History of History of hip-hop dance in Timeline

1932

The most recognizable popping move is the moonwalk. In 1983, Michael Jackson performed the moonwalk—called the backslide in popping context — on ABC's Motown 25 television special. This performance popularized the moonwalk all over the world. However, it was not the first time the backslide had been performed on television or on film. Cab Calloway performed the backslide in 1932, and Bill Bailey performed it in the movies Cabin in the Sky (1943) and Rhythm and Blues Revue (1955). Furthermore, in 1982 during a performance in London on Top of the Pops, street dancer Jeffrey Daniel performed the backslide during the song "A Night to Remember".

1960

The Charleston was created in the 1920s by African-Americans in Charleston, South Carolina as a rebellion against prohibition. It gained popularity once it was embraced by Caucasians, but it was still considered an immoral dance due to its association with alcohol. This dance relied on partnering and eventually led to the creation of Lindy Hop. Lindy Hop and the Charleston fall under the swing dance genre; however, there is a dance move used in breaking that is taken from the Charleston called the Charlie rock. Singer-songwriter Chubby Checker released the song "The Twist" with an accompanying dance of the same name in 1960. He performed the dance on the television show American Bandstand, and the song reached number one in 1960 and 1962. The Twist was the most popular dance craze of the 1960s because it broke away from the trend of partner dancing enabling people to perform on their own.

1969

Roboting comes from Richmond, California. Before joining The Lockers, Charles Robot had his own dance crew called The Robot Brothers. He was inspired in 1969 by Robert Shields of Shields and Yarnell, then-a young street artist performing his robotic movements in front of the Hollywood Wax Museum. On October 27, 1973, The Jackson 5 performed "Dancing Machine" on Soul Train, which popularized roboting, but this was not the first time the dance had been performed on the show. Charles Robot had performed roboting on Soul Train two years earlier with his dance partner Angela Johnson.

1970

In 1970, Don Cornelius created Soul Train. Before officially becoming a crew, members of The Lockers made several appearances on this show. They introduced different dance moves such as the Robot, Which-Aways, and the Stop-and-Go during the "Dance of the Week" segment of the broadcast. Disco was very popular during the 1970s, so some dance styles at that time such as waacking and hustle stemmed from disco music rather than funk. Hip-hop became more mainstream in the 1980s, and this surge in interest combined with the popularity of Soul Train kick-started the rise of hip-hop social dancing.

1973

Like breaking, the different moves within the funk styles occurred due to the formation of crews. Don "Campbellock" Campbell created locking, and in 1973 founded The Lockers (originally called The Cambellock Dancers) in Los Angeles. Locking is characterized by consistently freezing or "locking" in place while dancing. Campbell developed locking accidentally while pausing in between dance moves when trying to remember how to do the Funky Chicken. He developed routines based on his new style using these pauses or "locks." Chang lists some of the other dance moves performed in locking, including "...points, skeeters, scooby doos, stop 'n go, which-away, and the fancies."

1975

Jelon Vieira and Loremil Machado brought capoeira to the United States in 1975. Throughout this decade Vieira taught capoeira workshops in New York City and started a capoeira performance company called Dance Brazil that toured across the United States. In Gerard Taylor's Capoeira: The Jogo de Angola from Luanda to Cyberspace (2005), master capoeira teacher Mestre Acordeon is quoted as saying: "Demonstrations by Mestre Jelon [Vieira] and Loremil Machado are considered by many to be responsible for the incorporation of capoeira movements into breakdancing." Former Village Voice reporter Sally Banes and her colleague, photographer Martha Cooper, witnessed breaking in 1980 while covering Henry Chalfant's photography exhibit of subway graffiti. She wrote of the dance: "Its spatial level called to mind capoeira, the spectacular Brazilian dance cum martial art form that incorporates kartwheels, kicks, and feints low to the ground, but the two were dissimilar enough in shape and timing that capoeira seemed at most only a distant relative, and certainly one the breakdancers weren't acquainted with—at least on a conscious level." In his book Hip Hop Had a Dream (2008), Damien Morgan states: "Breakdancing can have its origins in capoeira, because it does not focus on injuring the opponent; it rather emphasizes skill towards your opponent, to express yourself away from violence... in most cases, it is blatantly obvious to see some of Breakdancing's foundations in Capoeira."

