Origins Of Street Dance Styles

Street dance relates to dance styles that have a strong element of improvisation in their steps, routines or moves, it is a dance style that can be performed in groups or by individuals. Popular examples of Streetdance include Breakdancing, Melbourne Shuffle and Tecktronik.

Breakdancing (or B-boying) developed as part of Hip Hop culture in 1970s New York and can be danced to hip hop or other musical genres that contain prolonged musical breaks. Street corner DJs would play rhythmic break beats by mixing and looping records, whilst dancers would usually perform during the musical/rhythmic breakdown sections. The performances turned into impromptu competition or ‘battles’ between individual dancers or groups of dancers known as crews, as they try to outperform each other with a series of more complex moves. Organised battles have evolved into a number of competitions that take place around the world as the dance genre gained popularity and has given rise to street dancewear fashion.

The Melbourne Shuffle originated from the underground music scene in Australia during the 1980s and is danced to electronic music. Tecktronik is also known as Electro Dance, and as the name suggests this type of dance is performed to electro house music. Having originated from Parisian suburbs in 2000s, Tecktronik evolved from blending of different dance styles including disco, hip hop and freehand glowsticking. The original Tecktronik dance features controlled movement with very few hand and feet movements, whilst the modern version (Electro Dance) is characterised by its improvised nature, that is faster with a lot more of the ‘free’ hand and feet movement. The growth of street dancing has been helped predominantly because it is a fun hobby and by the popularity of the associated music, films and increasingly the internet (YouTube) which has helped spread dance shoes online by helping dance moves cross borders instantaneously.

The popularity of these new modern dance forms and the mutual appreciation of dancers regardless of their genres is indicated through the dance films that have highlighted the cross over between dance genres. Following hot on the heels of dance films such as ‘Save the Last Dance’, ‘Step Up’ and ‘Stomp the Yard’, a UK film called Streetdance 3D was launched in 2010 as an uplifting and ground breaking movie featuring some of the best UK dance artists including Britain’s Got Talent winners Diversity and Flawless. Streetdance 3D is a story that combined students of classical ballet and streetdancers into a team for a dance competition entwined in a classical tale of betrayal and friendship.