Provide a 5 pages analysis while answering the following question: History of Hip Hop Dance. Prepare this assignment according to the guidelines found in the APA Style Guide. An abstract is required.
When asked about the origins of hip hop dance, eminent breakdancer Rennie Harris said, “One of the things I realized is that the very first time in the Middle Passage that slaves were made to dance in shackles to rhythms of tea kettles is the birth of Black contemporary art” (as cited in Forman 2004, pg. 104). As early as the 1920s proto-hip hop dance moves can be seen in the dancing style of Earl Tucker’s‘ Snake Hips’. Tucker incorporated methods of waving with his arms, and sliding techniques, both of which are mainstays of contemporary dance forms.
The music of James Brown also had considerable influence on hip hop dance. Brown’s drum beats, particularly as evidenced in the work of Clayton Fillyau, influenced much of the syncopation in early hip-hip dance, and had a later day profound effect on the development of the hip hop music medium. While clearly African American slave culture, through ragtime, and New Orleans jazz has had an indelible influence on hip hop dance, it is most directly influenced by the late 20th-century emergence of hip hop and rap as dominant forms of music.
Growing up in Philadelphia, Rennie Harris was trained in traditional forms of dance including tap. However, it was in the early 1970s that he became exposed to Black dance steps and gradually began incorporating them into his repertoire. He became known for the promotion of ‘stepping’ – a form of dance derived from both Black social dance steps and tap dancing. Through stepping separate groups of dancers competed. During this period the Black Arts Movement began looking seriously at those forms of social folk dances and hired Harris to perform in Philadelphia schools, where his name and dance style gained wide acclaim.
In New York, similar developments were occurring. Dancers such as Apache and Rubber Band began introducing similar dance steps in New York discos. . Their style became known as Uprocking and Brooklyn Rock. Similar to California, boogaloo dance groups have begun purveying a dance style known as strutting. (Forman 2004) .  .
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