Hip hop dance: Difference between revisions

Hip-hop dance
A b-boy performing in a cipher in Turkey.
Main Styles
Breaking – Locking – Popping
Cultural Markers
Influences	Uprock – Roboting – Boogaloo
Attributes	Crews – Freestyle – Battles
Derivative Styles
Street	Turfing – Jerkin' – Krumping – Memphis Jookin'
Studio	New Style – Jazz-Funk – Lyrical hip-hop
Cultural Origins
African Americans – Latino Americans – Turntables – James Brown – South Bronx – Fresno – Los Angeles – United States – Hip-hop culture – Funk – Hip-hop music – Social dancing/Party dancing

Hip-hop dance refers to dance styles primarily performed to hip-hop music or that have evolved as part of hip-hop culture. It includes a wide range of styles notably breaking, locking, and popping which were created in the 1970s and made popular by dance crews in the United States. The television show Soul Train and the 1980s films Breakin', Beat Street, and Wild Style showcased these crews and dance styles in their early stages; therefore, giving hip-hop mainstream exposure. The dance industry responded with a studio based version of hip-hop—sometimes called new style—and a hip-hop influenced style of jazz dance called jazz-funk. Classically trained dancers developed these studio styles in order to create choreography from the hip-hop dances that were being performed on the street. Because of this development, hip-hop dance is practiced in both dance studios and outdoor spaces.

The commercialization of hip-hop dance continued into the 1990s and 2000s with the production of several other television shows and movies such as The Grind, Dance 360, Planet B-Boy, Rize, StreetDance 3D, America's Best Dance Crew, the Step Up film franchise, and The LXD, a web series. Though the dance is established in entertainment, it still maintains a strong presence in urban neighborhoods which has led to the creation of street dance derivatives turfing, krumping, and jerkin'.

Hip-hop dance has a particularly strong influence in France and the United Kingdom. France is the home of Juste Debout, an international hip-hop dance competition, and Battle of the Year, the largest team-based breaking competition in the world. Like France, the UK also hosts two international competitions: The UK B-Boy Championships and the World Street Dance Championships.

What distinguishes hip-hop dance from other forms of dance is that it is often freestyle (improvisational) in nature and hip-hop dance crews often engage in freestyle dance competitions, colloquially referred to as battles. Crews, freestyling, and battles are identifiers of this style. Hip-hop dance can be a form of entertainment or a hobby. It can also be a lifestyle: a way to be active in competitive dance and a way to make a living by dancing professionally.

Hip-hop dance is a broad category that includes a variety of urban styles. The older dance styles that were created in the 1970s include uprock, breaking, and the funk styles.^[1] Breaking was created in The Bronx, New York, incorporating dances that were popular in the 1960s and early 1970s in African-American and Latino communities. In its earliest form, it began as elaborations on James Brown's "Good Foot" dance^[1][2] which came out in 1972. Breaking at this period was not primarily floor oriented as seen today; it started out as toprock which dancers perform while standing up. An influence on toprock was uprock^[3] which was created in Brooklyn, New York.^[4][5] It looks similar to toprock, but it is more aggressive and looks like a fight. Uprock is done with partners, but in toprock, and in breaking in general, each person takes turns dancing.^[6] In 1973 DJ Kool Herc invented the break beat.^[7][8] A break beat is a rhythmic, musical interlude of a song that has been looped over and over again to extend that instrumental solo. Kool Herc did this to provide a means for dancers who attended his parties to demonstrate their skills.^[8] B-boy and b-girl stands for "break-boy" and "break-girl"; b-boys and b-girls dance to the break of a record.^[8] Further influenced by martial arts^[9] and gymnastics, breaking went from being a purely upright dance style—toprock only—to becoming more floor oriented.

At the same time breaking was developing in New York, other styles were being created in California. The funk styles refers to several street dance styles created in California in the 1970s that were danced to funk music.^[10] These styles include roboting, bopping, hitting, locking, bustin', popping, electric boogaloo, strutting, sac-ing, dime-stopping, etc.^[11] The most popular and widely practiced of the funk styles are locking and popping which were created by African-Americans Don Campbell and Sam Solomon respectively. Locking is older than popping and it was created in the late 1960s whereas popping was created in the 1970s.^[12] The television show, Soul Train, helped to spread locking and popping's popularity. Both The Lockers and the Electric Boogaloos—dance crews responsible for the spread of these urban styles—performed on this show.^[10]

