Regional City Dances

When I meet someone new, I often ask them where they are from, naturally. If it's a place I recognize as having a specific dance culture, then I usually ask if they grew up doing that dance. For example, if I meet someone from Chicago, I like to ask if they know how to Footwork. It provides me a glimpse into what kind of person I'm talking to--their age, where in the city they grew up, their cultural connections, etc. The more I do this, the more it broadens my understanding of the world and how it all works together.

So, from what I've gathered in all my inquiry and research is this: usually the popular street and/or social dances that we know of in the US post-1965/Civil Rights Era come from specific cities in the US, typically with large Black American populations. Originally, these dances are solely local dances. Over time, some become amalgamations of movements done collectively, and then that becomes a greater movement or a Style as we would call it in the street dance community.

If we look at the dance known as Oakland Boogaloo, it contains a series of smaller, local social dances done at parties, talent shows, or clubs. Then some folks from Fresno, California visit Oakland and they end up taking some of those social dances back home with them. Then, the Fresno dudes move to Los Angeles and create their own dance, which later becomes known as Electric Boogaloo. And both Oakland Boogaloo and Electric Boogaloo fall under an umbrella dance known as Popping. Depending on one's school of thought, Popping = Electric Boogaloo exclusively, or Popping = an umbrella term for multiple styles of dance, which are in themselves combinations of other social dances and/or techniques.

How I've presented it is relatively linear, but culture is messy, and so are the histories of these dances. As far as I am aware, it is virtually always the case that the music comes first, then the dances, then the names for the dances. As far as what moves get added in where, who comes up with what, what was the inspiration for XYZ, and how moves changed over time? Largely oral history. Gotta talk to people!