Freestyle dancing is a style of physical movement, usually done to music, that isn’t choreographed or planned ahead of time. It occurs in many genres, including those where people dance with partners. By definition, this kind of dance is never the same from performance to performance, although it can be done formally and informally, sometimes using some sparse choreography as a very loose outline for the improvisation.

People usually like it not only because it is fun and good exercise, but also because it is a form of confidence-boosting self-expression. This style has been around for thousands of years and is still changing, but people usually think of genres such as hip hop when they hear the term — these categories didn’t really start to develop until the late 1970s.

Although people usually think of street or club dancing when they hear the term “freestyle dance,” individuals use various improvisational techniques in many different genres. They can make up moves in styles such as jazz, belly dance, hip hop, blues, break dance, jumpstyle, folk and electronic dance, just to name a few.