Be it hip hop-inspired breakdancing or the theatrical dancing of Cirque Du Soleil, a lot of modern dance has its roots in ballet. However as music and culture has changed over the years so classically trained dancers have branched out into new areas. Some of the most famous street dance styles of today, such as breakdance, 'popping' and 'locking', began appearing across Europe around the 1970s, and hip hop 'new style' and 'house dance' around the 1980s.
In fact, all forms of modern music have influenced street dance including the electronic music that's so popular in Germany. The iconic band Kraftwerk founded the electronic body music scene or 'Körpermusik' to describe their danceable electronic punk. It built a tradition of dance or 'tanz' music in Germany that launched the famous Love Parade where DJs from across the world come to play off the back of trucks driving through the streets of Berlin. One famous picture from the Love Parade is people dancing on streetlamps, trees, and telephone booths, which gave the event's nickname 'the greatest amateur circus on earth.'
And talking of circuses, Cirque Du Soleil (or Circus Of The Sun) is perhaps the biggest brand of theatre dance in the world. It was started by a group of street dancers and performers from Quebec back in 1982 as a sort of entertainers' festival - and what a festival it's become. Cirque Du Soleil has toured the world from London to Latvia combining stunning freeform dance with traditional circus productions.