1976

In the 1970s, while Los Angeles was known for locking and Fresno was known for popping, several other cities in Northern California had their own local funk styles. Sacramento was known for a style called sac-ing, San Jose for dime stopping, and Oakland for snake hitting. The San Francisco crew Granny and Robotroid incorporated stepping moves and JROTC rifle drill movements in their dancing to make a unique funk style called Fillmore strutting. This dance was named after the Fillmore district in San Francisco where Granny and Robotroid were from. Granny and Robotroid performed on the Gong Show in 1976. Although strutting had exposure on national television, it (and the rest of the localized funk styles) faded and never became mainstream.

1976

The Lockers made several appearances on Soul Train —the song-and-dance television program featuring funk music, soul music, disco, R&B, and social dancing. They also appeared on The Carol Burnett Show, The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Dick Van Dyke Show, and Saturday Night Live. Three original members of The Lockers were Toni Basil, who doubled as the group's manager; Charles "Charles Robot" Washington, a pioneer of roboting; and Fred "Mr. Penguin" Berry, who played the character of Rerun on the television show What's Happening!!. Berry left the group in 1976 to be on the show and was replaced by street dancer Tony "Go-Go" Lewis. After The Lockers disbanded, Tony Go-Go went on to open a locking school in Japan in 1985.

1977

B-boys Jamie "Jimmy D" White and Santiago "Jo Jo" Torres founded Rock Steady Crew (RSC) in 1977 in the Bronx. Along with Dynamic Rockers and Afrika Bambaataa's Mighty Zulu Kings, they are one of the oldest continually active breaking crews. For others to get into the crew, they had to battle one of the Rock Steady b-boys—that was their audition, so to speak. The crew flourished once it came under the leadership of b-boy Richard "Crazy Legs" Colón. Crazy Legs opened a Manhattan chapter of the crew and made his friends and fellow b-boys Wayne "Frosty Freeze" Frost and Kenneth "Ken Swift" Gabbert co-vice presidents. RSC was instrumental in the spread of breaking's popularity beyond New York City. They appeared in Wild Style and Beat Street—1980s films about hip-hop culture—as well as in the movie Flashdance. They also performed at the Ritz, at the Kennedy Center, and on the Jerry Lewis Telethon. In 1981, the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts hosted a breaking battle between Dynamic Rockers and Rock Steady Crew. The Daily News and National Geographic covered this event. In 1982, their manager Ruza "Kool Lady" Blue organized the New York City Rap Tour, which featured Rock Steady Crew, Afrika Bambaataa, Cold Crush Brothers, the Double Dutch Girls, and Fab 5 Freddy. This tour traveled to England and France, which spread hip-hop culture to those countries. In 1983, they performed for Queen Elizabeth II at the Royal Variety Performance. The following year, they recorded a song titled "(Hey You) The Rock Steady Crew", which was commercially released. RSC now has satellite crews based in Japan, the United Kingdom, and Italy.

1977

Boogaloo is a freestyle, improvisational street dance movement of soulful steps and robotic movements which make up the foundations of Popping dance and Turfing; Boogaloo can incorporate illusions, restriction of muscles, stops, robot and/or wiggling. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s - Boogaloo groups in Oakland, CA such as One Plus One, the Black Resurgents and the Black Messengers would help popularize the dance. Boogaloo street dance from Oakland would influence Northern California cities and movements would spread to Fresno via the West Coast Relays. In Fresno, The Electric Boogaloos are another funk styles crew founded in Fresno in 1977 by Sam "Boogaloo Sam" Solomon, Nate "Slide" Johnson, and Joe "Robot Joe" Thomas. Their name was originally The Electric Boogaloo Lockers, but they dropped "Lockers" the following year at the urging of their manager Jeff Kutash after the group moved from Fresno to Long Beach. Boogaloo Sam is credited with innovating popping from earlier boogaloo movements done in Oakland, CA. However, there is disagreement as to whether he created the dances himself or borrowed moves from other street dancers. What is not contested is how influential he and his crew were in exposing popping and boogaloo to mainstream audiences.

