Learn how to dance hip hop for kids

Hip Hop Dance videos | Learn Hip hop dance online

Learn to hip hop dance online with our beginner Hip Hop dance videos. They are broken down into the most major Hip Hop dance categories such as general Hip Hop moves, Breakdancing, Popping and Hip Hop moves for kids.

If you enjoy these free hip hop dance lessons online and want to speed up your learning, check out our premium dance courses.

Choose your style:

Hip hop dance moves
Learn hip hop dancing with general hip hop dance videos that would fit any popular hip hop music out there. These are moves that are done upright (as opposed to breakdancing) and require the coordination of legs, arms and torso. They include popular moves like the “two step”, “how to dougie” and “arm wave”. Use these hip hop moves in clubs, parties and any other social events.
How to Hip Hop Dance (Click here)

Popping dance moves
Popping and locking dance style is another hip hop style that has gained lots popularity today. It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer’s body, referred to as a pop or a hit. This style is perfect for those of you you who want to impress someone with sharp, robot-like movements. Popping style can be danced to many different songs but it is especially danced to dubstep music – which is electronic and perfectly fits this style.
Pop and lock dance moves (Click here)

Breakdancing moves
Learn how to break dance with these step by step videos. Break dancing is believed to have been originated roughly in 1969 when James Brown’s song “Get on the Good Foot” came out. People started imitating his quick, energetic footwork moves and eventually began placing more emphasis on groundwork with stylized leg movements, commonly known as “downrock”. Then it developed into hand glides, freezes and head spinning. Learn break dancing moves today!
Learn how to breakdance (Click here)

Hip Hop moves for kids
Learn hip hop dance with videos for kids in this section. While many moves fit both adults and kids, there are certain moves that will appeal to young adults. Our kids moves are a little bit simpler and easier to pick up so that you can start dancing right away. Lastly, the teaching is geared towards kids with emphasize on clean language and fun energy. Moves include “The crisscross”, “The snap step” and “Toe drag”. Learn kids hip hop steps from home today.
Learn Hip Hop steps for kids (Click here)

5X Hip Hop Course For Beginners
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.
Learn more & Buy it (Click Here)

The Ultimate Popping Dance Course (Beginner to Advanced)
Learn how to dance popping and locking with step by step video lessons. You will learn hits/popping, waving, robotics, gliding, vibrating, slow motion effects and more. Become the freestyler you always wanted to be and impress your friends with your dance moves. Includes 3+ hours of video lessons. You can download it instantly or stream it online here.
Learn more & Buy it here (Click here)

The Complete Breakdancing Course For beginners (No experience needed)
Learn simple but impressive moves step by step! You will learn footwork moves, ground moves as well as freezes. This video course has 3 modules with +3 hours of video instruction. Delivered through instant online access.
Learn more & Buy it here (Click here)

7 Day Dance Floor Crash Course – For men (Beginner)
Learn easy dance moves that you can use at clubs, parties and weddings. Instead of learning complicated routines, this course will teach you “natural” moves that look good. This video course is for complete beginners with +3 hours of video instruction. Delivered through instant downloads.
Learn more & Buy it here (Click here)

Interested in other dance styles?
Check them out:
Ballet dance terms
Ballroom dance steps
How to dance in a club
Belly dancing
Irish step dancing
Tap dance steps
Argentine Tango videos

Choosing the Best Dance Style for Your Kids

If your child frolics around the playground, makes up dances to songs on the radio, or just can’t stop their body from moving when they hear music, it might be time to enroll them in dance lessons in Eaton. But what’s the best dance style for them? There’s a huge variety of dance styles for kids to learn. Each one lets them express themselves and is a good form of exercise. The key is to match the style with your kid’s personality and preferences. Here are five popular dance styles and how to know which one is right for your child.

Ballet

With pink shoes and pretty costumes, ballet is a huge draw for many young girls. But boys can do it, too! Ballet is a graceful and beautiful dance that takes lots of precision and strength. It can take a long time to master ballet, which means that, in the beginning, kids likely aren’t doing the moves they envision. However, if they stick with it, there are several performance opportunities in most areas.

Ballet tends to be more structured than other types of dance

and requires dedication. Ballet is a great cornerstone for other dance styles and can help introduce kids to the world of dance.

Jazz

Jazz dancing is high energy with big movements. Kids who love to perform and who have big personalities choose Jazz dancing as a perfect dance style. Jazz dancing is very diverse and can cover anything from a slower, modern number to a Broadway-style routine. The variety of movement is exciting for kids, especially if they get bored with one style.