It would be historically inaccurate to say that the funk styles have always been considered hip-hop. The funk styles were adopted into hip-hop in large part due to the media. Once hip-hop activist and DJ, Afrika Bambaataa, used the word "hip-hop" in a magazine interview in 1982, "hip-hop dance" became an umbrella term encompassing all of these styles.^[13] Due to the amount of attention locking and popping were receiving, the media brought these styles under the "breakdance" label causing confusion about their origin.^[14][15] They were created on the west coast independent from breaking and came out of the funk cultural movement rather than from the hip-hop cultural movement.^[10]

As breaking, locking, and popping were emerging in the 1970s, hip-hop social dancing (party dancing) was growing as well. Novelty and fad dances such as the Roger Rabbit, the Cabbage Patch, and the Worm appeared in the 1980s followed by the Running Man and the Humpty dance in the 1990s.^[16] More recent social dances include the Cha Cha Slide, the Soulja Boy, and the Dougie. The previously mentioned dances are a sample of the many that have appeared since hip-hop developed into a distinct dance style. Like hip-hop music, hip-hop social dancing has continued to change as new songs are released and new dances are created to accompany them.

Breaking was created in the South Bronx, New York during the early 1970s.^[2] It is the first hip-hop dance style. At the time of its creation, it was the only hip-hop dance style because Afrika Bambaataa classified it as one of the five pillars of hip-hop culture along with MCing (rapping), DJing, graffiti writing, and knowledge.^{[17][18][19][20]} Though African Americans created breaking,^[21][22] Puerto Ricans maintained its growth and development when it was considered a fad in the late 1970s.^[23] In a 2001 interview Richard "Crazy Legs" Colón, the president of Rock Steady Crew, commented on how Puerto Ricans contributed to breaking: "I think the difference is when the brothas first started doing [it] and it was at its infancy they weren't doing acrobatic moves. That didn't come into play until more Puerto Ricans got involved in the mid 70s. We then took the dance, evolved it and kept it alive. In '79 I was getting dissed. I would go into a dance and I would get dissed by a lot of brothas who would ask 'Why y'all still doing that dance? That's played out'. By 79, there were very few African American brothas that was doing this... We always maintained the flava. It was like a changing of the guard and all we did was add more flava to something that already existed."^[22][24][25] Breaking includes four foundational dances: toprock, footwork oriented steps performed while standing up; downrock, footwork performed with both hands and feet on the floor; freezes, stylish poses done on your hands; and power moves, complex and impressive acrobatic moves.^{[note 1]} Transitions from toprock to downrock are called "drops."^[26]

Traditionally, breakers dance within a cipher or an Apache Line. A cipher is a circular shaped dance space formed by spectators that breakers use to perform in.^[11] Ciphers work well for one-on-one b-boy (break-boy) battles; however, Apache Lines are more appropriate when the battle is between two crews—teams of street dancers. In contrast to the circular shape of a cipher, competing crews can face each other in this line formation, challenge each other, and execute their burns^[27][28] (a move intended to humiliate the opponent, i.e. crotch grabbing). In 1981, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City hosted a breaking battle between the Dynamic Rockers and the Rock Steady Crew.^[29] The Daily News and National Geographic covered this event.^[30]

Locking, originally called Campbellocking, was created in Los Angeles, California by Don "Campbellock" Campbell and popularized in the United States by his crew The Lockers.^[12] In addition to Campbell, the original members of The Lockers were Fred "Mr. Penguin" Berry, Leo "Fluky Luke" Williamson, Adolpho "Shabba Doo" Quinones, Bill "Slim the Robot" Williams, Greg "Campbellock Jr" Pope, and Toni Basil, who also served as the group's manager.^[31][32] At the 2009 World Hip Hop Dance Championships, Basil became the first female recipient of the Living Legend Award in honor of her role in giving locking commercial exposure.^[33]

Locking looks similar to popping, and the two are frequently confused by the casual observer. In locking, dancers hold their positions longer. The lock is the primary move used in locking. It is "similar to a freeze or a sudden pause."^[34] A locker's dancing is characterized by frequently locking in place and after a brief freeze moving again.^[12] It is incorrect to call locking "pop-locking".^[12][35] Locking and popping are two distinct funk styles with their own histories, their own set of dance moves, their own pioneers, and their own competition categories. Locking is more playful and character-driven, whereas popping is more illusory. In popping, dancers push the boundaries of what they can do with their bodies.^[12] Locking has specific dance moves that distinguish it from popping and other funk styles. These moves include "the lock, points, skeeter [rabbits], scooby doos, stop 'n go, which-away, and the fancies."^[34] According to Dance Spirit magazine, a dancer cannot perform both locking and popping simultaneously.^[12]

