Why Is it Called Hip Hop Dance?

The name of hip hop dance is two slang terms put together:

• “Hip” is a word that means something that is “current” or “up with the times”
• “Hop” refers to a hopping kind of movement

Let’s take a look at the evolution of what is called hip hop dance and how it came to have this name.

The person who first used the phrase “hip hop” was Keith "Cowboy" Wiggins, who performs with Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.  He had a friend who had just joined the Army and he scat sang the words “hip hop” to mimic the rhythm of marching soldiers.

Later, he used the rhythmic cadence in part of his stage show.  When his group performed with disco artists, they would refer to the group as “hip hoppers” and eventually it came to mean a new kind of music and dancing.

So hip hop dancing is called that because it is a new way of dancing and it has hopping kinds of steps in it.  It is part of a culture that has been around for decades.  Let’s look at hip hop dance from its beginnings to the present day.  

History of Hip Hop Dance

In the early 1970s, the hip hop culture was beginning in the ghettos of New York City.  In hip hop, the rhythm is everything, from the particular beat of the music to the body movements of the dancers.  Some slang terms became the titles of dance forms, like rockin’ and breakin’:

• Rock could mean rock the microphone, rock the dance floor, or rock the game.
• Break could mean a response to an insult or the part of the music where the rhythms were especially driving and aggressive. So during the breaks, the dancers would show their stuff.  When a DJ had two turntables, he could do longer breaks.
• Terms b-boy and b-girl meant break boy or break girl.

Hip hop dance is a combination of dances from both coasts, New York City hip hop combined with west coast funk.  Hip hop dance borrows dance movements from many sources:

• African and Native American dances
• Charleston
• Tap
• Lindy Hop
• Salsa
• Martial Arts

If a dancer was doing moves mostly standing up, it was top rockin’.  If he was doing a lot of fancy footwork, it was floor rockin’.  Dance routines also had freezes, which could show the dancer’s control and power.

Forms of Hip Hop Dance

To better understand why this style is called hip hop dance, it is important to look at some of the dance forms in hip hop dance.

One very popular dance form was Brooklyn Uprocking which developed during the late 1960s and the early 1970s.  It was like a contest between two dance groups.  Sometimes they stood in a line facing each other called Apache lines.  One of the main movements used was called jerking.  The main goal of Brooklyn Uprocking was to humiliate the other team.  This meant wit, finesse, endurance, and lots of freezes, turns, jumps, drops, and rapid movements.

Some of the dance forms came from the west coast, like locking and popping.

• Locking was a dance form that came out of Los Angeles.  In this style, it appears that your joints have locked. This dance combines sharp lines with elastic-like movements.
• Popping also originated in Los Angeles.  Popping refers to a sudden muscle contraction which gives a jolting effect to the dancer’s movements.

You can see why hip hop dance is called that, with forms like locking, popping, and rockin’.

The 1970s and beyond have seen the rise of graffiti art and rap music.  Rap grew from hip hop and also outside of it.  The emcees would speak in rhythms over the music and that is basically what rap music is.  Breaking, or break dancing, also started in New York City.  The 1980s and beyond have seen gangsta rap as the main expression of hip hop.