Thursday, December 20, 2012

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!

5 comments:

  1. I read your blog and watched videos. It was so cool. I want to know some acrobatic move, so I`m looking for the article.

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    1. Thank you for your comment. :) I'll give you so cool and acrobatic video of B-boying next week!

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    2. Hi Yuki, I hope you read this. I am moving to Tsukuba soon and i was wondering if you are still into funk style dances and if you know where i can train with a crew or other interested people. I was very active in the past in popping and locking but I stopped for the last 5 years. But in Tsukuba I would like to start training again. Thank you in advance

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  2. thank you this really helped with my homework

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  3. Thank you it also helped with my Homework

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