How to learn hiphop dance

Hip Hop Dance Moves For Beginners

Learn how to dance hip hop with our hip hop moves. They are perfect for those of you who want to get into hip hop dancing and learn some basic steps. These hip hop dance moves are some of the most popular moves out there and could be used to dance at parties, clubs and any other events.

Hip Hop Dance Tutorial #1: Start With Learning The Basic Rhythm

Hip Hop Dance Tutorial #2: The 2 Step Basic Move (From 5X Hip Hop Course)

Many more moves below this video

More FREE Beginner Hip Hop dance moves

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5X Hip Hip Course For Beginner
Learn basic hip hop moves with 25 step by step video lessons. This course is broken down into 5 modules that focus on different types of moves: Footwork, Upper Body, Waving, Step Touch and Iconic Moves. You will love this 2+ hours of detailed instruction for beginners.

These beginner hip hop dance moves on this page are easy to learn because they teach you one move at a time - as opposed to long, complicated routines.

This way you can use them individually or combine them with other steps however you feel. We recommend that you first pay attention to the footwork and timing of the step and then add your own styling to it only after. These hip hop dance videos are general hip hop steps that are good for adults and kids. They could be used with popular hip hop music in any situation.

Remember that Hip Hop is all about isolating the different body parts so make sure that you understand what body part moves first and in what sequence. Once you mastered these moves you can also check out other related Hip Hop styles like the free style dance lessons, how to break dance, how to dance to dubstep and popping dance moves.

If you are looking to learn other dance styles check out Online dance lessons.

TIPS: How to dance Hip Hop Better

1. It's all about attitude - Remember that Hip Hop dancing is all about "selling" the performance. Commit to each movement and be confident about everything you do.

2. Learn the basics first - the better your basics are, the better you will be able to execute the more intermediate and advanced Hip Hop moves. So don't jump the gun, instead master the fundamentals.

3. Practice, Practice, Practice - You need to hone down your skills as often as possible. Make sure to practice before every class and at your spare time in between classes. The key is to get the steps into your muscle memory.

Interested in other styles?

Click below:
How to hip hop dance online
How to Ballroom dance videos
Ballet dance moves
How to dance in a club
Learntodance.com homepage

8 Easy Hip-Hop Dance Moves To Start Learning

Learning hip-hop dance moves opens up a world of experiences. It may seem intimidating to take on new dance styles, but rest assured that hip-hop is accessible to all who want to learn it. Once you’ve finished this article on how to learn hip-hop dance moves, you’ll be well on your way to becoming a hip-hop master.

Why is Hip-Hop Dance So Popular?

Hip-hop is often considered the antithesis of the dance stylings of academies and companies. Hip-hop music was invented by African-American dancers in New York City in the late 1960s, gaining popularity throughout the 1970s. African dance styles heavily inspired hip-hop. They both have moves that involve staying low to the ground and dancing to complex rhythms.

African culture and black Americans also invented jazz dance. While jazz dance and hip-hop often blend, hip-hop differs from jazz by being more fluid with the entire body. Pop dance, on the other hand, draws heavy influence from hip-hop, but tends to be more upright and rigid.

8 Easy Hip-Hop Dance Moves

Hip-hop may look intimidating for beginners, but learning just a handful of basic hip hop dance moves can have you dancing like a pro in no time. Here are some tips on how to do hip-hop dance moves.

Popping and Locking

Popping and locking are multi-step dance move that makes even a beginner look like a professional. First, step with your right foot while putting your left arm up. On the next beat, cross both across your body. Once you pull your limbs in, push out with the opposite arm and leg. Let the wrist of the arm in the air circle and drop, or ‘lock’.

To pop, push your arms out forward and move back, as though you are popping yourself back.

Break Dancing

Break dancing is an entire subgenre of hip-hop, if not its genre of dance entirely, but you can learn the basics in six steps. The most basic hip-hop movement is to helicopter the legs around the body while balancing on one arm.

To do this, get low to the ground, palm on the floor. Pedal your legs in a circular pattern, switching arms to let the legs continue to swing around.

Boogaloo Dance

The Boogaloo dance, inspired by Latin dances, is an exaggerated walk where the arms are swung wide. Step with one leg, swinging the opposite arm back, then pause for a beat. Step forward with the opposite leg, switch the placement of the arms, and once again pause for a beat.

Walk it back, pivot, then do the same on the other side, creating a V pattern.

Social Dances

Social dance covers a wide array of dances, including the Bennington. This version of the Wop may be difficult for beginners, but it’s possible to learn.

Rock the torso back and forth, keeping hands crossed over the groin. Then switch to swinging the arms back and forth, shifting weight from foot to foot. Kick on beat with the off foot before shifting weight back.

