Street & Funk Styles

These styles originate in Black American communities on the U.S. West Coast. Locking was created by Don Campbell in Los Angeles around 1969–1970; popping and its boogaloo relatives developed in Fresno and the Bay Area in the 1970s (Boogaloo Sam and the Electric Boogaloos). Together they are often called 'funk styles' because they were danced to funk music and predate, but were later absorbed into, hip-hop culture. Krumping emerged separately in South Central Los Angeles in the early 2000s out of clowning. Television (Soul Train) and later film and competition spread them worldwide.

Funk styles are foundational African-American social and performance dances and a core part of the broader hip-hop/street-dance world, with their own pioneers, crews, and battle culture. Accurate attribution matters: these are not generic 'hip-hop moves' but named traditions with specific originators and originating Black communities. Krumping in particular is an intense, expressive, often spiritual release rooted in its LA community, not the 'clowning' caricature it is sometimes mistaken for.

Danced to funk, soul, disco, and hip-hop. Movement is tightly tied to the groove—hits land on accents (popping), locks freeze on the beat, and krump phrasing rides aggressive, syncopated rhythms.

Isolation and control (popping's muscle contractions, the 'hit'), freezes and exaggerated points (locking), illusion and smoothness (gliding/floating, including the move popularly called the 'moonwalk'), and explosive, grounded power and chest-pops (krumping). Battle and call-and-response are central.

Taught in studios and street-dance scenes worldwide, central to competitive battles (e.g. Juste Debout) and to commercial choreography for music videos and stage. Still transmitted within crew and battle culture as well as formal classes.