In the early 1970s, the unnamed culture known today as "hip-hop" was forming in New York City's ghettos. Each element in this culture had its own history and terminology and combined together they created a cultural movement.

Hip hop dance refers to urban street-style dances, usually danced to hip hop music or derived from the hip hop sub-culture.

The genre is often broken down into two terms; old school and new school. While old school refers to the original "breakdancing" or funk-inspired sounds, new school represents what we usually see in the popular music videos and movies today.

Old school hip hop evolved in the 1970s and 1980s. The common pulse which gave life to the movement was rhythm, clearly demonstrated by the beats the DJ selected, the dancers' movements, the MCs' rhyme patterns and the writer's name or message expressed in a flowing, stylized fashion. Breakdance appeared during this time and is said to be the first and original hip hop dance style, and it's considered a cornerstone of hip hop culture itself.

In the 1980s, many funk dance styles that originally evolved separately from hip hop, such as popping and locking, started to be incorporated with the hip hop culture as well, and could be seen combined with breakdance.

Old school way of dancing has made a kind of "come-back" to the mainstream media, through recent reality shows and movies. Contrary to popular belief however, there is more to hip-hop than breakdancing. New School especially combines many of the elements of the classic "jazz" style, but in a more rhythmic and modern way.

As we complete the third decade of what has been termed "hip-hop culture," much has yet to be explored regarding its roots, history, terminology and essence.

Hip-hop dancing is widely believed to have originated in New York City. Although some dance forms associated with hip-hop did develop in New York City, half of them (i.e. popping and locking) originated and developed on the west coast as part of a different cultural movement. Much of the media coverage in the 1980s grouped these dance forms together with New York's native dance forms (b-boying/girling and Brooklyn uprocking), labeling them all "break dancing." As a result, the west coast "funk" culture and movement were somewhat overlooked.

In the 1990s, as hip hop music evolved and grew further away from funk, it became slower, and more aggressive. This modern hip hop music gave birth to new styles of hip hop dancing partly inspired by the old school styles, most of them focusing on upright dancing as opposed to breakdance which is better known for its floor-oriented movements.

Some more specific styles of new school hip hop include; krumping, harlem shake, snap dance, clown walk, crip walk, grinding, Wu-Tang, hyphy and gangsta walking.

There are many hip hop dance competitions around the world today, geared towards many different dance genres.

The World Hip Hop Championships in America is currently the largest and arguably most respected of the International competitions for Hip Hop Dance featuring the worlds most recognized dance crews and nations.

Juste Debout is a large, international and annual street dance competition held in Paris, which includes hip hop new style, Popping, Locking, House, and Experimental categories.

I DO, The International Dance Organization holds many competitions every year. The most important of them are the European Street dance Championships and the World Championships which are held in Bremen, Germany each year.