Hip hop dancing or “street” dancing, includes a wide range of hip hop dance styles such as breaking, popping, locking and krumping, freestyle, funk and even house dance, but improvisation and personal interpretation are essential. Hip hop dancing originated on the streets of New York City in the 1970’s and quickly spread to the west coast.  In the 80’s the hip hop dance and music pop culture exploded and fad hip hop dance styles, like the Running Man, became famous.               

Even though hip hop and rap music is sometimes criticized, hip hop dancing has become even more popular.  Today, many performing arts centers and acting schools have hip hop dance classes for children as young as 5. But many hip hop dancers are self-taught or learn their hip hop dance techniques and different dance moves from each other.  They often form hip hop dance crews, a group of dancers who choreograph and perform together.           

There are also plenty of hip hop dance competitions for individuals and hip hop dance crews around the world, like the UK Bboy Championships and Paris’s Juste Debout. IDO, The International Dance Organization holds many hip hop dance competitions every year.  Then came the TV shows showcasing hip hop dance competitions, which brought hip hop dancing from the park and the streets to the mainstream.  Randy Jackson’s America’s Best Dance Crew on VH1 is evident to the surging popularity of hip hop dance crews like Jabbawockeez and Kaba Modern.  Hip hop dancers are also in music videos, and commercials.  Because of blockbuster success, movies like You Got Served, Step-Up, and Center Stage are coming out with sequels.

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