Street dance brings several communities and musical worlds into view. Find out which form your class teaches: breaking, house, locking and others have their own foundations.
B-boy Pumba in a breaking cypher at the Rock Steady Crew 30th anniversary, Bronx, 2007. Breaking is one street-dance form. NexusMoves · Wikimedia Commons ↗ · CC BY-SA 3.0 ↗ · Resized to 1280 × 960; WebP conversion
At the start, ask for the name of one movement and the music it belongs to. Learn its rhythm slowly, then change its size or direction with the song's phrase. This gives the movement a purpose before you join it to a long sequence.
Find out whether the class spends most time on choreography, freestyle or the technique of one named form. Children's and adult groups may divide time differently between play, repetition and individual work. Choose by what you want to do after several lessons.
If the teacher opens a circle, watch the first few entries. Step in briefly, leave room for the next dancer and answer a sound you heard. One clear step is enough to begin a conversation with the music and the people.
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Origins and community
The Smithsonian record for The Freshest Kids distinguishes breaking made by Black and Latino youth in New York from locking and popping developed by Black dancers in California. A catalogue may group them as street dance, while each has its own place and music.
Clubs, neighbourhood parties, television, travelling teachers and online video carried these forms onward. The Smithsonian hip-hop collection shows music, dance and visual culture travelling together. As you learn a named form, follow the names of its makers too.
Culture and community
A class may play funk, hip-hop or house. Listen as the bass pulse and pauses change; movement that fits one song may need another energy in the next. Ask why the teacher chose each track.
A circle, club and stage give different kinds of freedom. Dancers in a circle can answer one another, in a club they can explore a whole track, and on stage they can coordinate a group. Try more than one setting to find the community that draws you in.
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Movement to notice
A named foundation
Ask whether the class teaches locking, popping, house or another form: their body work differs.
▶Fabbreezy street-dance freestyle
Fabbreezy shows one street-dance freestyle approach in this Red Bull clip.
Hip-Hop is a cultural field with a specific Bronx history and several practices. Street Dance is an even broader catalogue label that may include other club forms.
Emilis Pilionis (Lime / DJ Lime) is a Vilnius-based DJ and music producer with experience as a dancer, choreographer and teacher. He started dancing at five and has focused mainly on House since 2011.
Martin (Boom) teaches street dance. His results include a Top 25 place at Red Bull Dance Your Style, Top 16 at Lower Way and a World of Dance Latvia final.
Airida Gudaitė is a dancer, choreographer and educator with more than three decades of dance work. She co-founded Low Air with Laurynas Žakevičius in 2012.
Greta Snitkutė is a hip-hop dancer and teacher. She has performed in Low Air theatre projects since 2017 and co-created and performs in “me two / Savoj krūvoj”.
Gabrielle Emily Aidulis creates and teaches contemporary and street dance. She graduated in dance making from ArtEZ University of the Arts in the Netherlands in 2020.
Ignas Tamulis is a Hip-Hop dancer and teacher who competes in Lithuanian and international dance championships, including Juste Debout and World of Dance.
A choreographer, dancer and trainer; she began dancing at five, trained in street dance from age 11, and discovered High Heels at 21. She creates concert programmes and choreography for Lithuanian artists.
Founder of Šok/Šok, a qualified senior dance teacher, choreographer and director. She works on TV and stage projects and combines street dance, commercial dance, jazz and contemporary styles.
A dancer and choreographer who spent nearly seven years in ballroom and Latin dance before moving into hip-hop and freestyle. Her classes focus on musicality and movement quality.
