Receiving Corrections in Dance Class

Appreciate Corrections!
Don't feel self-conscious or worry that you're doing badly if your new dance teacher singles you out and "criticizes" you! It's common for inexperienced dancers to mistakenly feel picked on when the teacher stops to correct their movements. Especially if it happens repeatedly during a class, they may feel selfconscious or even hurt. When you feel like the focus of more than your share of an instructor's critiques, it may seem natural to assume that the teacher thinks your dancing is very poor, or is even irritated by your presence in class. But this is rarely the case! Giving a new student feedback is usually a welcoming gesture from a dance instructor, intended to show that they value having you in their class. Teachers view corrections as positive, because they provide an opportunity to learn. Giving them demonstrates commitment to your progress. There's also no need to be embarrassed that your classmates' attention is being drawn to your errors. More experienced students know that dancers of all skill levels benefit from corrections. In fact, many dancers hope for them! Fellow studentsand your teacherare only likely to form a negative impression if you react defensively when given corrections, or ignore them. Appreciation and effort to improve are the expected response. Incorporate corrections into your dancing as soon as possible, to the best of your ability, and you'll demonstrate your willingness to learn. If you receive lots of corrections, bask in your good fortune! Giving personal corrections is a gift of the teacher's time and expertise that comes at the cost of slowing down the teaching of class. Lots of experienced dancers wish their teacher had more time to give them individual attention!

Some Dance Terms You May Hear in Hip-Hop Class

And count
An "and count" is a half beat in the music. A whole count is one full beat.

Break it down
When a teacher refers to breaking down the choreography, they mean demonstrating the moves slowly and showing the separate elements as much as possible. This helps students understand how to achieve the desired movement. If you're confused by a move or a part of the dance where a lot of things seem to be going on at once, you may wish to ask your teacher if they can break it down.

Cleaning
Your teacher may ask the class if you want to add on to the choreography or clean, or say, "Let's clean." This refers to cleaning up the movements and making them more accurate and precise, rather than incorrect or sloppy. If a routine is challenging and the class doesn't seem to have a solid grasp of the moves taught thus far, the teacher may make a judgment call to hold off from teaching more choreography toward the end of class, and instead clean.

Combination, or Combo
At some point, you're likely to hear a routine referred to as a combination, or combo for short. This is a term more commonly used in 90-minute technique-focused classes in styles such as ballet. Traditionally, such a class begins with stretching, then progresses to practicing moves across the floor (individually or in short series). Finally, the instructor teaches a longer series of moves combined and set to music: a combination, or in other words, a dance routine.

Eight count
Most hip-hop dance instructors teach the movements in a piece of choreography in sets of eight counts. Each count is one beat in the music. Each set of eight beats is an eight count. Where an eight count starts and ends is not arbitrary, but can be heard in the rhythm of the music.

Focus
Your focus is where your eyes are looking while you dance. You'll work with your focus very little, if at all, in most beginning hip-hop classes. But in more advanced classes, it's a major element of dance. So especially in beginning/intermediate classes, there are teachers who'll ask you to change your focus at times. For instance, you may look down or to the side during a movement. If you're making a sweeping gesture with one arm, your focus may follow your hand.

Freestyle
Freestyle is dancing without choreography (such as you might do in your bedroom, at the club, or, um, wherever the mood strikes you). To give you a chance to be more self-expressive, a teacher may give you one or a few counts in the routine to freestyle before moving back into the

choreography. Experienced dancers often freestyle to the beginning of the song in class while waiting for the start of the choreography. This helps them connect with the music, which improves their dancing.

Full out
(see also Marking the routine)
Dancing full out means performing the routine with full energy and effort. Usually, this term is used to clarify what the teacher wants when the class is switching back and forth between marking the routine and dancing full out.

Groove
A groove is a large, rhythmic dance move performed using your entire body, such as you might see people doing when dancing at a party. By contrast, isolation moves use only a single part of your body. In the case of finger-tutting, an isolation could be as small a movement as extending or contracting your finger.

Half-time
(see also Tempo, Dance Sign Language: Half-time)
When a teacher refers to doing the routine half-time, they're going to slow it down to half the speed of the actual tempo of the song. Some teachers will have you do the routine half-time to counts, and some will use music.

Hold
Hold means to wait and not move during whichever count the teacher is referring to.

Isolation
An isolation is a movement that involves isolating a single part of your body and moving it, while keeping the rest of your body still.

Levels
In hip hop, the default level is plie (your knees are bent). But you'll straighten your legs some of the time, and may also go up on your toes (on releve) or down on the floor. If the teacher asks the class to pay attention to levels, they mean how high or low your body is while performing the movements.

