The Different Hip Hop Dance Styles

As hip hop dancing takes the country by storm, some classic moves have been created. Let’s take a look at some of the more famous hip hop moves over time:

“The Dougie” – This dance is from the song “Teach Me How to Dougie” by Cali Swag District. While there are many variations of how to do “The Dougie”, here are some of the basic steps to the dance: Sway to one side and pause for a beat while putting your weight on the foot on the side you’re leaning towards. As you continue to sway, your arms should be by your side bringing them up towards you in a fist in a counter-clockwise circular motion, one at a time, until your arm is bent with your elbow facing down and your fist up by your head. Next, perfect the wheelchair move. To complete this move, with both arms, make forward circles to your sides while crouching lower with each rotation. Then finally, add the signature style of “The Dougie”, bring your hand over the top of your head and slide if off the back, like you’re slicking your hair down. Do this with the side-to-side move. Shift your shoulders side to side and then do it with the other hand. And, finally, don’t forget to be loose with your knees; otherwise you’re going to look very stiff.

“Stanky Legg” – This dance step is probably the easiest of all hip hop dance moves. The movement involves the rotating the dancers’ leg in a circular motion and then alternating to the opposite leg. It also utilizes moves from “The Dougie”.

“Cupid Shuffle” – Back in 2007, this song peaked at number sixty-six on the Billboard Hot 100 and number twenty-one on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was sung by the hip hop artist Cupid. This is a simple dance. First step four times to the right, then step four times to the left. Next, put your heel of right foot to the floor, then repeat with your left leg. Repeat this twice for each leg. Then, just walk in place, but turn to the left while doing so, so that when you get to the next part, you’re facing the next wall. You can also turn and shake your hips to the beat. Repeat the dance steps for each direction you’re facing. If you do this four times you’ll make a complete circle.

“Chicken Noodle Soup” – This dance requires dancers to make exaggerated shuffling movements, arm swings and perform a pantomime of the song’s lyrics. Apparently it stems from other New York-based street dances like the “Harlem Shake”.

This song was released back in the dance craze days of 2006. The dance itself can be done in many different ways because each dancer adds their own personal flair. The basic steps begin with the dancers following the initial lyrics from the accompanying song. As the words “Let it rain and clear it out” is said, the dancer then makes raining motions with their hands. This motion is the same as jazz hands combined with having the dancers arms bent in a vertical position while slowly lowering their arms. This is done three times before the main part of the dance begins.

The next step is to move both arms from the front of the dancers’ body to the back while bouncing off of each foot from side to side. These die to side movements of the legs followed by the flailing of the arms to match the corresponding feet movement can create sheer havoc!

“Walk it Out” – The “Walk it Out” dance begins as an exaggerated walk where each of the dancers steps feature pivoting on the balls of their feet. The dancer should keep their knees bent and their heels off the ground. As the dancer takes a step forward with their left foot, both feet should pivot to the right and then to the left. Then, as the dancer steps forward with their right foot, both feet should pivot to the left and right. Then, by adding some hip movements and keeping their knees bent, the dancer has successfully completed the “Walk it Out”.

I begun to lean Hip Hop just about 3 years ago, and got hooked immediately. I wanted to know so bad How Hip Hop Dance is being done so I started at a dance school and practiced under different teachers five times a week. In half a year I evolve some good skills, the problem was that because of the enormously amount of training I had no time to use my new learned moves and develop my own style. I became a copycat.

I will warn you about this, if you want to learn how hip hop dance is being done don’t just take class after class all the time. My tips is to practice at least as much on your own or at a club as you do in a dance studio following a teacher.

This may seem hard in the start but I permit you, it will give some mad results. Try to challenge yourself by turning on your favorite Hip hop song and freestyle until the end. Play with the dynamics and accent different sounds in the beat. Practicing hip hop this way will make you to a much better dancer in a shorter time.

I see two big risks with taking too many classes each week. The first one is to get stuck in the dance studio in front of the mirror not being able to use your maximum energy and feeling insecure when dancing without a mirror. The second risk is to become a “copy cat” or biter as it’s called in the dance world. This is a really bad thing and will lower your respect amongst other dancers.

Imagine yourself going out to a club at Friday night dancing and having fun with your friends. When you’re dancing there you see this guy and your friends say something like “Hey he looks exactly like you”. That’s not the point of dancing, you should be dancing because you like it not to show off yourself. And that’s exactly what many of the “biters” are doing, trying to look good by copying someone else’s moves and groove. The best dancers always try to flip and add their own touch to the new moves they learn. It’s also about giving something back to the Hip Hop culture, creating new steps or flipping old ones into something new.