LA Style Dance: Surprising Facts & History You Need to Know

LA Style is an amazing dance direction that combines hip-hop and jazz-modern. This spectacular dance is primarily aimed at large audiences, so it has a distinct performance character and is usually performed in groups. As a result, LA Style always makes a huge impression on viewers, delivers a rich emotional bouquet, and enjoys great popularity among young people. As we know, the dance has its roots in the hip-hop movement of Los Angeles, but its history and characteristics are not straightforward; on the contrary, they have many interesting nuances, which we invite you to explore in this article. Perhaps the facts below will be new and surprising to you, allowing you to broaden your horizons in dance culture and get even closer to LA Style. Interesting Facts About LA Style Almost all sources point to Los Angeles as the birthplace of LA Style, but that’s not entirely accurate. You may not know this, but the dance actually originated in New Orleans in the early 1980s. It was created by talented choreographers from dance studios where jazz was taught to the upper-class citizens. Only later did LA Style reach the United States and achieve a high level of popularity there. Often LA Style is called New Style, but that is a serious mistake because these names represent completely different independent styles. The fact is that New Style is filled only with various genres of hip-hop. Moreover, improvisation and technique play a big role there. In LA Style, on the contrary, elements from completely different dance directions, such as jazz and modern, are combined. Also, improvisation is not typical for this dance; instead, precision and beauty of movement are important.

What Makes This Direction Stand Out?

LA Style is first and foremost a stage direction, a bright show. That’s why the dance is often used in various major projects: films, musicals, music videos, and even commercials. You can see it in the musical stage works of the most famous international stars, such as Beyoncé or Justin Timberlake. Thus, in the modern world, LA Style has become a very popular and widespread style. Many people tend to think that its hip-hop origins imply that LA Style is a fun, club dance performed to fast music. Surprisingly, this is far from the case. The style is dominated by movements from directions such as Contemporary, jazz, and jazz-modern, so this dance is quite lyrical and, most often, has an interesting storyline and meaningful message.