Once you’ve mastered these moves, come visit our studio to learn how to elevate your game. Struggling with any of these techniques? We can help you nail your moves and become an incredible hip-hop dancer.

Soulja Boy

To understand the mechanism of this iconic dance, you first need to learn the superman dance move. The superman move mimics the iconic pose of the superhero, with arms pushed towards the sky with clenched fists while you bounce back on your heels.

To dance the Soulja Boy, you incorporate the superman with arm cranks while bouncing back and forth on your heels.

The Moonwalk

The Moonwalk, invented by pop legend Michael Jackson, creates an optical illusion that still amazes decades after its invention. The dancer slides backward on the toes of their shoes while making motions that indicate they are trying to walk forward. This physics-defying dance is sure to dazzle on the dance floor.

The Camel Walk

The Camel Walk is similar to the Moonwalk, except you’re moving forward. Pick up each knee and move forward on the beat, as though you’re a horse (or a camel). Remember to keep your body loose and flow with the movement to get the hip-hop flavor.

The Running Man

The Running Man dance move is one of the simplest on this list. If you’ve ever tried to run in place, you’re already halfway to knowing this move. Run in place, pushing your feet back after they touch the ground. Then you can either swing your arms out on the beat or pull them in.

The Wobble

The Wobble is a perfect example of the fluidity of hip-hop. Lean back and wiggle the shoulders in a modern version of the shimmy. Wobbling looks easy but can take some work to perfect. Take time to learn how to relax enough for the dance to look effortless while maintaining your form.

Body Roll

Body rolls are a hip-hop staple. With this dance move, you remain in place, but undulate your body bit by bit to create a wave motion with your entire body. If you’re going from the bottom up, start with your hips, then back, chest, shoulders, and head. If you’re going top down, go in the opposite order.

How To Start Learning Hip-Hop Dance Moves Quickly

Maybe you’re preparing for an event coming up, like a school dance or a wedding. Maybe you’re just hoping to develop a new skill before the season is over. Whatever the reason, there are plenty of ways to help you learn hip-hop dance moves quickly, whether inside dance studios or out.

Watch Videos Online

If you’re struggling to follow written instructions, then look for videos of people performing the dance moves you want to learn.

Use Mirrors or Record Yourself

Even if you feel confident in your moves, it’s hard to judge your form while dancing. Use mirrors to check that you’re on the right track, or record a video of yourself dancing to watch later.

Practice Daily

Nothing improves without practice. If you want to improve your hip-hop dancing, you’ll need to practice them regularly to keep your skills sharp. Join a dance crew to get down with other people like you.

Sign Up For Classes With On One Studios

The best way to learn to dance is to do it in person with professional teachers. At On One Studios, we have beautiful dance studios and experienced instructors ready to guide you to become the best dancer you can be.

Are You Ready to Elevate Your Hip-Hop Dance Moves?

Hip-hop dancing is popular, accessible, and always evolving. If you’re looking to add hip-hop moves to your repertoire, join us for hip-hop choreography dance classes near you that will help you learn hip-hop quickly while having tons of fun.

teaching basic movements and features of dance

Contents

Hip-hop, like any other dance direction, is best studied at a professional school. After all, only a qualified teacher will find an individual approach to a new student and teach the necessary movements. But if this is not possible, or if you want to come to class prepared, you can try to master the direction of hip-hop at home. How to dance the first movements, now we will tell.

Like any dance, hip-hop training includes getting acquainted not only with the basic movements of the style, but also with a certain philosophy. And in this direction it is special. Hip-hop came to us in the second half of the last century from the most disadvantaged areas of New York and Los Angeles. Tired of injustice, aggression and blood, teenagers, who mostly did not have the cleanest reputation, invented their own special way to resolve conflicts - with the help of dance battles and rap parties. Hip-hop is a free dance, a challenge to society and a protest against any inequality. That is why the main thing in this style is not at all the clarity of the learned movements, but the sense of rhythm, improvisation and expression of the individuality of the performer.

Getting Started: Preparation and Basic Movements

Before learning hip-hop for beginners, you should make sure that you feel comfortable doing it. According to experienced dancers, three things will help you relax and start learning:

Appropriate environment: flat floor, spacious room, full-length mirror.
Loose clothing and comfortable shoes. Nothing should hinder movement.
Hip-hop rhythmic music.

A little ritual will help you tune yourself into the wave of hip-hop: stand with your legs apart, put your hands down and close your eyes. Listen carefully to the sound of the music and try to learn to hear the beat. Rock to the beat. And now you have already mastered the first movement. Congratulations! It's time to move on to more complex elements.