Popping was created by Sam Solomon in Fresno, California and performed by his crew the Electric Boogaloos.^[12] It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in a dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit. Each hit should be synchronized to the rhythm and beats of the music. Popping is also used as an umbrella term to refer to a wide range of other closely related illusionary dance styles^[36] such as strobing, liquid,^[10] animation, and waving.^[36] Dancers often integrate these styles with standard popping to create a more varied performance.^{[note 2]} In all of these subgenres, it appears to the spectator that the body is popping, hence the name. The difference between each subgenre is how exaggerated the popping is. In liquid, the body movements look like water. The popping is so smooth that the movements do not look like popping at all; they look fluid.^[10] The opposite of this is strobing (also called ticking) in which the movements are staccato and jerky.^[38]

Popping as an umbrella term also includes gliding, floating, and sliding^{[10][36][note 3]} which are lower body dances done with the legs and feet. In gliding, a dancer appears as if they are drifting across the floor on ice. Opposite from gliding is tutting which is an upper body dance that uses the arms, hands, and wrists to form right angles and create geometric box-like shapes. Tutting can be done primarily with the fingers rather than the arms. This method is called finger tutting. In both variations, the movements are intricate, linear, and form 90° or 45° angles. In practice, tutting looks like the characters on the art of ancient Egypt, hence the name—a reference to King Tut.

While popping as an umbrella term is widely used by hip-hop dancers and in competitive hip-hop dancing, Timothy "Popin' Pete" Solomon of the Electric Boogaloos disagrees with the use of the word "popping" in this way. Many of these related styles (animation, liquid, tutting, etc.) can not be traced to one person or group. Solomon states "There are people who wave and there are people who tut. They’re not popping. I say this to give the people who created other styles their just dues and their props."^[12]

• UK B-Boy Championships was founded by DJ Hooch in 1996 in London.^[39][40] There are four world championship titles: breaking crew champions, solo b-boy champion, solo popping champion, and locking two-on-two champions.^[41] Contrary to what the name may imply, this competition is not exclusive to the British. It is called the UK B-Boy Championships because the international final is always held in the United Kingdom. The world finals also include the "Fresh Awards" (best dressed) which are hosted and judged every year by Richard "Crazy Legs" Colón—the president of Rock Steady Crew.^[42]

• Freestyle Session was founded in 1997^[43] in California by graffiti writer and DJ Chris "Cros1" Wright.^[44] It is the largest breaking competition in the United States.^[45] The main competitive event is for b-boy crews, but there are also popping and locking competitions for solo competitors.^[44]

• Hip Hop International: World Hip Hop Dance Championships (HHI) is a hip-hop dance competition founded in 2002 in the United States where both crews and soloist compete.^[46] There are two categories of competitions: world battles and world championship. The world championship is for hip-hop crews. There are four divisions: junior (ages 7–12), varsity (12–18), adult (18+), and mega crew (any mix of ages).^[47] Each crew must have at least five but not more than eight people (mega crew must have 15–40) and must perform a routine that showcases three styles of hip-hop dance.^[48] For the 2009 competition, there were 120 crews representing 30 countries.^[48] Within the world battles category, there are four world championship titles: three-on-three breaking champions, one-on-one popping champion, one-on-one locking champion, and one-on-one all styles (freestyle) champion. HHI also runs the USA Hip Hop Dance Championships and produces the television show America's Best Dance Crew.^[46]

• Juste Debout is a street dance competition founded in 2002 by Bruce Ykanji^[10] in Paris.^[49] Competition categories include popping, hip-hop (new style), locking, house, toprock, and experimental. Breaking is not included to put more focus on the hip-hop dance styles performed while standing up, hence the name (French for "Just Upright"). There are not any team trophies at Juste Debout. The experimental and toprock categories are only for solo dancers; popping, new style, locking, and house are for duos.^[49] Juste Debout also publishes a free bimonthly hip-hop dance magazine of the same name^[50] and runs a dance school in Paris that offers classes in hip-hop, house, and dancehall.

• United Dance Organization: World Street Dance Championships (UDO) is a street dance competition founded in 2002 in the United Kingdom.^[51] UDO also runs the European Street Dance Championships and the British Street Dance Championships. People can compete as solo dancers, in duos, in quads (four people), or in teams. Solo dancers compete in breaking, locking, popping, house, and krumping. UDO is endorsed by choreographers Ashley Banjo and Sisco Gomez and dancers Twist and Pulse and George Sampson.^[52]

• EuroBattle was founded in 2005 in Portugal. There are five competitive events for solo dancers: b-boying, b-girling, hip-hop, locking, and popping.^[53] The international final is held in Porto but the winner of the Spanish qualifying tournament also gets to compete at the UK B-Boy Championships in London.

