A group hip hop and funk section for a large troupe of twelve or more dancers, performing a choreographed street-dance routine of up to four minutes including tags, built around big formations, layered movement and a shared groove.
Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe is the big-crew class of a studio troupes event: twelve or more dancers on stage together, performing one prepared routine in hip hop and funk styles. Hip hop brings the bounce, hits and attitude of street and club dance; funk adds the looser, groove-led feel and the locking and popping vocabulary of the funk era. A large troupe can lean on either flavour, but the number on stage changes what the piece has to do.
With a dozen or more bodies, the picture on stage matters as much as the steps. A large troupe can build waves, staggered canons, split halves answering each other and walls of dancers that explode into scattered patterns. The price of that scale is control: the more dancers there are, the easier it is for a single late arm or a drifting line to be seen. Strong large troupes are usually the ones whose choreographer has planned every pathway and every dancer's place in each picture.
In this template each troupe is a team entry, boys and girls together, in one of six age divisions from 6 and under to 15 and over. The division is set by the oldest dancer rather than the average, with up to two dancers allowed to be as much as twelve months older than the division entered. The routine runs for a maximum of four minutes including tags and is marked out of 100 under the label Marks.
The large class sits beside a small-troupe class for four to eleven dancers so that a crew of six is not compared with one of twenty. For a studio that means one decision at entry: count the dancers who will actually be on stage and enter the class that matches. If a section has more than twenty troupes it can be divided into A and B groups on the day, so a coordinator should check the running order once entries close.
Where Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe comes from
Hip hop dance grew out of street and club dance scenes in the United States in the 1970s alongside hip hop music and funk-era styles such as locking and popping. As studios taught these styles to children and teenagers, large choreographed crew routines became a standard class in competitive dance programmes.
Where Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe is run
In the eTalenter catalogue this exact section is carried by one template, an amateur troupes-only studio dance competition held over a weekend in New South Wales, Australia, where large hip hop and funk troupes are judged alongside jazz, lyrical, contemporary and other troupe styles. Large street-style crew classes are also a feature of studio, school and eisteddfod dance programmes elsewhere, usually separated from small groups by head-count and by age.
- Australia
Key facts
- Team entry of twelve or more dancers in this template; the small-troupe class covers four to eleven
- Boys and girls compete together, with no language requirement
- Six age divisions: 6 and under, 7-8, 9-10, 11-12, 13-14 and 15 and over, set by the oldest dancer
- Four-minute maximum including tags, with an act that exceeds it liable to be cut off and disqualified
- Marked out of 100 as Marks; the syllabus prints no criteria, so the judging focus here is general advice
- Placings are First, Second, Third and Highly Commended, with no points attached in the template
On eTalenter, Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe is filed under Dance and typically scored with Marks. It appears in 1 ready-made event templates — each one can adjust its time limit, age-group assignment and scoring setup independently.
Across the templates that use it, Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe is most often entered as an Team competition, typically scored out of 100, commonly time-limited to around 4 minutes where a limit is set.
What judges look at in Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe
What a Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe panel is actually weighing up, and where the marks are usually won or lost:
- Unison across a big group: with twelve or more dancers, hits, levels and arm shapes must land together, and the panel notices the one dancer a beat behind
- Formations and staging: patterns fill the stage with purpose, spacing stays even through changes, and the layout is never cluttered or lopsided
- Groove and musicality: the whole crew reads the accents and breaks in the track and shares one feel for the beat rather than counting individually
- Style authenticity: bounce, grounding, isolations and funk textures look natural and consistent across every age and experience level in the troupe
- Use of numbers: canons, layers, call-and-response and split groups show that the size of the troupe is being used creatively, not just doubling the same steps
- Energy, focus and presentation: every dancer, including those at the back, holds the same attitude for the full four minutes, with costume and music matched to the style and age
Treat these as the judging focus, not a fixed rubric: publish your own weighted criteria for Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe under Scoring Setup, or start from our group dance judging criteria guide.
How to prepare for Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe
How entrants and their teachers usually get Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe right on the day:
- Count the dancers who will really be on stage before entering; twelve or more is the large class, and a few injuries or absences can move a troupe into the small class
- Cut the music to fit inside four minutes with a safety margin, and time the walk-on and any closing tag within it, since an over-length act can be disqualified
- Check the oldest dancer against the cut-off date, and remember only two dancers may be up to twelve months older than the division
- Draw the formations on paper or in a diagram, give every dancer a number and a mark on the floor, and rehearse each transition on its own before running the whole piece
- Rehearse in a space the same size as the stage, and practise turning corners and crossing so that a large group does not bunch up or clip each other at the edges
- Film full run-throughs from the front and from above if possible, then review unison, spacing and the back row, which is easiest to neglect
- Ideas (not rules): split the troupe into two halves that answer each other on the beat; build a wave that travels from one side to the other; or hold a deliberate freeze in the music so the whole group lands the same pose together
Frequently asked questions
Is Hip Hop/Funk Large Troupe judged individually or as a team?
Across eTalenter's templates it's most often run as an Team entry, though an organiser can set either participation type when assigning the item to an age group.
How many dancers make a large hip hop/funk troupe?
In this template a large troupe is twelve or more dancers; four to eleven is the small class. Other events set the boundary elsewhere, so check the organiser's own notice before entering.
How long can a large troupe routine be?
Four minutes in this template, including any tags. The template notes that an act running over the limit can be cut off and disqualified.
Can a large troupe have dancers of different ages?
Yes, but the division is decided by the oldest dancer, not the average, as at 1 January of the competition year. Up to two dancers may be up to twelve months older than the division entered.
What if only a few troupes enter the section?
A section with fewer than three troupes may be combined with another, and one with more than twenty may be split into A and B sections on the day. Check the final running order once entries close.
Is this the same as the Hip Hop Large Troupe section at other events?
It is similar in style, but this section is named for hip hop and funk together and uses this template's own size bands, age divisions and four-minute limit. Other events run hip hop large-group classes with different sizes and time limits, so entry details should not be assumed to carry over.
Want the full judging picture? Read our group dance judging criteria guide, or browse every dance competition item.
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