The basic movements of hip-hop are swing and step. You are already familiar with the first one. Now try to put your right foot to the side and stretch your right hand up. Bend your right leg, transferring your body weight to it, and lower your arm to shoulder level. Turn the body to the left, bend the left leg, and put the right leg on the toe. Now lower your right knee, arch your back and reach your hands to the floor. When you manage to complete this combination, consider yourself a good start in hip-hop.

Here are some more basic hip-hop moves for beginners:

Starting position - standing, feet shoulder-width apart, and arms along the body. We squeeze the brushes into a fist and alternately bring forward one hand, then the other. Then we connect the legs bent at the knee: left hand - right leg, right leg - left hand.
Starting position - standing. We jump in place and cross our legs, and bend our arms as if we were rowing.
Starting position - standing, feet slightly wider than shoulders. We put the right leg a little back, bend the legs at the knees, which at the same time look straight. With the right hand we cover the face, with the left, folded into a fist, we put it in the region of the heart. Then at the same time we tilt our head to the right and unclench the left hand, and after that we turn the right knee and right hand to the right.
Starting position - standing, feet firmly pressed to the floor, knees slightly bent. We put the spread fingers of the right hand on the chest, keep the elbow parallel to the floor. We bend in an arc, as if we received a blow right in the heart. Then we make two turns in different directions, straighten our back and return to the starting position. The hand at this time falls from the heart to the waist. At the end, we throw the pelvis forward again, round the back and tighten the buttocks.

You can achieve the first results quite quickly. But when you start to study closely how to dance hip hop, you will soon notice that there are no clear movements and rules in this direction. Having mastered a few basic elements, the dancers begin to improvise, create their own combinations and dance as creative fantasy suggests.

How to continue: choosing a style

If you have mastered the first movements of hip-hop from videos and photos on the Internet, it's time to choose the direction in which you will develop further. Hip-hop culture is a wide range of dance styles that differ from each other both in elements and in general mood. The main ones are:

Breakdance is still popular basic style of hip-hop, on which the direction originated.
Popping - rhythmic contraction of various muscle groups to the music so that it looks like jolts on the performer's body;
Wave - smooth and plastic movements of the body, the most famous of which is the wave with hands;
Afro-jazz - shaking mainly the lower and most prominent part of the body in women;
Crump - energetic shaking of various limbs to the music so that it seems as if someone has moved into the dancer;
New Style, also known as freestyle, is an improvisational dance that combines not only hip-hop movements, but also elements borrowed from more than a dozen other dance styles.
La Style - Hip-hop, where the emphasis is on entertainment, so this style is used mainly in videos and when staging shows.
Ragga jazz is a dance tuned to the music: the performer's legs work under the drums, and the hands become active during the recitative.
Locking - an energetic dance with "locks" - freezing in different positions for a few seconds or periodically slowing down the movement.
Power move is a spectacular style that includes complex acrobatic elements, handstands, various twists, and transitions.
C-walk is a “language” dance with a criminal past that emphasizes intense and very dynamic footwork.

Women's and men's hip-hop

The next step in how to learn hip-hop without leaving home is to bring a little femininity or, conversely, brutality into your existing skills - depending on your gender accessories. The thing is that female and male hip-hop are somewhat different from each other, and, therefore, representatives of the beautiful and strong half are trained in this direction in different ways.

Hip-hop dancing for beginner girls is based on plasticity, flexibility and unobtrusive sexuality. Girls wear baggy sweatpants and hoodies on a par with men, perform sweeping movements, but their execution looks different: hips, legs and shoulders are more involved, the elements are a little smoother and sexier.

Male hip-hop, on the contrary, is more daring, energetic and sometimes even aggressive. The focus is on the work of the arms and body, acrobatic elements and movements that require strength and male endurance.

If you prefer to learn this difficult direction from videos, it is better to initially choose hip hop training, where the movements will be performed by a dancer of your gender. Together with the right technique, you will be able to capture the gender characteristics of the choreographic elements.

A few more secrets

Learning to dance hip-hop at home, without classes with a professional teacher, is not easy, but real. Especially if you add training with a few more components. Here, as in learning a foreign language, only complete immersion in the culture will help. So, here are some tips from “experienced” hiphopers who have mastered a lot not under the guidance of a qualified mentor, but at home by the mirror:

Videos with basic exercises will help you master some of the moves, but for additional skills, it is better to turn to online courses. Hip-hop lessons for beginners are regularly held online, often live.
Hiphop parties and hangouts will help you melt into this culture and make new acquaintances. Yes, of course, everyone will laugh at your first dances, but no one drags you to the center of the circle. While you're learning, watch the pros dance, adopt a style, and memorize some moves to practice at home.
Clear training regimen. Only with regular practice can you achieve results. In addition, our body is set to a certain schedule, and if you exercise at a certain time, it will prepare for stress. As experienced dancers note, the optimal duration of even home workouts is two hours. This is enough for warming up, and for the lesson itself, and for stretching after.
Additional physical activities. If you are in the mood not just for basic hip-hop movements, but for serious hip-hop elements with tricks, strengthening the muscles of the whole body is indispensable. You will need strong arms, strong core muscles, and no extra weight. This can be achieved by exercising in the gym or additional weight training at home.
Compliance with safety regulations. Be sure to dance in comfortable non-slip shoes and loose clothing. Do not start training without a proper warm-up, and when practicing acrobatic elements, lay something soft on the floor.

