Hip Hop Dance (Continued...)
Today techniques such as contracting and releasing of the muscles can be commonly found in hip hop dance routines and brought in amongst more standard hip hop techniques.
Certain styles are also commonly found in hip hop dance, for example waving and popping are often found in routines. These styles are also of course a part of hip hop dance's history.
These styles can often be mixed easily into hip hop and create beautiful effects when mixed with standard techniques which is why you will often find them in use.
Another element of hip hop dance that is found is a resistance against the movement. There are moves which are looser and based more around the bounce and groove and there are also movements where it looks like the dancer is resisting against the movement.
This technique helps to slow down the movements and can also be used to gain greater control over faster moves. These resisting moves can be combined with other types of movement as well so the whole dance doesn't look like a dance of resistance.
It is commonly combined with a stopping of the movement after a deal of resisting has taken place prior. The movement can then begin again or transition into something else.
This technique is especially common in the new style hip hop of today and is taught in many dance studios around the world. It is a fairly new development.
Whereas the whole concept of resisting against the moves is not entirely new in dance, it is the way it is done in hip hop dance and the frequency that the technique is used that makes it unique.
There are also new developments taking place in hip hop dance such as the emergence of lyrical hip hop. This is kind of a fusion between lyrical, contemporary and other technique styles with hip hop where the emphasis is on telling a story through the dance.
In lyrical hip hop the dancers seem to do hip hop movements but almost float through the movements rather than stopping or resisting as much (as is common in hip hop traditionally).