Marking the routine

(see also Full out, Walking the routine)
As your teacher goes to switch on the music, you may hear them say, "Let's mark it," or, "This is your mark." This means they want you to do the routine at full speed to the music, but with smaller, less energetic gestures instead of the full movements.

Often, the purpose of this type of marking is to help you get the correct timing of the movements with the music. Making smaller gestures saves energy and allows you to focus more clearly on hearing the timing in the song. This is especially useful with routines where you switch back and forth between dancing to the beat and dancing to the lyrics, or you dance to other sounds in the song. When teaching choreography that requires more than usual exertion to perform, sometimes the teacher will have you mark to conserve your energy so that you'll be able to give it your all when you perform at the end of class. In this case, just bring your energy level down a couple notches. Whether you want to perform the movements fully (or close to it) or make your gestures smaller is your judgment call. Do whatever you find best helps you learn and reinforce the choreography. Sometimes teachers will say, "Let's mark it half-time." This is refers to walking through the routine slowly to counts. The main purpose is to refresh your memory and check your accuracy, so it's ideal to perform the full movements, just slowly (except perhaps large jumps, getting up and down from the floor, and other moves that are hard to slow down or take so much energy they may distract you from marking). "Let's walk it half-time" means the same thing.

Musicality
Choreographing or dancing to sounds in the music other than the beat, such as the lyrics or a sound effect, is termed musicality.

Pas de beurre
This is a French dance term borrowed from ballet. If you hear "pas de beurre" (pah de boo - ray), it's a cue that three alternating steps are coming up. One leg will cross the other during the steps; walking straight ahead isn't a pas de beurre. The steps may be either left-right-left or right-left-right and may go in any direction, so you'll still need to watch your teacher to know what kind of pas de beurre to do.

Pickup
Your ability to learn ("pick up") the movements in the dance accurately and remember them is called your pickup.

Plie
This is a French dance term borrowed from ballet. Most of hip hop is performed in plie (plee - ay), meaning with the knees bent. It's a good idea as a hip-hop dancer to learn to pay attention to whether your teacher's legs are bent or straight as they demonstrate a movement. This is essential to the dance style.

Releve

This is a French dance term borrowed from ballet. Releve (reh - leh - vay) is when you go up on your toes while dancing. This isn't nearly as common in hip hop as plie (bending your knees). In some classes, you'll never go on releve.

Take it from the top

(see also Dance Sign Language: From the top)
Take it from the top means to start from the beginning. It's one of the most common things you'll hear in class. The "top" usually refers to the very beginning of the routine. However, occasionally confusion is introduced when a teacher asks to "take it from the top" but means the top of the section of choreography the class is currently working on. Especially for our readers who are non-native English speakers, it may be useful to know that the very beginning of the routine can be distinguished as the "tippy top" or "tippity top." If in doubt, you can ask your teacher if they mean the tippy top. Many instructors will also communicate to you to "take it from the top" by gesturing, in which case it's almost certain they mean the very beginning of the routine.

Tempo
(see also Half time)
Tempo is the pace of the music: how fast or slow it is. In hip-hop class, usually the tempo is fast. If the teacher says, "Let's take it to tempo," this means that you're going to do the routine to counts, but at full speed. This is done to prepare for dancing to the music, so the speed won't come as a surprise and throw people off. If you're practicing to counts and the teacher says "That's tempo," they mean what you just did was at the pace of the music. Occasionally, the tempo is slower than people think. This is especially likely to happen when the tempo speeds up or slows down during parts of a song. After watching the class dance, the teacher may say, "Don't rush," or "You have more time than you think you do." This means people are dancing too fast in an effort not to fall behind, and are out of sync with the music. Try to listen closely to the song and match your movements to the tempo.

Tippy top, or tippity top

(See also Dance Sign Language: From the top)
The "tippy top" or "tippity top" means the very beginning of the full routine, as opposed to the top of the section of choreography the class is currently working on. Many instructors will also communicate to you to take the routine from the tippy top by gesturing.

Transition
The point where one eight count ends and the next begins is referred to as a transition. It's the movement you use to get from "eight" or "eight and" to "one." Teachers tend not to demonstrate transitions, which makes them a common source of challenge for beginners.

Walking the routine

(see also Marking the routine)
You may hear your teacher say, "Let's walk it half-time." Walking the routine half-time means performing the movements at a slower speed, without the music. Its purpose is to refresh your memory (if people are starting to forget the beginning of the routine), or to help clean up the routine by going slowly enough that you can see clearly what the movements are and whether you're doing them correctly. To better focus, you'll want to conserve the energy you put into your movements. However, unlike marking to the music for timing, it's best not to go to shorthand movements, as this will prevent you from checking your accuracy against what the teacher is doing.

