What is "hakken"

Hakken (sometimes Hakkûh) is a form of rave dance originating from the Dutch Hardcore and Gabber scene. The term is mostly associated with the Gabber subculture. The dance is very similar to earlier European folk dance and is thought to be a sub form of zapateo with less airborne moves (unlike jumpstyle, for example, which features the "drunken sailor" style of jazz dance and high kicks). Music one is able to do the dance to is also called hakmuziek. The name is derived from the Dutch verb hakken which generally means logging, chopping, or hacking.

In Australia, the dance is mainly referred to as gabber (noun) or gabbering (verb), named after the music it is performed to. Despite the fact that it is called "Gabber", it is usually performed to music of the hardstyle genre by most people in Australia.

The dance consists of small steps that quickly follow to each other to the rhythm of the bass drum. The lower body (down from the pelvis) is the most important part, though it is not unusual to move the arms and torso too.

The dance is mainly performed to Hardcore techno and more specifically Gabber music. Because one is supposed to keep up to the beat of the song, the dance is usually done fairly quickly, since the BPM of this music style can easily reach 190 BPM.