Video tutorials will be enough to learn how to dance hip-hop. But to become a real dancer, you need to study the subculture from the inside. It is believed that a hiphoper has achieved true mastery when he is in perfect control of his body, does not “slow down” on the dance floor, knows how to improvise and select universal movements for any music. Hip-hop dance lends itself only to the very persistent and disciplined, those who are able to understand and accept its "philosophy of freedom".

Do not forget that there are many professionals around who are ready to help you take your first steps in hip-hop or improve the skills you learned at home. Qualified teachers of the La Boca dance club will find an individual approach to you, work out with you the technique of performing movements and even acrobatic elements. You don't have to go far: "La Boca" is located in the very center of St. Petersburg - on "Petrogradka"

Video: basic hip-hop movements

Learn to dance hip-hop. Lessons and Tips

Mufasa is a Red Bull Beat It 2012 Finalist

Hip-hop is rightfully called one of the most individual dance styles. This dance lives according to its own laws, it has its own rules and teaching methods. Only in hip-hop is the dancer's acting data of paramount importance over the clarity and filigree of the learned movements.

If you look at the essence of dance, hip-hop is not even a theatrical performance or reflection of a melody in a dance, hip-hop is an original way to draw the attention of the audience to oneself. Moreover, the expected reaction must certainly be positive, and the dancer must cause frank sympathy and a smile on the faces of the audience.

Mufasa's energy has conquered everyone!

In principle, everyone can learn how to dance hip-hop, even those whose talents have not previously been noticed in the performance of any dance. The first step to learning how to dance hip-hop is to learn a few key rules:

1. The very first and most important rule is to devote as much time as possible to dancing. Even if you have a huge talent for dancing and good inclinations for this, but attending classes in the studio twice a week and not studying at home, you will not dance at the proper level. Watch videos on the net, practice in front of a mirror, learning the basic movements, maybe you can even come up with a new movement. And don't stop there. Even professional dancers continue to work on their dance without stopping to improve themselves.

2. If you really want to learn how to dance hip-hop, develop an ear for music. It is very important to learn to catch the bass. It is important to merge with the music in the dance. Only then can you achieve something worthwhile.

3. Dance technique is important. You can consider yourself a born dancer - your right. But you simply must know the simplest ligaments. Yes, improvisation is really cool, but it will not be of any use if you do not know the basic movements.

4. Try to express your own "I" through the dance. Dance is an excellent way to tell people about yourself, about what you live and breathe, your dreams and desires.

Hip-hop choreography by Mufasa

5. Break the rules. If you want to learn how to dance hip-hop, you first need to master the dance technique, learn its essence, and then you can discover your own and unique style. Don't think about learning how to dance hip-hop, just dance it.

6. If you find it difficult to move, lose weight, think about how to start losing weight. Go in for sports to get rid of excess, and start dancing with redoubled energy!

7. There are two basic movements in hip-hop – swing and step. It is from them that you need to start mastering this dance. Put your right foot to the right, toe out, pull up with your right hand. Bend your right leg and then transfer your body weight to it, lower your raised arm to shoulder level. Your feet should be pressed to the floor. Turn the body to the left side, bend the left leg, at this time the right leg must be put on the toe. Then lower your right knee and arch your back. At the same time, try to reach the floor with outstretched arms. If you manage to complete this movement, you are already dancing hip-hop.

8. Another important move. Performed standing. Your feet should be firmly planted on the floor and your knees slightly bent. Press the spread fingers of your right hand into your chest, raise your elbow so that it is parallel to the floor. Throw your pelvis forward, arch your back. Make two turns in different directions, while straightening your back and again returning it to its original arched position. Let your hands at this time leave the heart area and begin to slide from the chest to the waist. Throw the pelvis forward again, while straining the buttocks. Don't forget the round back.

9. Stand on your left leg, bend your right leg and then lift it so that your thigh is parallel to the floor. Bend your elbows, raise them above your chest, as the student does at the desk. Spin down with a corkscrew, throw forward and straighten your right leg. At the same time, do not forget to keep your back rounded. Straighten up, lean back as far as possible, throw your hands forward, imitating the movements of the semaphore.