1980

Chain Reaction was a four-man dance crew from Reseda, California, whose members included Thomas "T-Bopper" Guzman-Sanchez, Paul "Cool Pockets" Guzman-Sanchez, Robert "Bosco" Winters, and Mike "Deuce" Donley. Just like The Electric Boogaloos had their own signature dance style called electric boogaloo, Chain Reaction also had their own signature dance style called crossover locking. They performed on the talk show Thicke of the Night and in the movie Xanadu. Xanadu premiered in 1980, four years earlier than the hip-hop dance classics Beat Street and Breakin'. Xanadu was the first time boogaloo, popping, and crossover locking were performed on film. In 1984, T-Bopper created a new dance crew called United Street Force. By invitation, this crew performed at the White House for President Ronald Reagan.

1990

Hip-hop social dancing (party dancing) began when hip-hop musical artists started to release songs with an accompanying dance. In 1990, rapper MC Hammer created the Hammer dance and popularized it in his music video "U Can't Touch This". The Hammer dance was a social dance that became wildly popular and then faded as the album it was associated with, Please Hammer, Don't Hurt 'Em, lost popularity. Most social dances are short-lived fad dances, some are line dances, and others spawn new dance styles that stay relevant even after the life of the songs they came from come to an end. The development of hip-hop social dancing extends further back than the 1990s with the Charleston, a jazz dance; Chubby Checker's Twist, which was considered rock & roll; several 1970s fad dances made popular by James Brown; and the influence of the television show Soul Train.

1996

DJ Willie "Casper" Perry created the song "Cha Cha Slide" in 1996 for a personal trainer in his hometown Chicago. It did not get commercial airplay until 2000 when Chicago radio station WGCI-FM started playing the song as part of its rotation. Soon after, other radio stations across the United States also started playing the song, and this increase in popularity led to a record deal with Universal Music Group. After securing a deal, the label began producing and distributing instructional videos of the dance to nightclubs, which helped spread its popularity. On February 20, 2011, dancers in Anaheim, California set a Guinness world record when 2,387 people performed the dance at the Anaheim Convention Center.

2006

DJ Troy "Webstar" Ryan and Bianca "Young B" Dupree released the song "Chicken Noodle Soup" in 2006. The dance was so popular, at one point YouTube had over 2,000 video clips of kids performing it. The song sold 335,000 ringtones, but it was not strong enough to sustain momentum for the full length album "Webstar Presents: Caught in the Web", which was not successful. For this reason, the Chicken Noodle Soup song and dance faded. The Dougie comes from Dallas, Texas. The dance was named after the 1980s rapper Doug E. Fresh and popularized in the 2010 song "Teach Me How to Dougie" by the rap group Cali Swag District. According to the Wall Street Journal, the Dougie has been particularly popular as a celebratory dance among professional athletes. In 2010, CNN news anchor Wolf Blitzer performed the Dougie at the Soul Train Music Awards.

2007

Crews still form based on friendships and neighborhoods. For example, dance crew Diversity—formed in 2007 —consists of brothers and friends from Essex and London. Crews also form for other reasons such as theme (Jabbawockeez), gender (ReQuest Dance Crew), ethnicity (Kaba Modern), dance style (Massive Monkeys), and age (Hip Op-eration). In 2013, Hip Op-eration performed an exhibition routine at the World Hip Hop Dance Championships in Las Vegas. At the time, their youngest member was 66.

February 2007

The song "Cupid Shuffle" was released in February 2007 by singer Bryson "Cupid" Bernard from Lafayette, Louisiana. In August 2007, 17,000 people set a world record when they performed the Cupid Shuffle (dance) to his song in Atlanta. The Soulja Boy dance became popular through MySpace when rapper DeAndre "Soulja Boy" Way posted his song "Crank That" to his MySpace page and uploaded an accompanying instructional video showing viewers how to perform the dance. After amassing more than 16 million page views, he was signed to Interscope Records.

2009

In the 1970s, b-boy crews were neighborhood-based and would engage in battles held at local block parties called "jams". Today crews can battle in organized competitions with other crews from around the world. New Zealand crew ReQuest won the Australian-based competition World Supremacy Battlegrounds in 2009 and the American-based competition Hip Hop International in 2009 and 2010. On October 12, 2010, the Vietnamese Ministry of Culture, Sport, and Tourism presented the Certificate of Merit to dance crew Big Toe for winning a variety of international dance competitions. Dance crews are more prevalent in hip-hop, but hip-hop dance companies do exist. Examples include Zoo Nation (UK), Culture Shock (USA), Lux Aeterna (USA), Boy Blue Entertainment (UK), Unity UK (UK), Bounce Streetdance Company (Sweden), and Funkbrella Dance Company (USA).

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