2.2. History of street dance.

Even through the beginning of the 21st century, street dancing's (what is popularly known as break dancing) history, technique and styles were seldom chronicled. Perhaps this is partly due to the fact that the style is either passed down informally or simply from dancer to dancer within groups (crews). However, by 2010, a move toward recording street dance history and recognizing it as a very important dance style (as well as cultural movement) has burgeoned.

The hip-hop dance styles b-boying, popping, and locking are some of the most popular street dance styles in Western and African American culture. Thus, those forms of hip-hop dance are the most prominently practiced street dances. These street dance styles are so common that commercialized versions have been professionally developed and choreographed for dance routines in pop, hip-hop, electronic, and R&B music videos. Breakdancing helped bring about street dance crew culture (an aspect of hip hop and electro dance), whereby the dancers would learn various street dance styles for impression and competition. These street crews usually perform in outdoor jams, leading to further styles of hip hop dance.

Another example of a street dance is house dance. House dance, which is prominently danced to house, disco, or techno music, evolved out of Chicago clubs but grew and developed in the clubs of New York. Due to the modern mainstream popularity of clubs, street and fad dances tend to evolve more often in nightclubs rather than outdoor spaces. However, they may be practiced in outdoor spaces. Many club and rave dances are also street dances. The majority of rave dances, like club dances, are street dance styles since rave culture is prominently an underground movement. Rave culture, like hip-hop culture, is vastly diverse and there are many different music genres each of which have individually prominent vernacular dance styles. Amongst the electronic dance community, street dances in the form of club and rave dances are mainly revolved around a consistent rhythm and flow. Hip-hop dance styles like popping, tutting, roboting and liquiding, due to their futuristic-psychedelic theme and/or movements, have been widely adopted amongst the electronic dance community. From out of the electronic dance community, street dances like Tecktonik (an example of a house dance) and Jumpstyle (an example of a rave dance) have emerged. Unlike many hip-hop dances, house and rave dances are usually heralded more 'fun' than 'competitive', although most street dances start like so before being adopted for competition or any other purpose since nobody legally owns them. Generally dances like the Shuffle are not applied as a dance for battling, rather for dancing in the crowd at a rave party. This distinguishes rave dance from partner and competitive street dance forms. However, many people do perform rave dances as expressively competitive dance.

Punk dance (also known as the thrash dance, or simply thrashing) is a form of street dance that is performed impromptu in large crowds. While the punk dance is considered a fad dance, its origins also make it a street dance. The dance originated amongst the punk rock community and was made popular by the band, Sex Pistols. The dance styles are most popular amongst hardcore styled music concerts or raves, as well as busy nightclubs. The most modern form of punk dance is hardcore dancing.

Adaptions to these street dances are today practiced at both dance studios and other spaces, i.e. studio hip-hop dance is the commercial version of hip-hop dance. Dance studios often dub the commercial adaptions as street dance, regardless to the fact they aren't 'absolutely' by true definition. Some schools use street dance as a form of physical education. Another example is the Cha Cha Slide, Electric Slide and Cupid Shuffle, which are street dance influenced line dances. While line dances may be considered street, vernacular, or folk dances, they usually require professional instruction (for choreography) and integrate moves derived from studio dance styles. Copyright issues have also appeared in the past, whereby a professional choreographer had tried to declare that they invented a street dance when they hadn't (such dance styles evolve between several people socially within a group; a group that listens to same music or shares the same traditions, for example). One notable case of false copyright claims was when Ric Silver claimed that breakdancing and roboting were of their own invention. Theoretically, breakdancing was influenced by the interest of James Brown's music by Afro-Americans and Puerto Ricans in the Bronx during the early-to-mid 70s.