POPping

Introdution

Popping is a funk dance and street dance style based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit. This is done continuously to the rhythm of a song in combination with various movements and poses.

It is genereally believed that the dance evolved in Fresno, California in the 1970s, partly inspired by Locking.

Today, Popping has been incorporated into both the Hip-Hop and electronica dance scenes to some extent.

History

In the late 1970s, a Popping group called Electric Boogaloos (earlier known as the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers) from California greatly contributed to the spread of Popping, partly because of their appearance on the television programme.

The Electric Boogaloos themselves state that around the years 1975-1976 their founder Sam Solomon (Boogaloo Sam) created a set of movemnts that evolved into the styles known today as Popping and Boogaloo after being inspired by one of the pioneer Locking groups known as The Lockers as well as a fad dance popular in the 1960s known as the Jerk.

While dancing, Sam would say the word "POP" everytime he flexed his muscles, eventually leading to the dance being called Popping.

Other closely related styles, such as the Robot, are known to have existed prior to Popping. Michael Jackson also helped popularize Popping and related styles such as the Robot and moves such as the Moonwalk, but introduced a new naming confusion as the Moonwalk was already known by a different name in Popping contexts (called Floating or Gliding) before Jackson made the move famous.

Terminology

Popping is the name given to a specific style of street dance . The name was introduced by Boogaloo Sam, the founder of the pioneer Popping group, the Electric Boogaloo, when he used the word "POP" everytime he flexed his muscles to perform the characteristic Popping technique.

Another term, Pop-Locking , gained popularity in the late 1970s and early 1980s in some circles aroud Los Angeles as a general slang term for Popping and its integrated styles. The term is controversial because some believe it generates connotative confusion by incorporating the word "Locking", which also is the name of another distinct style of street dance that is generally kept separate from Popping compared to its more integrated styles.

Characteristics

Popping is centered around the technique of popping (or hitting), which means to quickly contract and relax muscles to create a jerking effect (a pop or hit) in the popper's body. Popping can be concentrated to specific body parts, creating variants such as arm pops, leg pops, chest pops and neck pops, and can varied in explosiveness. Stronger pops normaly involve Popping both the lower and upper body simultaneously.

Normally, pops are performed at regular intervals of time to the beat of the music, causing the dance to appear very rhythmic in nature, and are often combined with stopping and holding a pose right before the pop. A common technique of transitioning between poses is the so called dime pose, heavily utilized in robot dancing as well, which basically means to end a movement with an abrupt halt after which a pop normally occurs.

Poses in Popping make heavy use of angles, mime style movements and facial expressions, and the lower body has many ways to move around, from basic walking and stepping to the more complex and gravity defying styles of Floating and Electric Boogaloo. Movements and techniques used in Popping are generally focused on sharp contrast., being ether robotic and rigid or very loose and flowing.

Here is a video of the most PROFESSIONAL AND FAMOUS Popping dance -- Salah from France