Afrobeats

Afrobeats dance is a vibrant and energetic style rooted in the music and street dance cultures of West Africa, particularly Nigeria and Ghana. It's closely tied to the Afrobeats music genre. Movements are tightly connected to the layered, percussive rhythms of Afrobeats music. Dancers often respond to specific beats, lyrics, or musical accents. The style is dynamic and expressive, featuring both explosive and subtle movements. It often features grounded, bouncy movements with an emphasis on hip, chest, and shoulder isolations. Dancers groove with an infectious sense of rhythm. Intricate and playful footwork is common, often quick and rhythmically complex but performed with an effortless feel.

Animation

Animation as a dance style is a hip-hop street dance characterized by smooth, exaggerated, and cartoon-like movements that create the illusion of living animation. Dancers often use techniques such as waving, popping, gliding, and sudden freezes to mimic the fluidity and elasticity of animated characters, shifting seamlessly between sharp, mechanical motions and slow, liquid transitions. Rooted in funk and hip-hop culture, animation emphasizes creativity, storytelling, and illusion—making the body appear to defy normal physical limits while engaging the audience with playful, expressive performances.

Bollywood

Bollywood is a vibrant, expressive dance style that originates from the Indian film industry, particularly Hindi-language cinema. It’s a fusion dance form that blends elements from various Indian classical and folk dances (Bharatanatyam, Kathak, Bhangra, or Garba) with influences from Western styles like jazz, hip-hop, Latin, and contemporary. Facial expressions and hand gestures (mudras) often convey emotions and narrative, reflecting scenes from the movie or song lyrics.

Breaking

Breakdancing is a high-energy, acrobatic street dance style that originated in the early 1970s in the Bronx, New York City. It was developed primarily by African American and Puerto Rican youth and is one of the original elements of hip-hop culture, alongside DJing, MCing, and graffiti art. Movements include Toprock, Downrock footwork, windmills, flares, headspins, and poses such as baby freeze and elbow freeze.

C-pop

C-pop dance style, rooted in Chinese pop music culture, blends contemporary street dance forms—like hip-hop, jazz funk, and urban choreography—with elements of traditional Chinese aesthetics and storytelling. Performances often emphasize precision, synchronized group formations, and polished stage presence, reflecting the influence of K-pop and J-pop while retaining a distinctly Chinese identity through gestures, symbolism, and cultural motifs. The style is versatile, ranging from sharp, high-energy choreography to fluid, emotive movements that align closely with the lyrical themes of C-pop songs, creating a visually dynamic and culturally expressive performance.

Contemporary

Contemporary dance is a fluid, expressive, and versatile dance style that blends elements from various genres, including modern, ballet, jazz, and even street or cultural dances. It’s known for its emotional depth, creative freedom, and physical storytelling.

Dancehall

Dancehall is a high-energy, bold, and rhythm-driven dance style that originated in Jamaica in the late 1970s and evolved alongside Dancehall music, a genre rooted in reggae but with a faster, bass-heavy beat. It’s known for its powerful attitude, individuality, and connection to street culture.  Dancehall movements are tightly synced to the beat, with emphasis on groove, repetition, and musicality. Dancehall is confident and powerful, often featuring sharp isolations, hip movements, and athletic steps. Dancehall isn’t just about the steps—it’s about vibes, attitude, and personal flavor. Dancers are encouraged to add their own style and presence. Many dancehall moves are created in or inspired by Jamaican street parties, and the style celebrates community, fun, and liberation.

Flow-pop

Flow-pop is a hybrid dance style that fuses the fluidity and expressiveness of contemporary dance with the rhythm, groove, and sharpness of hip hop. It’s a relatively modern and evolving style often seen in concept videos, choreography showcases, and dance competitions. Flow-pop blends smooth, continuous motion ("flow") with pops, hits, and isolations typical of hip hop and popping. Dancers glide seamlessly from softness to precision. Like contemporary dance, flow-pop often emphasizes storytelling and musicality, using emotion to drive movement choices. Dancers frequently play with tension and release, shifting between soft, wave-like motions and staccato, rhythm-driven accents. The style often incorporates grounded movement and floor work from contemporary dance but also uses hip hop’s bounce, swag, and body control. RnB is a popular music genre for this style of dance.

Foundations

Dance foundations are the concepts used across many different styles of dance, which provide a larger vocabulary of movements and higher confidence. Foundations most taught to people exploring freestyle dancing the demands more individual creativity.

Bounce, Breath & Flow, Character & Expression, Footwork, Glides, Grooves, Improv, Isolations, Poses, Levels, Floorwork, Musicality, Repetition, Variations, Textures, Transitions, Waves, Tracing

Freestyle

Freestyle dance is a spontaneous, improvised form of movement where dancers express themselves in the moment without set choreography. It’s driven by music, feeling, and personal style—making it one of the most raw and individual forms of dance. It is very different from following choreography and require a different mindset. Friends often get together for cyphers or sessions to share their energy and expression with each other. Freestyle battles are where people test their skills and learn from each other. Red Bull is the most well known sponsors for dance battles.

Grooves

Grooves is a dance style—and foundational concept—rooted in the natural body rhythms and party dances of street and social dance culture, especially hip hop, funk, and house. It's all about feeling the music and moving with a relaxed, rhythmic bounce that connects your whole body to the beat. Grooves often start with a consistent bounce or rock in the body, usually through the knees, hips, chest, or shoulders. Movement flows through the entire body—not just isolated limbs. Everything is based on feeling and interpreting the beat, bass, or groove of a track.

