Dance Fever

The dance style primarily associated with hip hop is breaking, which appeared in New York City during the early 1970s and truly became a cornerstone (or "element") of hip hop as a culture. Funk styles, such as popping and locking, evolved separately in California in the 1960-70s, but were also integrated into hip hop when the culture reached the West Coast of the United States.

Though breaking and the original funk styles look quite different stylistically, they share many surrounding elements, such as their improvisational nature, the music they're danced to and the way they originated from the streets, mainly within black and Hispanic communities. These similarities helped bring them, and other street dance styles, together under the same sub-culture, and help to keep them alive and evolving today. Yet, this has not been without problems, often involving the media, such as when the movie Breakin' put all various styles under the label "breakdance", causing a great naming confusion that spawned many heated debates.

In the late 1980s, as hip hop music took new forms and the hip hop subculture established further, new dance styles began appearing. Most of them were danced in an upright manner in contrast to breaking with its many ground moves, and were in the beginning light-footed with lots of jumping. Some moves hit the mainstream and became fad dances, such as The Wop, The Prep, The Running Man, The Cabbage Patch, The Fila, The Pee Wee Herman, The Smurf, The Gucci, and The Roger Rabbit, but overall they contributed a lot to later hip hop styles, and heavily influenced the development of house dancing. Just as common as it was for a MC to be accompanied by a deejay some MC's had back up dancers that danced while the MC rapped over beats. The most notable back up dancers in the 80's were Big Daddy Kane's dancers, Scoob and Scrap. Rappers also got in on the dancing as music videos became increasingly popular. While some rappers like MC Hammer made more of a splash with their moves than their rhymes other rappers would perform simple choreographed routines to their songs. Remember the "Shake Your Thang" video? Check it out and see how many dances you remember and start practicing your moves and join us at the FRESHEST party of the year!!