Hip Hop Choreography
5E Hip Hop Choreo
5E Choreo is the studio’s signature blend of new style hip hop and hip hop foundations. It honors the places from which hip hop originated and envisions the places to which hip hop’s path leads. This form employs skills from multiple foundations.
Hip Hop Foundations
Popping
Popping is a form born in the early 70s. It features a range of subforms and styles that engage different hits, fluid motions, and/or isolations. This form is one of the most popularized hip hop forms in mainstream media.
House
House is a freeing form born from the underground club scene of Chicago in the early 80s. It engages rhythmic bounce & footwork. The form is informed by forms and styles rooted in the souls of many different cultures, such as salsa and Capoeira.
Locking
Locking is a form born in Los Angeles the early 70s. It engages exaggerated rhythmic arm movements, points, and fast grooves. This form is largely influenced by funk music and is very performative.
Animation
Animation blends elements of street dance with imaginative movements inspired by animated characters and storytelling. Born in the Los Angeles in the late 1990s, this form explores the intersection of dance and visual storytelling, drawing inspiration from animated films, cartoons, and digital art. It employs precise isolations, exaggerated gestures, and fluid transitions.
Funk Styles
Funk Styles celebrates the dynamic and diverse forms of funk dance that emerged from the streets of California in the 1970s. This class delves into several distinctive styles, including Locking, Popping, Boogaloo, Electric Boogaloo, Tutting, Waving, and Strutting. It explores the history, technique, and cultural significance of these funk styles, emphasizing creativity and musicality.
Other Forms
Ballet
Ballet is a classical form that engages precise steps and movements. It is well known for it’s graceful performance and theatrical storytelling.
Contemporary
Contemporary dance modernizes ballet technique with fluid movements and influences from many other forms. This form emphasizes strength and control in its performance.
Latin Rhythms
Latin Rhythms celebrates the traditions of Latin dance with a focus on Salsa and Bachata. Originating from the streets of Cuba and the Dominican Republic, respectively, Salsa and Bachata are known for their infectious rhythms and passionate movements. Salsa combines intricate footwork with energetic spins and syncopated patterns. Bachata combines hip movements and connections between partners to capture the emotion of Dominican music.
More Dance Classes Coming Soon…
Femme Hip Hop
Femme Hip Hop engages with hip hop from a lens that uplifts identities & expression that aren’t exclusively masculine-aligned. It embraces feminine movement within the culture and is informed by forms and styles that have challenged hip hop’s perceived hyper-masculinity.
Lyrical Hip Hop
Lyrical Hip Hop combines contemporary technique with hip hop’s rhythmic musicality. It is often set to music that marries slower melodies and strong beats. This form employs isolations and fluid textures among other skills.
Breaking
Breaking, after the “breaks” of dance music hip hop DJs would spin, is a form born in New York in the early 70s. It engages stylistic footwork and acrobatics. This form is well known for its toprocks, downrocks, power moves, and freezes.
Grooves
Grooves are a defining movement of hip hop dance that can be found in most foundations and many styles of choreography. This movement engages basic beats and musical rhythms that serve as the heartbeat of hip hop.
Waacking
Waacking is a funky form born from poor LGBTQ+ communities of color in the Los Angeles club & ballroom scene in the late 70s. It engages striking arm rolls & movements and dramatic breaks & poses.
Krump
Krump is an expressive form born in Southern California in the late 90s. It engages fast pace arm swings & placements, chest pops, and stomps. This form demands high energy from dancers and hype from everyone in the room.
Stepping
Stepping utilizes movement as a tool to create percussive sounds and display energetic performance. It has been popularized by Black fraternities and sororities that were founded as Black students sought to find support and serve communities on college campuses.
Tap
Tap dance is a form of dance that creates percussion through footwork. This form originated on plantations and was popularized throughout the 1900s in the entertainment industry.
Jazz
Jazz dance originated from Black communities in the late 1800s & 1900s. It combines performance with social & cultural dances that were emerging at the time of its development.
Musical Theater
Musical theater combines dancing, acting, and lip syncing to emulate the performance of popular Broadway musical performances.
Tumbling & Tricking
Tumbling & tricking engages jumps, flips, kicks, and other acrobatic skills and is informed by martial arts and gymnastics.
Engagement Classes
I Know I Can | Social Emotional & Relational Wellness
I Know I Can is used as a self-engaged learning tool to increase knowledge of self and engage in ones own wellness. This class will teach students mental & emotional health, relationships, physical health, and self advocacy.
Hip Hop History & Culture | Hip Hop History & Culture
Hip Hop History & Culture is a class that uses community-engaged learning, alongside the knowledge of hip hop, to create social change projects in students’ communities.
Read more about our engagement classes here.
What level should I enroll my dancer in?
Level 1/Mini: 4-6 years old
Level 2/Beginner: 7-8 years old
Level 3/Beginner: 9-10 years old
Level 4/Intermediate: 11-12 years old (or with teacher recommendation)
Level 5/Intermediate: 13-14 years old (or with teacher recommendation)
Level 6/Advanced: 15-16 years old (or with teacher recommendation)
Level 7/Advanced: 17-18 years old (or with teacher recommendation)