Interested in dancing but anxious it isn’t for you? Don’t give up yet because there’s more to dancing than the eye can see! Start your dancing journey here by picking out what fits you.

Here are 6 dance styles I have learned during my four years of experience:

1. Hip-hop

Hip-hop is probably one of the most known style of dance. Black and Hispanic youths in America, especially the Bronx in New York, pioneered the style as a means of an escape from their daily struggles. According to KRS-One, a hip-hop artist, the terms “hip” means “to be aware” while “hop” means “action”. Put together, “Hip-hop” means “to be aware of your own movements”. While it is often seen to be “swag”, it does not only constitute looking confident. Hip-hop requires basic elements such as grooving, popping, locking, and b-boy — though, the last three have already been considered own their own as dance styles.

2. Krump

Krump is an uncommon dance style that’s slowly gaining popularity. Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise (Krump) was founded by Ceasare Willis a.k.a Tight Eyez and co-founded by Jo’Artis Ratti a.k.a Big Mijo. The name was due to Tight Eyez’ religious background. However it can be described as the “aggressive” and “raw”. The reason behind this was Tight Eyez had a rough upbringing being part of a gang among others. Through Krump, he expressed his anger through a non-violent way. As the style evolved, it has been used to express a variety of emotions through a technique called “story-telling”.

Today, Krump is commonly performed in dance battles and mosh pits. Its fundamentals constitute stomps, arm swings, chest pumps, arm placements, jabs, and many more. Krumpers have classified themselves based on their style as either “Tight Eyez” or “Big Mijo”. The two differs in terms of groove, and extensions. The nature of the dance empowers dancers of all ages, race, and gender.

3. Urban

Urban as taught by many classes I have attended is “any dance style you want it to be”. It is a relatively new style Many if not most of today’s dancers employ Urban as one of their dance styles. Though it can constitute combinations of moves from different styles, most of the time it’s lyrical. Meaning, each step has a corresponding part to almost every word in a song. Don’t worry the songs are not danced from start to end, only about 30 seconds to a minute at most.

Thus, Urban requires knowledge from other dance styles but not necessarily mastery of each. In fact some of the steps you can formulate can be “Urban”. Most importantly, it requires precision, speed, and grooving.

4. Femme

Femme meaning “woman” in French constitutes exaggerated feminine movements described as sexy, sassy, and powerful. This style, specifically Vogue, rose from the LGBT+ community during the 1980’s. Some well-known moves that could be considered Femme are splits and twerking.

Waacking and Vogue are the main derivatives of Femme — the two have also been considered as their own styles. Both discipline usually contain moves that would mimic poses like the ones in couture magazines or Egyptian Hieroglyphs. However, Waacking from the word “whack” meaning to strike forcefully, creates a striking motion using the arms. Vogue, on the other hand, makes use of sharp movement and angles.

5. Afrobeats

Afrobeats dance originated from the blend of ethnic movements from the different regions of Africa. This dance is very rhythmic and is danced through Afrobeats music. The dance is usually taught using the English alphabet to introduce moves names from A-Z. Versions can vary depending on who’s teaching. Moreover, learning Afrobeats would also allow you to learn the culture of Africans! The steps are really simple but requires intense rhythmic skills and grooving.

All these dance styles are different because they all came from different people of different backgrounds. Dancing is more inclusive than you think, it does not discriminate. Also, these are just five of the several dance styles that I have personally learned.

You can explore for yourself and discover what you want.