• World Supremacy Battlegrounds is an international hip-hop dance competition based in Australia. The heritage of World Supremacy Battlegrounds goes back to 2002 when it began as GROOVE, a local hip-hop competition held in Sydney.^[54] Over the three years that followed, the competition was renamed Battlegrounds and went national to include dance crews from all over Australia.^[54] It became international in 2006 when crews from the Phillipines, Japan, and New Zealand entered the competition.^[54] There are four dance crew categories: open (any age), junior (12 and under), varsity (12–18), and monster (any age).^[55] A monster crew must have 20–40 members whereas the other crew categories only require 4–16. With the exception of Australia, almost all the of competing crews come from the Pacific Islands or countries located in Asia.^[56] For the 2011 competition, teams from Indonesia, Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, the Philippines, Japan, Guam, New Zealand, Samoa, and South Africa came to compete.^[55] World Supremacy Battlegrounds also host the Australian qualifier for the World Hip Hop Dance Championships (HHI).^[56]

• World of Dance Tour (WOD) is a traveling hip-hop dance competition founded in 2008 by Myron Marten and David Gonzales in Pomona, California.^[57] It differs from other competitions because there is no final championship. WOD travels to different cities in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom and holds a competition in each location; therefore, WOD distinguishes itself as a tour.^[58][59] Each event is a stand-alone competition; they are all related to each other in name only. For 2012 WOD will travel to New York, San Francisco, Seattle, Cardiff, Vancouver, Toronto, San Diego, Montreal, Boston, Manchester, Chicago, Honolulu, Los Angeles, and Birmingham (England).^[58][59]

Decades after breaking, locking, and popping became established, three new dance styles appeared. All of these styles are hip-hop because of the music driving the dances but some regions in the United States have their own hip-hop sound which contributes to the differences in these sub-styles. For example, the San Francisco Bay Area's hip-hop sound is referred to as "Hyphy" music and Hyphy led to the creation of turfing. Turfing, an acronym for Taking Up Room on the Floor, was created in 2002 by street dancer Jeriel Bey in Oakland, California.^[37] Turfing is a fusion of miming and gliding that places heavy emphasis on storytelling (through movement) and illusion. Other than San Francisco Bay Area pride, turfing avoided becoming a fad due to local turf dance competitions and local youth programs that promote turfing as a form of physical activity.^[60]

On the heels of its exposure, another dance style came out of Los Angeles called jerkin'. Jerkin' was popularized in 2009 by the New Boyz rap song "You're a Jerk"^[61][62] which went viral via their YouTube and MySpace pages^[61]: 3 before they had a manager or were signed to a record label. After hearing about the song, Los Angeles radio station Power 106 hired the New Boyz to perform at local high schools.^[61]: 2 These shows led to the song entering the radio's playlist.^[61]: 2 Later that year, rap duo Audio Push released the song and video "Teach Me How to Jerk" which showcased the different dance moves within jerkin' including the reject—the Running Man done in reverse.^[62][63] Dancers who perform jerking typically wear bright colors, skinny jeans, Mohawks, and Vans sneakers.^{[61]: 1, 5 [64]} This trend echos locking dancers in the 1970s who traditionally wore suspenders and black and white striped socks.^[12] Of the dance, journalist Jeff Weiss from LA Weekly stated "For a youth culture weaned on the cult of individualism, jerkin’ is its apotheosis."^[61] Similar to breaking, locking, and popping, jerkin's popularity spread through dance crews. For example, the Rej3ctz (crew) created the reject dance move.^{[61]: 2, 4}

Although these styles have generated regional support and media attention, both turfing and jerkin' have not reached the same zenith as krumping. Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis and Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti created krumping^[65] in the early 2000s in South Central, Los Angeles.^[66] It was only practiced in the Los Angeles metro area until it gained mainstream exposure by being featured in several music videos^[67] and showcased in the krumping documentary Rize. Rize was screened at several film festivals before being commercially released^{[note 4]} in the summer of 2005.^[68] Clowning,^{[note 5]} the less aggressive predecessor to krumping, was created in 1992 by Thomas "Tommy the Clown" Johnson.^[67] Johnson and his dancers would paint their faces and perform clowning for children at birthday parties or for the general public at other functions as a form of entertainment.^[67] In contrast, krumping focuses on highly energetic battles and movements which Johnson describes as intense, fast-paced, and sharp.^[67] "If movement were words, [krumping] would be a poetry slam."^[66] Compared to breaking and the funk styles, turfing, jerkin', and krumping are relatively new. The cultural similarities between these street dance styles, the funk styles, and breaking have brought them together under the same subculture of hip-hop.

