So you want to dance…
Seeing as how many people who visit it popping a locking forum are newbies, I thought I could shed a little light on the subject of dancing. Too many people want help, but don’t know where to start, While there are some good resources on the net, they are “too specific.” What I mean buy this is that they talk about a certain moves or techniques, but not necessarily about dancing in general. In reality, many n00bs need a foundation in just dance alone. I am also a n00b when it comes to popping, but I am improving at a rapid rate. The reason why I am improving so fast is from, a few different factors.
First off; ask your self, “Why do I want to learn to dance?” If your answer is shallow, that’s cool, because you may gain a new found passion later on, but it’s likely that shallow reason will end up making a quitter out of you in a week. The deeper the reason to want to learn to dance, the more likely you will want to "stick it out" during the tough times, and the better you will be in the long run. With that being said, here are the 6 areas I broke down on learning how to dance:
1) Study
2) Good foundation
3) Proper mental imaging and training
4) Physical Training
5) Practice
6) Patience
I’ll go into each one of these to show why each subject is very important.
1) Study: You need to know about the history of the dance you are doing to do it properly. Also, knowing the history, will tell how the dance should be preformed, to what music, and the like. Example, the c-walk was around since the 70’s, and done by ONLY true crips. At parties, it was a sign that this person (or these people) was crips. The move was very smooth, and done slowly because of the music that was around at the time (funk). Now-a-days it’s more faced paced and energetic because of the music and the changing times. Many people don’t know that the c-walk is seen as a giant gang symbol, others do. With a little knowledge, you will know when to do the walk, and when not to.
Think o fit this way: you may want to learn the dances of Native Americans, but not learning about the tribe the dance is from is almost like mockery just for the sake of “looking cool.” See my point?
Video clips and instructional DVDS are great way to learn on your own. Watch these over and over and over again. The DVDs are great, and the video clips from the net that you like are probably good examples of what a good dancer in your style should be able to do. Watching these and studying the movements are very important to a n00b. Also, don’t get caught up in Hollywood hype…just because you seen “You got served” or any other movie, that does you know ANYTHING about the culture, the history of the dance, or the people who do (or used to) do the dance. Remember, just about every dance has a history, and it will be good to learn it. Once you lean about the history, the type of music it came from, the type of music is suitable for the dance, some of the original innovators, and original moves, the better you will be able to “dance." You may also be able to take the dance to the next level one you have a solid foundation.
Of course some dances have a richer and deeper history than others but all dances have some kind history. You don’t need to be able to write a book about your style, but you should know something. This part should NOT be a burden, and if it is, then you probably don’t really want to learn that particular style of dance (in that case, you are a poser who just wants to look cool by learning 1 signature move).
2) Good foundation. All dancing have something in common…moving to music. With that said, Can you dance to popular music in a “general” way? What I mean, can you dance…period? I’m not talking about fancy moves, but can you move to the beat? Can you even feel the beat? If not, I suggest that you practice identifying the beat by clapping to the beat to a varity of songs. Once you can do that for just about any song (no matter the genre), then start to move on the beat. So, when the beat hits, you should be stopping your movement, changing your movement, or starting again. Not only that, but your movements should appear smooth. It should be fun for you to do, not something that makes you stress about looking stupid or something that makes you think too hard. Because I was able to dance before trying popping, popping wasn’t too hard to learn.
3) Proper mental imaging and training: Once you can dance, then you need to start to feel the music. The important part is to find music that you can lose your self into. My personal preference is funk music. With funk, it’s really easy for me to get into the music. When I get into that zone, my moves are crisper, and its like I’m not dancing, but I’m being moved by the music. So, once you can move with the music, learn to let the music move you. Remember, you got to crawl before you can walk…this ability to be moved by the music may not come right away.
Now, to do this, you got to have dancing on your mind a lot. You can do this by dancing alone (practice), dancing with friends, watching videos and watching other art forms you may be able to incorporate into your style. For me, a black male, I dance just about anytime I hear a good beat. If the song has a nice rhythm, I’m dancing…it’s just what black people do…its in our culture. If you do the same, it will help you in the long run. Consider it a mini-practice…the more mini practices, the better. They will make your real practices and actual “performances” better. In the end, if you aren’t having fun, just stop right now, you are wasting your time. Its all about having fun!
