History

Hip⁃hop dance originated in New York among young Hispanic and African⁃American men during the late 1960s as part of the hip⁃hop culture of rap,scratch music,and graffiti art.The dance is always changing but essentially embraces the two styles of break dance and body popping.The former is an athletic solo form in which the performer enters the dance arena in a sideways motion then dives or breaks to the floor,spins around on his head,shoulders,or buttocks and ends with a freeze position.Body popping involves a series of fast,sharp actions that travel through the body in a robotic⁃looking alternation of move and freeze.

Way back in the 1970s,kids brought their beat boxes to the street corner and engaged in public dance⁃offs that had them spinning on their heads,slamming their backs against the pavement and popping their joints in and out,a series of improbable moves that they called breaking.By the 1980s,hip⁃hop music gained in popularity and dance steps characterized with bouncing and jumping sprang up.