Prophets in Pumas: when hip hop broke out

Dance Magazine, July, 2004 by Sally Sommer

Hip hop Hip is from "hippy," meaning to open one's eyes and make oneself knowledgeable; hop is from the 1940s dance know as the lindy hop (jitterbug).

Isolations Moving one part of the body, like a shoulder or a hip, while keeping the other parts still.

Krumping A new form of hip hop emerging from L.A., with rapid-fire moves, often of the chest and pelvis.

Locking Originally called the Campbell lock after its creator, West Coast dancer Don Campbell, in the '70s funk era. Precise movements that 'lock' or stop in place before the next movement begins.

Moonwalking Lifting the ball of the foot and dragging it behind the standing foot and locking it in place, then shifting your weight and doing the same on the other foot-popularized by Michael Jackson, but dating back to the mime Marcel Marceau.

Sally Sommer is a dance writer, historian, and a professor of American Dance Studies at Florida State University in Tallahassee.