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La Hip Hop

FOR 5 YEARS OLD AND ABOVE 

Hip-hop dance is a broad category that includes a variety of styles. The older dance styles that were created in the 1970s include uprock, breaking, and the funk styles. Breaking was created in The Bronx, New York, incorporating dances that were popular in the 1960s and early 1970s in African-American and Latino communities. In its earliest form, it began as elaborations on James Brown's "Good Foot" dance which came out in 1972. Breaking at this period was not primarily floor-oriented as seen today; it started out as toprockwhich dancers perform while standing up. An influence on toprock was up rock which was created in Brooklyn, New York. Uprock looks similar to toprock, but it is more aggressive and looks like a fight. Uprock is also performed with partners, but in toprock—and in breaking in general—each person takes turns dancing. In 1973, DJ Kool Hercinvented the break beat. A break beat is a rhythmic, musical interlude of a song that has been looped over and over again to extend that instrumental solo. Kool Herc did this to provide a means for dancers who attended his parties to demonstrate their skills. B-boy and b-girl stands for "break-boy" and "break-girl"; b-boys and b-girls dance to the break of a record. Further influenced by martial arts and gymnastics, breaking went from being a purely upright dance style—toprock only—to becoming more floor-oriented.

© The Performing Arts School ( Johor ) by La Ballerina Performing Arts Studio 2009

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