Hip hop was essentially developed by dancers creating their own styles and dancing “freestyle,” stringing their own unique moves together in no particular order. Over the years, terminology has been developed for particular types of hip hop moves such as the Harlem shake, krumping, two-stepping, grinding, booty popping, b-boying, locking, popping, break dancing and street.
Since this style of dance has become so popular, hip hop classes are available for kids in most dance schools across the country. The style of hip hop dance taught will largely depend on the teacher, but most dance school hip hop classes focus on "new style hip hop," which is a fusion of dance styles such as jazz-funk or lyrical hip hop. Most dance class teachers are also trained in other forms of dance such as ballet, jazz and even ballroom. Hip hop purists often disdain this form of the dance, which they call "MTV hip hop," and consider only the raw "street" form of hip hop as legitimate.
Many dance camps offer hip hop as part of their curriculum for kids ranging in age from 12 to 19. For example, hip hop is taught in dance camps at George University, Ohio State University, Pearl Studios in New York City, UC Berkeley, UCLA, University of Massachusetts and Webster University. American Dance Training Camps also offer hip hop classes at camps in Stratton, Vermont; Squaw Valley, California; Copper, Colorado; Cullowhee, North Carolina; Kerryville, Texas; Warrensburg, Missouri, and Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.
Kids can also learn hip hop in school dance programs. Many junior and senior high schools have hip hop teams that perform at school functions and often compete with other schools locally, regionally and nationally. To become a part of the hip hop team, kids will generally have to audition, so some hip hop experience is helpful before trying out.
Many DVDs and videos are available that were developed to teach hip hop dance moves to kids. Also, some Internet websites offer hip hop dance lessons online. For example, Fitness Beginnings.com has a large selection of hip hop DVDs aimed at children, and Monkey See.com offers online video hip hop instruction.