Hip hop dance has spent five decades evolving from Bronx block parties to Olympic sport and global phenomenon. When we talk about "advanced" moves today, we're often referencing techniques that took years to develop—and continue transforming through new generations of dancers. This article examines five foundational techniques that remain essential to understanding hip hop's movement vocabulary, from 1980s breakdancing innovations to styles that crossed over from parallel street dance traditions.
1. The Worm: Breakdancing's Floor-Bound Classic
The worm emerged from 1980s breakdancing (breaking) culture as a crowd-pleasing power move. Performed low to the ground, it requires the dancer to initiate a body wave from the shoulders, transmit it through the hips, and use that momentum to launch the body momentarily airborne before landing and repeating the sequence.
Why it persists: The move demands precise core control, timing, and spatial awareness—skills that translate directly to contemporary floorwork. While associated with 1980s peak breaking popularity, the worm remains a staple in cypher culture and battles, often deployed as a nostalgic showstopper or incorporated into more complex sequences.
2. Tutting: Geometric Precision From the 1980s
Contrary to "recent addition" claims, tutting crystallized in the early 1980s through dancers like Mark Benson ("Mr. Wiggles") of the Electric Boogaloos and the Rock Steady Crew. The technique draws inspiration from Egyptian hieroglyphics and King Tut imagery—hence the name—transforming the dancer's arms and fingers into angular, geometric shapes that create illusions of three-dimensional objects in space.
Technical evolution: Original tutting emphasized right angles and box-like formations. Contemporary practitioners have expanded into "finger tutting," incorporating fluid transitions between complex digit configurations, and "tutting combos" that merge with waving and popping techniques.
3. The Robot: From 1960s Locking to Hip Hop Adoption
The robot predates hip hop itself, originating in 1960s Los Angeles through Charles "Robot" Washington and later refined by Don Campbell and the Lockers. The technique isolates body parts in rigid, mechanical sequences, creating the illusion of a malfunctioning machine or automated figure.
Cross-cultural journey: While rooted in funk and locking, the robot became absorbed into hip hop's broader popping vocabulary during the 1980s. Its influence extends through animation, strobing, and dime-stopping techniques that remain central to West Coast hip hop dance styles today.
4. The Moonwalk: Pop Culture Crossover and Hip Hop Adaptation
Michael Jackson's 1983 Motown 25 performance popularized a move that actually originated decades earlier with Cab Calloway (1930s) and later street dancers like Jeffrey Daniel. The illusion—sliding backward while creating the appearance of forward walking—relies on weight distribution and precise friction control.
Hip hop's relationship: Though fundamentally a pop performance move, the moonwalk's mechanical quality influenced hip hop dancers exploring sliding techniques and illusion-based footwork. Contemporary "gliding" variations in hip hop incorporate more upper body isolation and directional complexity than Jackson's original execution.
5. Popping and Animation: The Evolution Continues
Rather than the undefined "hat dance," contemporary hip hop dance vocabulary centers on evolved popping techniques and animation styles that have exploded through social media platforms. Modern "advanced" popping incorporates:
- Tutting integration: Geometric arm work combined with chest and leg pops
- Wave manipulation: Body waves traveling through multiple planes simultaneously
- Speed control: Shifting between slow-motion illusions and rapid-fire hits
TikTok and YouTube have accelerated regional style sharing, with dancers like Jaja Vankova and the Kinjaz collective pushing technical boundaries through digital distribution.
Where Hip Hop Dance Moves Next
Understanding these foundational techniques matters because hip hop dance operates through modification and recombination. Today's "advanced" moves—whether Brooklyn's bone breaking, Harlem's lite feet footwork, or LA's jerking culture—build directly on mechanical principles developed across previous decades.
The genre's 2024 landscape includes Olympic breaking competition, viral TikTok choreography, and continued regional innovation. What separates "basic" from "advanced" now often lies not in single moves but in musicality, the ability to layer multiple techniques, and the creative recontextualization of historical vocabulary.
For dancers building technical proficiency, mastering these five foundations provides the control, isolation, and rhythmic understanding necessary to participate in hip hop dance's ongoing evolution—rather than simply repeating moves that captivated audiences forty years ago.
