Popping

Popping was created by Sam Solomon in Fresno, California and performed by his crew the Electric Boogaloos.It is 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. Each hit should be synchronized to the rhythm and beats of the music. Popping is also used as an umbrella term to refer to a wide range of other closely related illusionary dance styles such as strobing, liquid, animation, and waving that are often integrated with standard popping to create a more varied performance. In all of these sub-genres it appears to the spectator that the body is popping hence the name. The difference between each sub-genre is how exaggerated the popping is. In liquid the body movements look like water. The popping is so smooth that the movements do not look like popping at all; they look fluid.The opposite of this is strobing (also called ticking) in which the movements are static, sudden, and jerky.


Popping—as an umbrella term—also includes gliding, floating, and sliding which are lower body dances done with the legs and feet. When done correctly a dancer looks like they are gliding across the floor as if on ice.Opposite from gliding is tutting which is an upper body dance that uses the arms, hands, and wrists to form right angles and make geometric box-like shapes. Sometimes the arms are not used at all and tutting is only done with the wrists, hands, and fingers. In both variations, the movements are intricate and always use 90° angles. When done correctly tutting looks like the characters on the art of ancient Egypt hence the name—a reference to King Tut.




While popping as an umbrella term is popularly used by hip-hop dancers and in competitive hip-hop dancing, Popin' Pete of the Electric Boogaloos disagrees with the use of the word "popping" in this way. He states "There are people who wave and there are people who tut. They’re not popping. I say this to give the people who created other styles their just dues and their props."Many of these related styles (animation, liquid, tutting, etc.) can not be traced to a specific person or group. The Electric Boogaloos themselves acknowledge this (see quote box). Other styles may have influences earlier than hip-hop. Earl "Snake Hips" Tucker was a professional dancer in the 1920s who appeared in the film Symphony in Black and performed at the Cotton Club in Harlem.Because hip-hop did not exist in the '20s his style was considered jazz but his "slithering, writhing" movement foreshadowed modern waving and sliding.