Popping in the context of "Boogaloo (funk dance)"

Street dance is an umbrella term for a large number of social dance styles such as: breakdancing, popping, locking, house dance, waacking, voguing, etc. Social dance styles have many accompanying steps and foundations, created organically from a culture, a moment in time, a way of life, influenced by natural social interaction. A street dance is a vernacular dance in an urban context. Vernacular dances are often improvisational and social in nature, encouraging interaction and contact with spectators and other dancers. These dances are a part of the vernacular culture of the geographical area that they come from.

The history of hip-hop dances encompasses the people and events since the late 1960s that have contributed to the development of early hip-hop dance styles, such as uprock, breaking, locking, roboting, boogaloo, and popping. African Americans created uprock and breaking in New York City. African Americans in California created locking, roboting, boogaloo, and popping—collectively referred to as the funk styles. All of these dance styles are different stylistically. They share common ground in their street origins and in their improvisational nature of hip hop.

More than 50 years old, hip-hop dance became widely known after the first professional street-based dance crews formed in the 1970s in the United States. The most influential groups were Rock Steady Crew, The Lockers, and The Electric Boogaloos who are responsible for the spread of breaking, locking, and popping respectively. The Brooklyn-based dance style uprock influenced breaking early in its development. Boogaloo gained more exposure because it is the namesake of the Electric Boogaloos crew. Uprock, roboting, and boogaloo are respected dance styles but none of them are as mainstream or popular as breaking, locking, and popping.

The robot, also called mannequin or dancing machine, is a street dance style—often confused with popping—that suggests the stilted movements of a dancing robot or mannequin. Roboting gained fame in the 1970s after Michael Jackson used the dance when he performed "Dancing Machine" with his brothers.

R16 Korea is an annual international b-boy tournament and urban arts cultural festival sponsored primarily by the Korea Tourism Organization and the South Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism. The main event features sixteen B-Boy crews representing fifteen countries competing in a two-day tournament for world championship titles in two categories: best crew performance and best crew battle.

The festival features graffiti artists, street wear designers, musical performers and dancers who specialize in hip-hop, popping, locking and other urban arts subcultures from South Korea and other countries.

The moonwalk, or backslide, is a popping dance move in which the performer glides backwards but their body actions suggest forward motion. It became popular around the world when American singer Michael Jackson performed the move during the performance of "Billie Jean" on Motown 25: Yesterday, Today, Forever, which was broadcast in 1983; he later incorporated it in tours and live performances. Jackson has been credited as renaming the "backslide" to the moonwalk and it became his signature move.

The Electric Boogaloos are a street dance crew responsible for the spread of popping and electric boogaloo. The name "Boogaloo" came from a song called "Do a Boogaloo" by James Brown, which was also adapted as a Boogaloo street dance done from Oakland, CA. They were founded by Boogaloo Sam in Fresno, California in 1977. Their original name was the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers but "Lockers" was dropped the following year.

On January 25, 2012, The Electric Boogaloos were honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 13th anniversary show of The Carnival: Choreographer's Ball, for their role in popularizing dance styles such as popping and electric boogaloo, presented by choreographer and dancer Toni Basil.