4) Dance is a physically demanding activity. If you are not in shape, you won’t be as good as a person that is in shape. If you treat dance as a sport, then you would want to do exercise that pertain to your “sport” for example, I play college basketball, so when we lift, we do back squats, hang and power cleans, hang snatch, and other exercises that will help build explosive power. We do these because they translate over to our sport. We also do things that help the muscles we need to shoot and pass. We don’t do things that a foot ball player would do, because it’s pointless, because we don’t play football, therefore we don’t do the same motions or use our muscles in the same way. The same can be said for dancing. You don’t need to do snatch and jerk, but lunges may be good for your style of dance. See what kind of movements you do a lot in your style of dance, and find an exercise that can go with it.
Most likely, you will need to build a really strong core. Your core is basically the middle of your body…all of your strength comes from there (abs, gluts, buttocks etc). You may also want to try to get some ankle weights and wrist weights, and dance with them for brief periods of time. If you try this, use some light weight for ankle weights…too heavy can put a strain on your knees.
NOTE: I have not tied this yet, but I want to try it.
Also, lots of running and jumping rope to help build legs and to “get your wind up” (build aerobic endurance). This way, you can dance harder, longer and better.
Here some exercise I recommend if you have no access to weights. Some of these will help build your core muscles (crucial to dancing) and your main arm and leg muscles:
Push ups
Sit ups
Crunches
Leg lifts
Pull ups
Chin ups
Triceps dips
One legged body squats
Deep body squats
Lunges
If you have access to a stability ball (sometimes called a Swiss ball) I recommend you use it. It is an excellent way to build your core. You can do pushups on them; balance your body as you do certain dumbbell lifts, or just keeping your balance on the ball in various positions.
Without doing exercises, your dancing will suffer…and you will look bad with no shirt
I recommend you exercise at least 3 times a week on top of any practice you do. 15 to 45 minutes is more than enough time, but you are not limited by any means. Also, stretch every day, even if you are not going to workout or practice. When you lift, make sure you get a lot of carbohydrates and water. This is especially important when you ar finished working out or practicing.
5) Practice: This goes without saying, but you’d be surprised on how many people don’t know how to practice effectively. Before you begin, you must warm up THEN stretch. DO NOT STRETCH COLD MUSCLES!! First warm up by running a bit, jumping a little rope, or doing jumping jacks. Do a few pushups and sit ups. Whatever you do, before you stretch, you should have broken a small sweat. Now that your heart rate is up, stretch everything. Now you are ready to begin.
Its one thing to get up and dance, but in order to be good, you must work hard on the things you are not good at. Example, if you suck at hitting, work on that for a good period of time. Then try to incorporate it with other stuff that you do.
When we have bball practice, first we work on fundamental skills. I have been playing basketball for 15 year, yet I still work on fundamentals. Anybody who wants to be good does that. After that, we start running while working on more skills. Then we start to put everything together with tine scrimmage like situations. Then we break down the part of team play we need to work on for most of practice. This includes going over plays, executing them properly, working on defense etc. Finally we just play. This is the time where everything MUST come together…it’s the whole reason why we practice, to get ready to play games.
I try to follow the same format with popping. This means, I start by just kind moving to the beat. Then I warm up my muscles, followed by working on hitting and waving and other basics. Afterwards, I start to chain moves together. I may go back to work on a special part of this “chain” or mini routine if something isn’t looking right. After a while, I just freestyle dance, and have some fun. This has given me some good results, so maybe it can help you too.
You want to work hard, and push yourself, but don’t over do it. Sometimes it’s good to dance while tired because it will force you to concentrate harder…other times its pointless when you are tired. Just use your best judgment.
6) Patience: Remember, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. You won’t improve over night, nor will you get in shape over night. Just remember to give your self time to improve. It takes time, but if you really want to achieve this goal, you will do it. Also, don’t be discourage by better dancers, instead try to learn form them. See what makes them so good, and try to do what they do. If you can, talk to them, it never hurts to ask for help. In this way, you can learn something from them by either dancing with that person, or being taught directly by that person. Also, when you ask for advice be ready to take any criticism. Most people want to help, so take what they say and see if you can learn from it. If you run into some jerk that is trying to break you down, well, you can also learn from what that person has to say. Just pick out the negative non-constructive comments from the auctual criticism and then go on from there.
NOTE: this isn’t always easy or possible
When watching people or videos, try to break down the movements you see in video clips and working on those little details. You will see the main movement easily, but watch the feet, what one arm is doing, or how the legs move when the person transitions from one move to the other. Things like that will help you learn how the move is done and give you some appreciation on how tough (and cool) dancing is.
See if you can get the videos to play in Slo-mo to help you with this (windows media player 10 has this feature now, as well as quick time, and just about all DVD players have a slo mo feature). If you keep a humble heart and an open mind, you can achieve anything.
Good luck!
WOW! -
11-04-2004, 08:20 AM
