Have no fear, that’s why we’re here.