Hip hop is a specific kind of movement that expresses the following concepts of the timing and rhythmic cadences (rappers). Hip hop is also dressing with a clothing that cancels the shape of one’s body and eliminates the difference between men and women, conforming to a way of looking … and then distinguishing oneself with singing ability ( Rappers ) or ability to create complex movements and increasingly original and personalized acrobatics ( Breakers ). The movements were taken for a variant of aerobic gymnastics in the gym … but did it mean?
‘ hip hop is a lifestyle of street children, a way of life and expression of youth groups in particular of those guys who live in the ghettos of American multi-ethnic metropolis.
The roots from which Hip Hop is born can be found precisely in the mix of African rhythms, South American dances (Capoeira), Asian movements of Thai chi or Kung fu and infinite tribal and multi-ethnic rhythms that come from all the ethnic groups that have merged into States in the past century .
The first Hip hop techniques were born in the early 70s with the Break Dance of the New York ghettos and then propagated with the styles Popping (frenetic and explosive movement) and Locking (blocked movement) in the west coast of California, especially in Los Angeles.
The young people who practiced these techniques were called Street Dancers (street dancers) and performed inside circles drawn on the asphalt, where everyone challenged a partner to express his movement skills, seeking the consent of others and thus becoming winning against his opponent.
A sort of contactless combat, which transformed the violent and negative confrontation between the ghetto youth gangs in a positive and creative attitude of challenge.
Hip hop in the gym
The success of this new physical expression has become a sort of branch of Modern Dance in that all the elements that characterize the family are present:
- rhythm
- time
- syncopated movements
- form
- interpretation
The most popular styles are:
- POPPING
- LOCKING
- B-BOYING (Breaking)
They are styles that differ in explosiveness and speed of movement (popping), for the isolation and blockage of the joint movement (locking), for the acrobatic abilities (breaking), but they do not enclose here all the expression of the Hip Hop movement .
Hip Hop dance is a way of expressing oneself according to one’s psycho-physical and motivational abilities, it is the externalization of one’s personality and one’s idea through the body movements that are more congenial to one’s ego and one’s own way of relating to the outside.
Many of the leaders of this movement are opposed to an attempt to codify hip hop dance into a commercial physical activity to be practiced in gyms or in dance groups.
In effect, the codification of movements completely depersonalizes the soul of this new way of expressing itself, thus proposing only flat and boring reproductions without meaning.