The dance industry responded to hip-hop dance by creating a commercial version of it. This commercial dance or studio hip-hop, often called new style, is the kind of hip-hop dance seen in rap, R&B, and pop music videos and concerts. From the point of view of someone deeply immersed in hip-hop culture, anything that looks like hip-hop dance that did not come from the streets is not a true hip-hop dance form. In an interview with Dance magazine, choreographer and hip-hop dance teacher Emilio "Buddha Stretch" Austin, Jr explained his point-of-view:

There are a lot of jazz dancers out there doing pseudo hip hop. A lot of teachers don't know the history, they're just teaching the steps. They're learning from videos, but they don't know the culture. If all you see is Britney Spears, you think that's hip hop, but that's never been hip hop. It's completely watered down. And studios could [sic] care less, because hip hop is one of their biggest moneymakers.^[69]

Stage performance can suppress improvisation which defined hip-hop dance early in its development.^[1][69][70] Furthermore, meshing different dance styles together dissolves their structures and identities.^[1] In an interview with The Bronx Journal, choreographer and artistic director Safi Thomas expressed a similar qualm as Austin concerning hip-hop instruction within the studio:

In a lot of studios what you find is people just doing movement to hip-hop music. So if there's hip-hop music in the background, and they're moving, they're calling it a hip-hop class. The problem with that is let's say that I wanted to teach a ballet class, and I just come in, and I throw on Mozart, and I just start moving; and I'm not doing any of the foundational elements. I am not doing any of the movement vocabulary of ballet. I can not call that a ballet class and that's what happens in relation to hip-hop... within the studio realm there is no standard for the art form, and [the teachers] don't know what the foundational elements of the art are. They know nothing about popping, nothing about locking, nothing about boogaloo, breaking, or the hip-hop dance—the social dances—or any of that. They know none of the history which spans over 30–35 years, and so they cut off any type of edification a dancer can have.^[71]

Studio hip-hop (new style) is choreographed hip-hop social dancing. From a technical aspect, it is characterized as hard-hitting involving flexibility and isolations—moving a specific body part independently from others.^{[72][73]: 82} The feet are grounded,^[69]: 76 the chest is down,^[73]: 82 and the body is kept loose^[74] so that dancers can easily alternate between hitting the beat or moving through the beat. This is in contrast to ballet and ballroom dancing where the chest is upright and the body is stiff.^[74] Like African dance, new style hip-hop is very rhythmic and involves a lot of footwork and radial movement of the hips.^[72] In addition, emphasis is placed on musicality^[74]—how sensitive your movements are to the music—and being able to freestyle (improvise).^{[72][73]: 85} As long as dancers keep the foundational movements, they can add their own (free)style and have a performance that is still hip-hop.^[75] A significant juncture in the development of studio hip-hop was the addition of eight-counts, a method of counting dance steps to stay in sync with the music. Toni Basil introduced this studio technique into street dance in the 1970s. Basil was trained in ballet before being introduced to street dance by Don Campbell, the creator of the locking style of dance and founding member of The Lockers dance crew.^[12] She is responsible for teaching the rest of The Lockers how to dance to counts.^[32] In an interview with NPR, Lockers member Adolpho "Shabba Doo" Quiñones stated "I would say that Toni Basil was sort of our Abe Saperstein in terms of how she was able to organize us into a professional dance troupe. I remember her teaching us how to count music. She was like, okay, we were like, count music? How do you count soul? It was crazy, you know?... all of our cues kind of went something like this, boom, pop, do boom, pada da boom, pada like that. And she was like, how do you guys get in sync like that? I said it's a feeling, you know?"^[32] Traditionally hip-hop dance, or any form of street dance, is not performed to counts^[13][76] as these styles were created on the street rather than in a studio setting. So the introduction of counts was a pivotal move into bringing hip-hop dance from the street into the studio.

Another style the dance industry created in response to hip-hop was jazz-funk. Jazz-funk (also called street-jazz) is a hybrid of hip-hop and jazz dance.^[10] R&B singer Beyoncé uses this style.^[10] Although it borrows from hip-hop dance, it is not considered a style of hip-hop because the foundational movements are jazz. In hip-hop—even in lyrical hip-hop—there are no pirouettes, or arabesques, and dancers do not perform on relevé (on the balls of the feet). However, these methods are used in jazz-funk and in jazz dance in general.^[10] Dance studios responded to these developments by hiring classically trained dancers and offering hip-hop (new style) and jazz-funk dance classes. Large scale studios around the world that teach hip-hop and jazz-funk dance classes include Pineapple Studios (London), Millennium Dance Complex (Los Angeles), Broadway Dance Center (New York), Edge Performing Arts Center (Los Angeles), The Vibe – The International Hip Hop Dance Center (Oslo), Boogiezone (Los Angeles),^{[note 6]} Debbie Reynolds Dance Studios (Los Angeles), Sunshine Studios (Manchester), DREAM Dance Studio (Vancouver), Ones to Watch (Fukuoka & Hong Kong), 8 Count Dance Complex (Montreal), and KJD Dance Studio (Sydney).