Although jazz dancing can be improvised, it requires a lot of technical skill that can take some time to master. Many jazz dancers start with other dance styles, such as ballet, before moving to jazz. However, kids can start in jazz from the beginning and still get very skilled in the movements.

Hip-Hop

Hip-hop is a fun, inventive style done to popular music. Improvisation is huge for hip-hop dancers. Early classes teach children the basic moves, which they’re able to use to improvise dances as they improve. Hip hop can be enticing for kids because they get to dance to music they know and do moves they’ve likely seen on TV.

Hip hop is a great way for young dancers to express themselves. It’s a good option for kids who don’t like to be held back with too many rules. Hip-hop can be a fun way for kids to make friends and build their confidence. It also requires a lot of body awareness to move certain parts of the body and is a great form of cardio exercise.

All this movement and dance is great for kids…and their brains, too – check this out.

Tap

Tap is rhythmic, energetic, and loud. Anyone can tap and have fun learning the basics. Even if your kid isn’t very coordinated, tap can still be a good fit. Tap is a great option for kids who love to make noise and have fun.

The style lends itself well to self-expression. Although students learn tap dance in groups during class, the style works well for individual performers. More advanced tappers often perform solo or in small groups. Tap is a great form of exercise for dancers at all levels—young students will like getting their wiggles out and making sounds, and more experienced dancers can enjoy the self-expression and movement that comes from tap.

Lyrical

Choosing lyrical or modern dance requires fluid movements and strength. Although these dances are often done in groups, dancers focus more on telling a story than being completely synchronized. Lyrical dance is very emotional and requires a high level of performance to convey the message of the dance.

Lyrical is a good option for kids who love to perform. It pairs well with other styles of dance. If your child likes to leap, twirl, and move to the music, lyrical could be a good option. It requires dancers to connect with the song and feel the emotion.

No matter your child’s personality or preferences, there’s a dance style perfect for them.

Ready to get your kids signed up for dance classes? Contact A Dance Place today.

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

How to learn to dance hip hop at home

Each of us can become an excellent dancer, because the human body is just created for dancing. Many people have a sense of rhythm, emotions corresponding to music help to create a mood, and as for movements, they can always be diversified. Those simple steps that we give out in clubs are usually not enough to express yourself through dance, impress someone who is nearby and just get a huge positive charge. So let's start learning hip-hop! Why hip hop? Because it's easy, nice, interesting, and it's also cool to be able to dance as well as Beyoncé or Justin Timberlake.

Hard to learn, cool to fight

Hip-hop dancers usually demonstrate their skills in open combat. The so-called battle is an opportunity here and now to prove that your style is better. Also, battles contribute to the improvement of technique, the search for new movements and sequences, and the general steady growth of the dancer's skill. This technique works great in the Dragon School. All students, overcoming timidity at first, go to the center of the hall one on one with the "enemy" and show him, the teacher and themselves (first of all) that the lesson has been learned and progress is evident. Such “paired” performances help to painlessly record your mistakes and shortcomings, and at the same time borrow something new from colleagues.

That is why learning to dance hip-hop at home is more difficult. Results alone are not achieved so quickly. But home self-study allows you to get acquainted with its basics well.

A screen instead of a mirror

So, let's learn to dance hip-hop at home. To begin with, we free up space, dress more comfortably, put on sneakers. What for? Leg muscles that have become unaccustomed to regular loads can fail at the most unexpected moment, and sneakers will help to avoid sprains, the legs will warm up faster in them, therefore, there will be fewer injuries. Of course, hip-hop is no more traumatic than any other modern dance! Problems can only arise with the corners of the furniture in the room or with uneven floors. This is another reason why it is preferable to study in a special room.

But once we start, we don't stop. There are a lot of video tutorials on the Internet, it is quite difficult to choose the best one. Therefore, take my word for it and stop at the lessons from Alexander Dragon. This is not just a set of movements, but complexes developed within the framework of the author's "Quick Start" methodology. For starters, let's stretch. Let the monitor be like a mirror, repeat the movements in a mirror. Remember that a good workout is the key to the result. Let's get started!

First - to rock

Hip-hop is dominated by the concept of "groove" (in Russia it is also called "kach"). This is a drive from music, rhythm and body movement to the beat. It does not matter what the mirror shows at first, the main thing is that you enjoy it and do not intend to stop. The easiest way to catch a groove is by bending your knees to the beat. Try it! And now you can get acquainted with the simple basic movements of hip-hop dance. How to study at home? Just. Watch the video from the Dragon!

Unity of styles

When we learn hop-hop at home, a lot of questions arise.