Window
In dance, a window is the space within which a person can see their reflection in the mirror. To learn a dance, it helps a great deal to be able to see what you're doing and whether your movements are correct. So try not to block another dancer's window. It's important to be aware of the people around you, especially behind you, and try to stagger your lines so everyone can see.

Dance Sign Language

From the top
(see also Glossary: Take it from the top, Glossary: Tippy top)
Instead of speaking, your teacher may tap the top of their head with an open palm to indicate that you are about to practice the routine from the top. When a teacher uses this gesture, start from the very beginning of the dance. If your teacher turns the music on and gets in place to lead you, but forgets to tell you where to start, watch to see if they tap their head. Often, when they realize they forgot, they'll gesture for you to take it from the top even if that wasn't their original intention. It's the quickest and clearest way they can communicate without having to stop the music and start over. Sometimes a teacher will ask where students want to take the routine from. If you want to take it from the top, rather than straining to be heard, you can catch your teacher's eye and tap your head. In case of desperation, catching your teacher's eye at any time and making this gesture can be an effective distress signal to communicate your need to take it from the top. However, this should be done sparingly. The gesture is rarely used when a teacher hasn't requested feedback. The teacher

may be glad to oblige, or may choose not to for any number of reasons, such as that they want to finish teaching the current eight count before they go back and review.

Half-time
(see also Glossary: Half-time)
Some teachers make a "T" shape with their hands that may be familiar as a timeout signal in sports. Don't run for your water bottlethis doesn't mean it's time for a break! In dance class, the "T" symbol indicates that the teacher is about to review the routine half-time; that is, slowly. If you're feeling a little lost, the "T" gesture can be a very helpful signal to look out for. Use it as a cue to focus your attention, because the teacher is about to show the movements slowly, giving you a better chance to catch on. If you hear the word "tempo," that means things are about to speed up again! If your teacher is one of those who uses the "T" symbol, you can catch their eye and make this gesture yourself to let them know that you'd like to review the routine half-time. The teacher will use their judgment regarding the pace the overall class is moving at, so don't feel brushed off if they don't acknowledge your request. Rarely are all the students in a class at the exact same ability level and learning at the exact same speed, so teaching is a constant balancing act.

Locking (dance)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Locking (originally Campbellocking) is a style of funk dance, which is today also associated with hip hop. The name is based on the concept of locking movements, which basically means freezing from a fast movement and "locking" in a certain position, holding that position for a short while and then continuing in the same speed as before. It relies on fast and distinct arm and hand movements combined with more relaxed hips and legs. The movements are generally large and exaggerated, and often very rhythmic and tightly synced with the music. Locking is quiteperformance oriented, often interacting with the audience by smiling or giving them a high five, and some moves are quite comical in nature. A dancer who performs locking is called a locker. Lockers commonly use a distinctive dress style, such as colorful clothing with stripes and suspenders. Locking was originally danced to traditional funk music, such as that produced or performed by James Brown. Funk music is still commonly favored by locking dancers, and used by many competitions such as the locking division of Juste Debout. Locking movements create a strong contrast towards the many fast moves that are otherwise performed quite continuously, combined with mime style performance and acting towards the audience and other dancers. Locking includes quite a lot of acrobatics and physically demanding moves, such as landing on one's knees and the split. These moves often require knee protection of the sort.

History
The beginning of Locking can be traced to one man, Don Campbell. In the late 1960s he put together several fad dances adding moves of his own (known as the the "Lock") when performing. The original lock was created by accident: Don Campbell couldn't do a move called the 'The Funky Chicken' and stopped at a particular point whilst moving his arms, creating a 'locking' effect. He wasn't able to perform it fluently, for he couldn't remember which step to take next. (Even the acting towards the audience was spontaneous: when people started laughing at Don because of his unfamiliar moves, he responded by pointing at them.) These halts soon became popular as Don added them into his performances. The resulting dance was called Campbellocking, which was later shortened to Locking. In the early 1970s this set off a movement of Locking dance groups, notably Campbell's group The Lockers. Another locker called Jimmy "Scoo B Doo" Foster and Greggory 'Campbellock Jr.' Pope and others set the foundation for locking dance and clothes style. Clothes style can consist of loud striped socks, pegged pants that stopped at the knees, bright colorful satin shirts with big collars, big colorful bow ties, gigantic Apple Boy hats, and white gloves. Later locking became part of the growing hip hop dance culture, and has influenced styles such as popping, Bboying and liquidizing. Locking is still quite popular. Dancers are trying to keep it alive.

