💃 Hip-hop
🌎 the Bronx, New York
⌛️ 1960s
Hip-hop dance began during the late 1960s and early 1970s, originally
inspired by the movements of African dancing, and flourished as a new
style of dance performed on the street, for the people. The early
history and roots of hip-hop dance are most often associated with its
beginning on the East Coast, specifically New York City. But the West
Coast also formed its own style of the East Coast hip-hop dance around
the same time. East Coast hip-hop began with the unique rhythmic
combinations created by Kool DJ Herc, a Jamaican DJ who moved to
Brooklyn at the age of 12 and quickly became one of the most popular
DJ’s of New York City. DJ Herc ingeniously thought to extend dance
sections of songs to create better opportunities to showcase the
breaking movements of dancers. West Coast hip-hop took the dance style
from the East Coast and made it its own, transforming some of the
frozen moves and making them more robotic. The West Coast was also
where two of modern hip-hops most iconic styles, popping and locking,
were born.
