Hip Hop

"Hip-hop" as a form of dance is becoming more popular. Hip hop dance comes from breakdancing, but does not consist wholly of breakdancing moves. Unlike most other forms of dance, which are often at least moderately structured, hip hop dance has few (if any) limitations on positions or steps.

The term "hip hop dance" covers a wide range of styles, including dances that have often been associated with hip hop culture, to those that are merely performed to the music. These styles have grown in popularity over the years, partly due to the rise in popularity of hip hop music.

Old school hip hop dances are those styles that evolved in the seven were primarily danced to funk and old school hip hop music. Breakdancing is the best known of all hip hop dance styles, and is considered a corner stone of hip hop culture itself. In the 1980s, many funk dance styles that originally evolved separately from hip hop, such as popping and locking, started to be incorporated with the hip hop culture as well, and could be seen combined with breakdancing.

In the 1990s, as hip hop music evolved and grew further away from funk, it got slower, heavier and more aggressive. This modern hip hop music has given birth to new styles of hip hop dancing partly inspired by the old school styles, many of them focusing on upright dancing as opposed to breakdancing which is better known for its floor-oriented movements.

Many of the newer styles of hip hop are a common sight in today's music videos on television channels such as MTV.
As hip hop dancing is such a broad genre, the teacher has much freedom and room for personal interpretation, and often mixes various styles freely, even mixing them with other dance forms such as jazz.

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