What Is Street Dance?

• Posted Sunday, 10 September 2023
• By Natalie, Founder & Director

Street Dance is a genre of dance that Live Love Perform offers, but have you ever wondered about the history of Street Dance?

The History Of Street Dance

Street Dance has developed naturally with cultural times. Meaning it is particularly interpretive and social by nature, it often encourages interaction between the audience. Street Dance began around 1970 in New York City. It covers a variety of dance styles and is the host to styles such as popping, locking, krumping and waving.

Street Dance originated as an expression of resistance to identify out of the mainstream standards. With its energetic nature, Street Dance is often popular with children, it can be used as an art form, a tool for expression, a competitive activity, in the form of ‘dance offs’ or just for physical exercise. Read our blog on the benefits of Street Dance for more information!

Street Dance Genres

Street Dance genre is often split into ‘old-school’ and ‘new-school’. Old-school street dance hosts techniques such as popping, locking and break dancing. Whereas ‘new-school’ street dance considers hip hop, house and techno.

Attributes Of Street Dance

• Movements can be isolated to a specific body part, meaning movements have sharp changes of direction and focus
• Accented beats and syncopated rhythms are paired with strong movements from the centre of the body and sharp movements with the elbows.
• The ground is important in Street Dance. Downward and ground movements are often paired with quick, short steps
• Dancers are required to think ‘from the floor up’ to allow energy to travel throughout the body

Street Dance Moves

• Body and arm waves: Using movement to express a wave through the body
• Freezes: Stopping movement in a controlled and balanced way
• Glides and slides: a collection of movements through your body and feet that create an illusion of movement that you are moving across a space
• Isolations: Snappy yet rhythmic movement of specific parts of the body whether this be your head or hands

Street Dance Facts

• There are limited rules to Street Dance, it is a genre of dance where emphasis is placed on improvisation and freestyle
• There is usually a ‘dance off’ or ‘dance battle’ element within the dance style - it can be informal or used in competition
• Street Dance is a heavy influence of pop culture and is often used in music videos and television

Why don’t you give one of our Street Dance classes a go today?