Hip hop dance refers to dance styles, mainly street dance styles, primarily danced to hip hop music, or that have evolved as a part of the hip hop culture.

The first and original dance associated with hip hop is breakdance, which appeared in New York City during the early 1970s and truly became a cornerstone (or "element") of hip hop as a culture. In the 1990s, as hip hop music took new forms, new dance styles began appearing, most of them danced in an upright manner in contrast to breakdance with its many ground moves.

These later styles are sometimes referred to as new school or new style while the older styles, including breakdance and various funk styles that were incorporated into hip hop, are considered old school.

Hip hop dancing is evolving in many different directions today, heavily influenced by the evolution of hip hop music and its popularity in media, surrounded by heated debates on history and authenticity.

Old school

Old school hip hop dances refers to the hip hop styles that evolved in the 1970s and 1980s, and were primarily danced to funk and old school hip hop music. Breakdance appeared during this time and is said to be the first and original hip hop dance style, as it's considered a cornerstone of hip hop culture itself.

In the 1980s, many funk dance styles that originally evolved separately from hip hop, such as popping and locking, started to be incorporated with the hip hop culture as well, and could be seen combined with breakdance.

Today, many of the old school styles are as alive as ever, and can be seen at dance clubs, competitions and in the media, commonly used in popular music videos.

New School/New Style

In the 1990s, as hip hop music evolved and grew further away from funk, it became slower, heavier and more aggressive. This modern hip hop music gave birth to new styles of hip hop dancing partly inspired by the old school styles, most of them focusing on upright dancing as opposed to breakdance which is better known for its floor-oriented movements.

Some more specific styles of new school hip hop are krumping, harlem shake, snap dance, clown walk, crip walk, Chicken Noodle Soup, grinding, Wu-Tang[1], hyphy and gangsta walking.

Classifying these newer hip hop styles as a unique dance style of its own has grown common with larger street dance competitions such as Juste Debout, which includes new style as a separate category for people to compete in.

Many of the newer styles of hip hop are a common sight in today's music videos on television channels such as BET and MTV.