Popping (a.k.a. hitting) is a funk dance and street dance style 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 is normally done continuously to the rhythm of a song in combination with other movements.
Popping is also used as an umbrella term for a group of illusionary dance styles and -techniques that are often combined with popping to create a more varied performance.
It's generally believed that the dance evolved in California in the 1970s and was originally inspired by locking. It was later incorporated into both the hip hop- and electronica dance scenes.
History
In the late 1970s a popping group called Electric Boogaloos (earlier known as the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers) made popping and some of its related styles famous by performing on the television program called Soul Train. The Electric Boogaloos themselves state that their founder Boogaloo Sam came up with the popping technique and the basics of the electric boogaloo dance style in 1975, after being inspired by one of the pioneer locking groups known as The Lockers.
Most sources from famous and old generation poppers, and people who were alive during the time, agree that the Electric Boogaloos came up with the foundations of popping and some of its related styles, while some argue that popping existed in other areas of California in the late 1960s, before Electric Boogaloos was started.
The mainstream media greatly confused the naming structure of the funk style dances by calling it breakdancing. The movie Breakin' and Michael Jackson's popularity contributed to the naming confusion as moonwalking (known as backsliding in popping terminology) came to be associated with breakdancing instead of popping.
Techniques and styles
There are a number of techniques and styles that are often combined with popping to enhance the dancer's performance and create a more varied show. When using popping as an umbrella term, these can also be considered a part of popping.
Animation
A style and a technique that attempt to imitate film characters being animated by stop motion. The technique consists of moving rigidly and jerky, using the strobing technique of halting at very small intervals or tensing of muscles, to make it appear as the dancer has been animated frame by frame. The resulting motion is also reminiscent of strobing, but with the intention of impersonating stop-motion characters and not, as in strobing, the movement itself. This style was heavily inspired by the dynamation films created by Ray Harryhausen.
See also Strobing (dance)
Boogaloo/electric boogaloo
A fluid leg-oriented style utilizing rolls of the hips, knees and head. This style was created and made famous by the Electric Boogaloos.
Main article: Electric boogaloo
Dime stopping
A technique of moving at a steady pace and then abruptly coming to a halt, as if attempting to stop on a dime. This is often combined with a pop at the beginning and/or end of the movement.
Floating, gliding and sliding
A set of footwork-oriented techniques that attempt to create the illusion that the dancer's body is floating smoothly across the floor, or that the legs are walking while the dancer travels in unexpected directions.
Main article: Floating, gliding and sliding
Liquid dancing
An illusionary dance style that focuses on flowing and continuous liquid-like motions, with concentration on the fingers, hands and arms. It is stylistically connected to - and often mixed with - waving. Liquid dancing is common in rave culture, and some dancers consider it a complete style of its own.
Main article: Liquid dancing
Popping/hitting
The technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to create a jerking effect (a pop or hit) in the dancer's body. Popping can be concentrated to specific body parts, creating variants such as arm pops, leg pops, chest pops and neck pops.
Puppeting
A style imitating a puppet tied to strings. Normally performed alone or with a partner acting as the puppet master pulling the strings.
Robot/botting
The robot is a style imitating a dancing robot or mannequin.
Main article: Robot (dance)
Slow motion
Moving very slowly with exagerrated movements to make it appear as if the dancer is viewed in slow motion.
Strobing
Using the same principle as dime stopping, but movements between halts should be shorter, and as quick and regular as possible to give the impression that the dancer is moving within a strobe light.
Main article: Strobing (dance)
Ticking
A way of popping where the dancer pops at very small intervals.
Tutting/King Tut
Inspired by the art of Ancient Egypt, tutting exploits the body's ability to create geometric positions and movements, predominately with the use of right angles.
Main article: Tutting
Vibrating
Tensing muscles very hard, causing them to shake or vibrate.
Waving
Waving is composed of a series of fluid movements that give the appearance that a wave is travelling through the dancer's body. It is often mixed with liquid dancing.
Main article: Waving (dance)
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