Hip Hop Dance and Culture Terminology

Flashcards covering key terminology, figures, genres, and dance styles from the provided hip hop lecture notes.

African-diasporic

It relates to the dispersion of people around the world from the African continent.

Attitude

It is the body position implying an action or mental state, specifically referring to the emotional quality of music as displayed through the body.

b-boying/b-girling

It is a dynamic form of dance, also known as breaking, that was created by African American (for the dance) and Puerto Rican people in New York City and is set to hip hop, funk, or breakbeat music.

Boogaloo?

It may have roots in the Bantu language meaning "devilishly good" and refers to: 1) A musical genre created by teenage Cubans and Puerto Ricans popular in the U.S. in the 1960s; 2) A Harlem Renaissance phrase meaning "get down" and "enjoy yourself"; and 3) A style of dance pioneered by Boogaloo Sam consisting of fluid body rolls of the neck, torso, hips, and knees.

Bouncing

It is a foundational type of movement in Hip Hop dance characterized by a buoyant quality in both movements and transitions.

Call-and-response

An African-diasporic tradition rooted in African Cultures (often exemplified in church services like "Can I get an Amen? Amen!") used in dance when the music calls for a response in the form of a particular dance or movement.

Commercial

It describes a dance performance displayed in venues concerned with or engaged in commerce (such as advertising or selling products), rather than a specific technique or type of dance.

What is a cypher?

A practice (similar to a ring shout) in which people gather in a circle and use rap or dance to display skill in a friendly, sometimes aggressive manner.

DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell)?

A pioneer who helped develop hip-hop music and culture.

Who created locking?

Don "Campbellock" Campbell.

Drop

A stylized way to get to the floor when breaking or b-boying.

Elite Force

A pioneering Hip Hop dance crew from Brooklyn who have choreographed and danced in the entertainment industry since the mid-1980s.

Funk-styles

It was coined by Timothy "Popping Pete" Solomon to cover the forms and style performed by West Coast Poppers and Lockers, in order to deter people from putting multiple dance forms under one title and to create conversations that differentiated the techniques, forms, vocabulary, and pioneers in each form.

Grooving

Moving smoothly with the tempo of the music, or finding your rhythm and comfort with moving to the music.

Musicality

Generally, an understanding of music; in dance specifically, it is the understanding of how a given moment relates to the music.

Polyrhythmic

Using two or more rhythms simultaneously; in dance, it refers to the movement of two or more body parts to different rhythms.

Popping?

Form of dance performed by constantly contracting one's muscles (specifically, the sternocleidomastoid muscles in the neck, the pectorals, the biceps, and the triceps) to the tempo of the beat.

Vogue

A Modern American dance form created in the African American and Latino LGBTQ community, with origins dating back to the early 1900s in Harlem.

Waacking

A form of dance, also known as punking, created in the LGBT clubs of Los Angeles during the 1970s disco era.

What are the three distinct ways to understand the term West Coast Style?

1) Los Angeles style inspired by three New York dancers called Shades who worked with Janet Jackson using NY hip hop and house; 2) The dance style of young dancers in the Los Angeles "street" dance scene characterized by abstract, flow, and ground movements; 3) Sharp, gestural movement popular in North Hollywood dance studios.