Hip Hop Dance Videos

Hip Hop Dance Videos

Thanks to the digital revolution, finding hip hop dance videos is easier than ever. Not all videos and websites are created equal though, so you may want to check these suggestions out.

The Web is Made for Hip Hop Dance Videos

While hip hop is currently a recognized art form, its roots are in the streets, where dancers, rappers and graffiti artists got together and showed each other new moves, new beats, and practiced and shared the development of the movement vocabulary.

That hasn't changed - hip hop dancers still share all of those things. The difference is the street; whereas it could still be outside their door, it can also be on their computer monitor. Websites such as YouTube have made it so easy to film and upload video, people can put hip hop dance videos up faster than the video itself is recorded. Through social media networks, other dancers can view, comment on, and upload their own versions of dance moves in response to uploaded videos.

Communities of B-boys and Girls

While YouTube and other video sharing sites do have a pretty good set of community building tools, there are some sites that are devoted exclusively to the art of hip hop. Some, like Hip Hop Dance Spot, have professional dance teachers and performers on videos ranging from general techniques to specific move-by-move routines. The site does charge for membership, but it has more than hip hop videos. Articles on style, music, and other aspects of the art are there as well. One of the nice things about the dances is that they are broken down into skill levels so that you can get an idea of whether a move you saw is within your range of ability or if you need to develop more skill.

Other communities such as Hip Hop Pow provide content for free, but it's going to not be as robust as the other, paid sites. Remember that going through YouTube is always a useful tool, and always free - you can find related videos fairly easily as well.

Mainstream Hip-Hop Videos

Hip hop dance has also moved off the streets and into the mainstream, so it is natural that the original music video channel, MTV, would have a site dedicated to hip hop. While there's not much there in the way of actual dance instruction, some of the finest and freshest moves can be seen on the videos. They also feature commentary shows like "the Hip Hop Insider" and lyrics and interviews with the artists, all in a streaming video format.

Hip Hop Dance on DVD

The one problem with online videos is that you need a very high bandwidth in order to actually watch very good quality - something that might be necessary if you want to learn dance videos well. A solution to that problem would lie in ordering a dance DVD from a source such as Cypher Styles. The site features not only a wide variety of DVDs but also other information on street dance events.

CypherStyles also comes from the world of hip hop itself; it is not just a company hoping to make money off the hip hop dance trend. BBoy Griz, aka Barry Rabkin, founded the company to be an "uplifting force of art, strength, identity, and self expression" and works directly with independent producers of hip-hop videos (of all kinds). This means there is a lot of content available exclusively through his site, often at a cheaper price than places like Amazon.com or other bookstores.

Wherever the source of your dance video, remember that watching hip-hop moves only goes so far. To really understand it, you need to put it into your body and express yourself.

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