Heels

Heels dance is a performance-driven dance style that blends elements of jazz, hip hop, street dance, and commercial choreography—all done in high-heeled shoes. It emphasizes power, precision, sensuality, and confidence.

Hip Hop

Hip hop dance is a dynamic, street-born dance style that originated in the 1970s in the Bronx, New York City, and has since grown into a global movement. Rooted in the broader hip hop culture—which includes rap, DJing, graffiti, and knowledge—hip hop dance emphasizes rhythm, groove, and personal expression. Confidence, character, and individuality are essential. Hip hop dance isn’t just about steps—it’s about how you deliver them. Urban choreography is extension of Hip Hop that often fuses with other styles.

House

House dance is a high-energy, rhythm-driven street dance style that originated in the underground house music clubs of Chicago and New York during the late 1970s and 1980s. It’s deeply connected to house music, and emphasizes freedom, footwork, flow, and musicality.

Jazz Funk

Jazz Funk is a high-energy, performance-based dance style that fuses jazz technique with the attitude, grooves, and swag of hip hop. It’s bold, sassy, precise, and commonly seen in music videos, commercial choreography, and stage performances.

K-pop

K-pop dance refers to the choreography associated with K-pop (Korean pop) music, a genre that blends elements of pop, hip hop, R&B, EDM, and more. K-pop dance is known for its precise, visually striking group choreography and plays a huge role in the global appeal of K-pop idols and groups. K-pop choreography is known for flawless group synchronization, where multiple dancers move as one. Dancers are trained to project to the camera or stage with sharp execution, facial expression, and confidence. Choreography often uses dynamic formations, level changes, and positional shifts to enhance visual impact. K-pop is taking over the world as one of the most popular styles and is all over TikTok, Instagram, & YouTube.

Krump

Krump (Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise) is an expressive, highly energetic street dance style that originated in the early 2000s in South Central Los Angeles. Known for its raw intensity and emotional power, krump was created as a positive outlet for anger, frustration, and personal expression. Krump is characterized by sharp, aggressive, and exaggerated movements—punches, stomps, chest pops, arm swings, and expressive gestures that can look chaotic but are rhythmically precise. Core elements include Stomps, Chest pops, Arm swings, Jabs, and Buckness. Krump dancers often form families or crews led by a “Big Homie” who mentors younger dancers or “Lil Homies.”

Locking

Locking is a funky, high-energy street dance style that originated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in Los Angeles. It was created by Don "Campbellock" Campbell and popularized on shows like Soul Train and by dance groups like The Lockers. Locking is characterized by sudden freezes ("locks"), exaggerated gestures, and playful, upbeat performance.

Popping

Popping is a foundational street dance style characterized by quick, rhythmic muscle contractions (called pops or hits) that create a robotic or strobing effect. It originated in California in the late 1970s, primarily from Fresno and Oakland, and is often performed to funk, hip hop, and electronic music.

Shuffle

Shuffle dance, or shuffling, is a high-energy street and club dance style that originated in Melbourne’s rave scene in the late 1980s. It’s defined by signature footwork such as the Running Man and T-Step, which create smooth, sliding, and rhythmic movements in sync with electronic music like EDM, house, and hardstyle. Over time, it evolved into styles like the heavier Melbourne Shuffle and the lighter, faster Cutting Shapes, spreading worldwide through festivals and social media. Known for its improvisation, shuffle dancing blends self-expression, fitness, and community, making it a vibrant part of modern dance culture.

Street Jazz

Street jazz is a dynamic dance style that blends the sharp, expressive movements of jazz dance with the edgy, urban influences of street dance and hip-hop. Characterized by its high energy, bold attitude, and rhythmic precision, street jazz often features isolations, body rolls, sharp arm movements, and stylized footwork. It emphasizes individuality and performance, frequently incorporating contemporary music and pop culture elements. Popular in commercial dance settings like music videos and live performances, street jazz bridges technical jazz foundations with the raw, freestyle energy of the streets, creating a powerful and visually engaging dance form.

Tutting

Tutting is a street dance style characterized by intricate, angular movements of the arms, hands, and fingers that create geometric shapes, often resembling the poses found in ancient Egyptian art (hence the name, referencing King Tutankhamun). Dancers use sharp, precise motions—such as right angles, boxes, and symmetrical patterns—to form visually striking sequences that often flow seamlessly from one position to another. Tutting emphasizes creativity, control, and illusion, with substyles like finger tutting focusing on smaller, more detailed movements. It’s frequently performed in hip-hop, popping, and freestyle battles, where dancers showcase their ability to combine rhythm, geometry, and storytelling through highly controlled body articulation.

Waacking

Waacking is a powerful and expressive street dance style that originated in the LGBTQ+ clubs of Los Angeles during the 1970s, especially among Black and Latinx queer communities. It’s known for rhythmic arm movements, dramatic poses, musicality, and fierce self-expression—often danced to disco and funk music. Arms are thrown or rotated in circles over and around the head, creating striking visuals. Sharp, dramatic pauses that reflect attitude, confidence, or emotion—like a dancer "snapping" into a photo-ready shape. Waackers dance "inside the music"—accenting vocals, beats, and melodies with clean, intentional movement. Bold personality is essential. Dancers often embody glamour, drama, or theatrical energy. While choreography exists, waacking thrives in improv settings, especially in battles and cyphers.