How Popular Is Street Dance Becoming?
Street dance seems to have really taken off in recent years. Where has it come from? Well the truth is that it has been around for many years, though in its current form it is relatively new.
Street dance has had an audience for quite some time, it's just that it was fairly underground. What is different now is that it has become recognised by the media and people are beginning to capitalize on its commercial value - which means you will be seeing even more of it.
There have always been passionate and raucous crowds at street dance events, and noisy chants from the friends and family of street dance crews at their stage performances.
So it's not like they are a quiet bunch. However it is perhaps thanks to television shows such as America's Best Dance Crew and Britain's Got Talent that dancers have been put in the spotlight once more - with producers discovering that it can be a ratings winner.
With such blatant exposure, it is of course not hard to see that new people will develop an interest in street dance and take it up. And as numbers will back up, the more people participating in an activity the more interest there will be in the activities and shows surrounding that activity.
Why street dance was barely given a mention by the media up to recently is a bit of a mystery. A plausible theory is that it never saw what was coming or what was happening in this area of dance.
Much of dance criticism and journalism tends to be based around the theatre or towards more technical forms that have been around for longer such as ballet.
Thus perhaps those writing about dance were not totally aware of what was going on in street dance - a totally different scene together or else had no idea how to analyse something so new that they had no background in.
Regardless of the reasons, it has made its way into public awareness with the success of the TV shows aforementioned as well as the litany of new dance shows and activites popping up.
There is a lot more activity in street dance, with a lot more going on around it that is supporting it and causing the scene to grow further.
Perhaps one of the most significant developments is the rise to popularity of YouTube. For what was largely an unknown art in many parts of the country, suddenly became something any boy or girl could connect to the internet and find out more about.
YouTube has given fame to dancers (amongst the dancers that idolize them) and is a site most of the top dancers and choreographers are using.
Thus it becomes easy for this generation to stay up to date with what's going on, and finding out through word of mouth what's hot at the moment.
There are a lot of individual styles within street dance. Some people will like a choreographer's work, others will prefer another one's work. However YouTube will show all and every style of street dance so there is every chance people will find something that they like.
Often those in a particular niche are the most passionate, wanting to know everything about it and going to teachers and choreographers to learn more.
What is interesting as well, is by dint of seeing the videos of those they admire newcomers are inspired as well. They may then learn to dance and create their own dance crews as well.
So dance groups are popping up everywhere and all over the country. Whereas it was the main cities such as London before, now YouTube makes street dance accessible to all.
A new street dance crew in an area that didn't previously have one is all that it takes in many cases. This can start the motion of more dance crews popping up as more dancers become trained in the street dance styles.
Anyone can get on the internet and watch dance videos and so anyone can be inspired. Geography becomes of less importance.
With dance films, dance shows and the like making the most of the current climate it is sure that the popularity of street dance will continue. In fact it is probably the fastest growing of all the dance styles.
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