Other developments in the dance industry occurred in response to the growing popularity of hip-hop. On the traveling convention circuit, there were tap, ballet, and jazz dance conventions, but there were none specifically for hip-hop. The same void existed in dancewear. There was dancewear for tap, ballet, and jazz dancers but none for hip-hop dancers. Monsters of Hip Hop and Nappytabs dancewear were formed to answer to both needs. Monsters of Hip Hop is the first dance convention dedicated exclusively to hip-hop instruction. It was founded in 2003 in Baltimore, Maryland by Andy Funk, Becky Funk, and Angie Servant.^[77] Choreographers Brian Friedman, Fatima Robinson, and Travis Payne have taught at this convention in the past.^[78][79] Nappytabs is the first line of hip-hop dancewear.^[80] Because the clothing is made for hip-hop dancers, they do not sell leotards, unitards, tights, or leg warmers. Their line consists of tank tops, shorts, t-shirts, sweat pants, and hoodies. Like Nappytabs, Threader responded to the demand for appropriate dancewear for hip-hop. Threader is an online distribution outlet for dance-inspired streetwear created by hip-hop choreographers and crews.^[81][82] It was founded in 2009 by Traci Copeland, Marc David, and choreographer Luam Keflezgy. Threader has distributed clothing for brands/dancers such as Poreotics, Wildchild,^{[note 7]} Beat Freaks, Dance2XS, and Laurie Ann Gibson.^[81][83]

Lyrical hip-hop is a fluid and more interpretive version of new style hip-hop often danced to downtempo rap music or R&B music. British hip-hop choreographer Kate Prince describes it as "hip-hop with emotion."^[59] It focuses more on choreography and performance and less on freestyling and battles. Lyrical hip-hop first gained mainstream exposure, and its name, on season four of the reality dance competition So You Think You Can Dance.^[84] The actual term is credited to Adam Shankman, a choreographer and judge on the program, who made a comment in reference to a routine choreographed by Tabitha and Napoleon D'umo to Leona Lewis' song "Bleeding Love".^[84] Due to Shankman's comment and their subsequent work on seasons four through seven, Tabitha and Napoleon are credited with developing this style.^{[85][86][87][88][89]} According to Dance Spirit magazine, what differentiates lyrical hip-hop from standard new style hip-hop is that dancers interpret the beat differently:

What makes lyrical hip hop unique is that your dance movements have to tell a story to the lyrics of a song. Expect isolations (especially of the chest), slow, fluid movements (like gliding and body waves) and contemporary-inspired turns (but not pirouettes). There’s popping, but not the hard-hitting kind. Dancers are meant to look like they’re unwinding, unraveling and floating.^[84]

Some hip-hop purists feel the interpretive and softer approach means lyrical hip-hop is not hip-hop at all.^[84] Others, such as hip-hop choreographer Shane Sparks, believe that it is hip-hop but not different enough for it to be in its own subgenre.^[84] Out of all the subgenres of hip-hop dance, lyrical hip-hop is the newest.

The entertainment industry has been largely responsible for introducing hip-hop dance to mainstream audiences. The first hip-hop films Wild Style, Beat Street, and Breakin' were made in the 1980s. Wild Style was the first movie centered around hip-hop culture; however, Flashdance was the first commercially released film to feature breaking.^{[note 8]} Breakin' and Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo brought the funk styles to the cinema. Breaking, locking, popping, and waacking—a style of house dance—were performed in these films.^[91] The United States was not the only country producing hip-hop films at this time. In 1985, Yuen Woo-ping directed a hip-hop themed romantic comedy in Hong Kong called Mismatched Couples starring Donnie Yen. Several hip-hop dance films were produced after the millennium. The Freshest Kids: A History of the B-Boy, Neukölln Unlimited, B-Girl, and Planet B-Boy all showcased breaking. Films such as Honey, Save the Last Dance, You Got Served, the Step Up film series, StreetDance 3D, and Saigon Electric showcased all forms of hip-hop dance, especially new style hip-hop. Rize, The Heart of Krump, and Shake City 101 are documentaries about krumping. These movies and documentaries are all examples of films where the plot and theme surround hip-hop dance and how it affects the characters' lives.

