The history of street dance

I defined the feature of street dance in following article. Today, I will tell you the history of street dance. Such as how to birth street dance, how to evolved street dance and so on.

The history of street dance is said to be divided into two eras.These are Old school and New school. Almost all of roots of street dance is African American culture namely, hip hop culture. Keep your mind that hip hop dance is one part of hip hop culture. Hip hop dance is categorized into New school.

In Old school, there are B-boying, Locking, Popping etc.

B-boying is frequently called Break dance or Breaking but these names are not actually correct. B-boying was born in the South Bronx of New York in the early 1970's. In the beginning, B-boying is called Good Foot (It is the name of James Brown's hit tune.). Good Foot was different from B-boying in that Good foot didn't include acrobatic move. The middle of 1970's Good Foot became to called "boie-oie-oings". It is the base of today's B-boying, but it does not include acrobatic move too. The last 1970's, Puerto Rican young dancers revolutionized B-boying. They started acrobatic move in B-boying like Windmill.

Locking and Popping are less popular than B-boying but many people love them.

Locking was born in Los Angeles in 1960's. It was perfected by "The Lockers". The roots of Locking is said Robot dance. In 1969, an African American young man became famous with his dance. His name was Don Campbell, and his dance was Campbell Lock. Campbell Lock was new in all point, it's move was unique and comical. In 1970, Don Campbell formed The Lockers. Their style was amusing and unique so many people were attracted by them.

Popping was born in Los Angeles in 1960's. It was created by ELECTRIC BOOGALOO. The roots of Popping is said Robot dance. As you may recognize, Locking and Popping is like brothers. But Popping's move is stranger than Locking's one. I'll give you the video of Popping. check it out.



In New school, there are Hip hop, House, etc.

Hip hop has roots in all street dances. It means that Hip hop is free and it is difficult to define hip hop. Hip hop dance's history is with Hip hop culture. So, I cannot tell you who started Hip hop dance but certainly African Americans in down town made it.

House is dance which uses house music.
It has many roots like Hip hop. So, it is difficult to define its history but there is information about House in Wikipedia.

The major source in house dance movement steams directly from the music and the elements within the music such as Jazz, African, Latin, Soul, R&B, Funk, Hip Hop, etc. The other source is the people, the individuals and their characteristics, ethnicities, origin, etc. You have people of all walks of life partying under one roof. Thus you have exchanges of information (body language) house dance is a social dance before these competitions.

As you recognize, House is not effected by only African American culture. It is a cause of its popularity.

Today, I told you history of some street dances. In my 4th article, I'll tell you features of these styles in detail. Don't miss it!

Defining Features of Street Dance

Street dance is so exciting and very deep.

I'll define features of street dance in this article.

What is street dance?

Many people may imagine hiphop or B-boying.

These dance styles are typical street dance.

In Wikipedia, street dance is introduced as following

Street dances, more formally known asvernacular dance, are dance styles that evolved outside of dance studios in anyavailable open space, such as streets, dance parties, block parties, parks,school yards, raves, and nightclubs. They are often improvisational and socialin nature, encouraging interaction and contact with spectators and the otherdancers. These dances generally evolve out of urban and suburban spaces and area part of the vernacular culture of that geographical area. Some examples ofstreet dance include B-boying (or breakdancing), which originated in New YorkCity, and　Melbourne Shuffle which originated inMelbourne, Australia.

As it say, street dance is one of the great communication tool among young people.

In fact, I made friends with many people through out street dance.

Street dance is as it name suggest, done on street.
Early street dancers thought as they are first dancers who dance on street but in fact there had been some dances done on street like "cross road dance"  in Ireland.

Street dance is based on African American's musics and dances.

So, there is influence from traditional African dances.

Today, many African Americans love street dance.

When you compare street dance to other dance categories like ballet, social dance and so on...

　・Street dance is a new category of dances.

　・Coolness is attached high value in street dance.

　・Street dance is mainly danced on beat.

　・Street dance is free.Its moves are not too decided.

　・You can use any musics in street dance.

　・Street dance evolve between people in a social environment.

The bottom is the most important feature of street dance.

Street dances are dances that evolve betweenpeople in a social environment, although it cannot be always determined as tohow they actually do evolve between people. In theory, as one person comes upwith a move that apparently looks good to another person, that other persontries to copy that move. Similar to chinese whispers, the effect is that theother person cannot absolutely perform that move the same way as the otherperson, thus leading to the dancer to create their own style or entirely newmoves based on it. There is a small difference between entirely freestyle(improvisational) dance and an absolute street dance. While freestyle dance israndom and a personal dance invented by a single person (even if it's based onsomeone else's dance style), a full street dance is a collection of the varioussimilar dance moves and styles collected into one practice and regarded as thesame dance. For example, when b-boying evolved out of early hip-hop culture,people came up with their own moves, and other people improved them. Streetdances constantly evolve for as long as they are intermittently practiced andregarded as the same dance. All the moves danced to breaks in hip-hop culturewas regarded as b-boying.(Wikipedia)

Sometimes it is possible to trace backstreet dance styles that were mostly pioneered by specific persons. One exampleis Locking, which is often regarded as being started by Don Campbell, who was a1970s pioneer of American street dance. Most of the time it is impossible tocredit specific people for street dances, since the dances evolve outside ofprofessional dance environments, whereby there is no social and/or legalrecord. Street/vernacular dance pioneers also rarely have professional degreesin dance, thus distinguishing street dance from other modern dance forms. (Wikipedia)

As stated above, street dance is unique and always new.

Isn't it exciting?

This video is my favorite one :)

Check it out!

I think they are the coolest dancers and the coolest twins.