Main Styles
This list gives a general overview of the main hip-hop dance styles: breaking, locking, and popping.
Theses styles are the oldest and most established of all the hip-hop dances.
Breaking
Breaking was created in the Bronx, New York during the early 1970s.
While Black Americans are responsible for creating breaking it was the Latinos that kept the momentum of breaking alive when it was considered "played out" in the late '70s.
Due to this status, it is considered the purest form of hip-hop dance.
Breaking includes four foundational dances: toprock, footwork oriented steps performed while standing up; downrock, footwork performed on the floor using the hands to support your weight; freezes, stylish poses done on your hands; and power moves, difficult and impressive acrobatic moves.
Locking
Locking, originally called Campbellocking, was created in Los Angeles by Don Campbell and introduced to the country by his crew The Lockers. Locking looks similar to popping and thus frequently gets confused with popping. In locking a dancer holds their positions longer. The lock is the primary move used in locking. A dancer can do one or the other but not both at the same time. The Lockers were composed of a prior smaller group of lockers and robot dancers.
Popping
Popping was created by Sam Solomon in Fresno, California and performed by his crew the Electric Boogaloos. It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit. Each hit should be synchronized to the rhythm and beats of the music. Popping is also used as an umbrella term to refer to a wide range of 10+ other closely related illusionary dance styles such as strobing, liquid, animation, and waving that are often integrated with standard popping to create a more varied performance.