Before reaching movie audiences, hip-hop dance was already being broadcast on television. Soul Train, which premiered in 1970,^[92] was the earliest television show that showcased the funk styles on a consistent basis. Soul Train was a syndicated, music show that featured social dancing and performances by African American soul, funk, and R&B singers. During its 36 year run,^[32] the dancers were the highlight of the show.^[92] As a group, they were referred to as the Soul Train Gang. Auditions were held in 1971 when the show was moved from Chicago, Illinois to Los Angeles, California. Dancers who wanted to get on Soul Train after this time had to rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from dancers who were already employed by the show.^[93] A regular feature of the show was the Soul Train Line.^[94] During this segment, the dancers formed two lines facing each other which a large space in between them. Each dancer in line would take their turn dancing down the middle. A similar show to Soul Train was Solid Gold, which premiered in 1980.^[95] Solid Gold centered around dancing and music hits, and it employed a permanent dance troupe called the Solid Gold Dancers who performed choreographed routines to musical performances. Lucinda Dickey, an actress and dancer who played the lead role in the Breakin' films, appeared on the show during the 1982–1983 season as a Solid Gold dancer.^[95] The Fly Girls were another popular hip-hop dance troupe that was on television in the 1990s. They did not appear on a music television show however. They were on a sketch comedy series called In Living Color.^[96] They opened and closed every show with a hip-hop and jazz performance choreographed by Rosie Perez.^[96]

Several other hip-hop dance shows premiered in the 1990s and 2000s including Dance Fever, Dance 360, The Grind, The Wade Robson Project and Dance on Sunset. America's Best Dance Crew (ABDC) is a reality hip-hop dance competition created in 2008 by the founders of Hip Hop International, Howard and Karen Schwartz.^[48] On the show different crews compete in dance challenges against each other every week. ABDC has contributed to the exposure of Jabbawockeez, Quest, Kaba Modern, Beat Freaks, We Are Heroes, Fanny Pak, Poreotics, and I.aM.mE. These crews now have official websites, work with musical artists, and perform at live events. The JabbaWockeeZ had a show in Las Vegas, Nevada called MÜS.I.C. at the Monte Carlo Resort and Casino.^[97] MÜS.I.C. was the first hip-hop dance stage show on the Las Vegas Strip.^[97] As of May 2012, the show is stationed at the Jupiters Hotel and Casino in Gold Coast, Queensland, Australia.^[98] Both Poreotics and Hokuto "Hok" Konishi from Quest were nominated for a 2011 MTV Video Music Award for Best Choreography.^[99] Poreotics was nominated with singer Bruno Mars for his video "The Lazy Song". Hok was nominated for LMFAO's video "Party Rock Anthem"; the rest of Quest crew appeared in the video as featured dancers.^[99] Like Hok, Matt Cady from Fanny Pak choreographed French house group Yelle's double music video "Safari Disco Club/Que Veux-Tu". The rest of Fanny Pak appeared in the video as featured dancers.^[100]

In contrast to ABDC, individual dancers from all backgrounds compete in the reality dance competition So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD). It has a similar premise to the Idol series of singing competitions with initial auditions leading to the selection of a winner over the course of several episodes. In 2008, poppers Robert "Mr. Fantastic" Muraine and Phillip "Pacman" Chbeeb auditioned during season four. Neither made it to the final "Top 20", but the judges were so impressed with their dancing that both were invited back to participate in a popping battle against each other on the show's live finale. According to Muraine, this was the first popping battle that was nationally televised.^[101] After the battle, hip-hop dancer Joshua Allen was declared the winner of season four of the competition.^[102] The same year Mona-Jeanette Berntsen, a hip-hop dancer from Norway, won the first season of So You Think You Can Dance Scandinavia.^[103]

Hip-hop dance has also been popular worldwide among viewers of the Got Talent series. In 2006 French hip-hop dancer Salah won the first season of Incroyable Talent (Incredible Talent).^[104] French b-boy Junior won the second season in 2007.^[105] In 2008 hip-hop dancer George Sampson won Britain's Got Talent,^[106] popping and roboting duo Robot Boys won Talent 2008 (Denmark's Got Talent),^[107] and hip-hop dance crew Quick won the Norwegian version of the show.^[108] After George Sampson, street dance crew Diversity won the next season of Britain's Got Talent in 2009.^{[109][note 9]} The same year, Brazilian crew D-Efeitos won Qual é o Seu Talento? (What's Your Talent?).^[110] In 2010 Justice Crew won Australia's Got Talent.^[111] After being awarded a recording contract, Justice Crew shot a video for their single "Dance with Me" with ABDC alumni Beat Freaks.^[112]

Though hip-hop dancing is established on film and television, it has not gained the same level of exposure in theater. This may be due to the fact that the dance is performed more in film and television than it is in a theatrical setting.^[113] B-boy and popper Stefan "Mr. Wiggles" Clemente and hip-hop historian Jorge "Popmaster Fabel" Pabon were both involved in hip-hop theater at its inception. Their dance company, GhettOriginal, produced the first hip-hop stage shows: 1991's off Broadway musical So! What Happens Now? and 1995's Jam on the Groove.^[114][115] Both shows were performed by the Rock Steady Crew, Magnificent Force, and the Rhythm Technicians.^[116][117] Aside from the pioneers in New York City was Rennie Harris' Puremovement hip-hop theater company. Harris founded Puremovement in 1992 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[70] In 2008, Into the Hoods became the first hip-hop theater show to perform in London's West End.^[118] It eventually went on to become the West End's longest running dance show ever.^[119] According to Clemente, the future of hip-hop dance is in theater; he believes it is necessary for the dance to make this transition in order for it to be legitimized as an art form.^[13]

YAK Films is a three man team that films urban dance videos around the world. It was founded in Oakland, CA by Yoram Savion and Kash Grimes.^[120][121] Their first videos were of the Turf Feinz dance crew performing turfing—a regional hip-hop dance style from Oakland.^[122] After generating significant views on YouTube, they started YAK (Yoram And Kash) films and added music producer Ben "B'zwax" Tarquin to the team.^[121][120] From shooting videos only in the United States, they were able to easily move into covering dance events in Europe due to Savion's dual French citizenship.^[120] In 2009, they filmed Battle of the Year's first one-on-one b-boy competition and in 2010 they filmed dance battles at Juste Debout.^[122] In addition to filming dance events and original freestyle performances, they post dance tutorials and upload a weekly webisode series called "YAK Like You Know".^[121] Some of their more popular videos have been featured in Oakland Local^[123] and the Huffington Post.^[124][125]

Juba Films was founded in Germany by Julien Budorovits and Gia Bao Tu.^[126] Rather than film freestyle content, Juba ("Ju"lien and "Ba"o) produces short films with a storyline. For their short b-boy film "More Than Bread" they won first place at the 7th International Online Dance Festival in 2011.^[126] Juba is now a four man team with photographer Michael "Hilli" Hildebrandt and music producer Vincent Lee. Although Juba Films has won an award and YAK Films has booked high-profile events, they are not the only film production teams distributing hip-hop dance videos on the Internet. House of Crews, Strife TV, and CanalStreet TV also produce high-quality freestyle dance content. CanalStreet.tv is owned by Canal+, a French premium television channel. All of the film companies mentioned have channels on YouTube and/or Vimeo.

The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers (The LXD) is a good-versus-evil themed web series about a group of dancers who discover they have super powers through their dance moves.^{[127][note 10]} Each character specializes in one dance style; consequently, a wide range of styles are displayed including krumping, tutting, breaking, locking, boogaloo, and popping.^[127][128] The majority of the dancing shown in the series is hip-hop; however, other styles have also been showcased including contemporary and ballet.^[129] AdvertisingAge.com gave the series a favorable review stating "...each episode of 'LXD' packs a wealth of narrative sophistication into its eight or nine minutes. Combine this with the theater-worthy production values and a cast that exerts itself to an ungodly extent, and the end result is – pun time! – extraordinary."^[130] The LXD premiered July 7, 2010 on Hulu.^[131]

In 2004, Safi Thomas founded the Hip-Hop Dance Conservatory (HHDC) in New York City.^[71] Thomas' goal was to provide a comprehensive education to hip-hop dancers that was comparable to what ballet, modern, and jazz dancers experience at their respective institutions.^[132] HHDC provides a formal curriculum with dance classes (breaking, freestyle, locking, etc.) and academic classes (dance theory, physiology, kinesiology, etc.) to people who want to pursue hip-hop dance as a career.^[71][133] It is the only educational institution in the United States that is exclusively dedicated to hip-hop dance instruction.^[133] HHDC does not grant degrees. It is a non-profit organization and repertory company that grants certifications to dancers that complete the three-year program.^[71]

Three years later in 2007, the University of East London's Institute for Performing Arts Development (IPAD) started intake for the only bachelor's degree program in the world specializing in hip-hop, urban, and global dance forms.^[134] The IPAD's program is also three years, but unlike HHDC, it is not exclusive to hip-hop. Students also study African dance, kathak, Bollywood, capoeira, and contemporary.^[135]

• Street dance
• House dance
• Waacking

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