Moves

Locking may be done in solo or in unison with two or more dancers doing steps or handshakes together. A locker may smile while performing to emphasize the comical nature of the dance; other times, a serious demeanor will be maintained to place emphasis on technique. Other important stylistic features are waving of arms, pointing, walking stationary and grabbing and rotating the cap or hat. Don Campbell created the original freezes, incorporating his unique rhythm and adding gestures such as points and handclaps. Other dancers also adapted this style while creating other steps and moves. Locking is by nature an improvisational dance, but also consists of a set of signature moves of locking pioneers, such as Hilty and Bosch, Jackson 5, GoGo Brothers, Bitterbox Sisters, e.t.c. However, many lockers alter or blend these with other moves or create their own variations. In general The Lockers will often put a small pause and move up on the second and fourth beats to emphasize the locking. Alpha Created by Alpha Anderson; One leg is kicked forward from a crouching position while the upper body is leaned backwards can be supported by both hands or no hands at all. Break down/Rocksteady in the squatting position, shift the pelvis to the side, then back to center and stand up then down and shift to the other side. Jazz split A semi-split done with one leg bent, which enables the dancer to get up again in one swift movement. Whichaway Altering twirl kicks to the sides first with either right and left legs, upper body stationary with arms in front. Kick A high, quick kick of one leg while standing on the other. Knee Drop Drop to the knees with knees pointing inwards (into a W shape leg position). Leo Walk A funky two step where the first is an exaggerated step in a particular direction, followed by sliding of the second foot along the floor to meet the first. Lock/Double Lock Bending slightly forward with arms forming a circle downward, as if lifting a heavy object. Up Lock (Muscleman) Bending arms upwards, like the look of a strong man, and holding for a moment or two. Pacing

A quick punch to the side then down, with hand starting just below the shoulder. (Fist should still be open.) Pimp Walk You kick then put your feet in a shoulder width V shape, but hands stay beside the dancer. Stop and Go Created by Jimmy "Scoo B Doo" Foster; starting with a muscle man lock, step back with one foot and punch, do a quarter turn in the direction of the back foot breakdown once, and then return reacharound to the same position. Stomp the cockroach Going down on one knee, with the other leg pointing out to the side, then pounding the floor. Scoo B Doo Created by Jimmy "Scoo B Doo" Foster; doing a muscle man lock then doing two separate kicks while pacing with one hand in time with the kicks Scoo B Doo walk Created by Jimmy "Scoo B Doo" Foster; Walking forward, lifting leg up and bending your back towards the knee Scoobot Created by Jimmy "Scoo B Doo" Foster; One arm and leg out then switching to the other leg. Leg out and arms crossed then wrist twirl andclap behind Scoobot hop Slightly varied from scoobot with legs hopping towards the sides then the front. Floor Sweep Using your hand to swiftly move left to right on the floor, as if using a cloth to wipe. The Skeeter Rabbit/Skeeter Rabbit Around the World Created by James "Skeeter Rabbit" Higgins; a kick and shuffle hop move, either at the sides and/or front and back. Funky Guitar Hands positioned as if holding a guitar, and start walking backwards. Point A quick, extended pointing gesture coming from opposite shoulder, usually held for a few seconds for emphasis. Wrist Twirl

Twirling wrists while moving arms up The Seek Doing a breakdown whilst rolling your arms in front of you and then lifting a hand up over your eyes as if you are looking/seeking for something Hitch Hike Arms up and then crossed in front of you, and then three hitchhiker thumbs up to the right and then the left.

Popping
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article is about the street dance style. For other uses, see Popping (disambiguation).

Part of the series on

Popping

Related styles

Electric boogaloo Floating Robot Strobing Tutting Waving

See also

Funk styles Hip-hop dance Locking view

Popping is a street dance and one of the original funk styles that came from California , in the African American community during the 1960s-1970s. It is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body, referred to as a pop or a hit. This is done continuously to the rhythm of a song in combination with various movements and poses.[1] Popping is also used as an umbrella term to refer to a group of closely related illusionary dance styles and techniques that are often integrated with popping to create a more varied performance, such as the robot, waving and tutting. However, it is distinct from breaking and locking, with which popping is often confused. A popping dancer is commonly referred to as a popper. As one of the earliest funk and street dance style, popping is closely related to hip hop dancing. It is often performed in battles, where participants try to outperform each other in front of a crowd, giving room for improvisation and freestyle moves that are seldom seen in shows and performances, such as interaction with other dancers and spectators. Popping and related styles such as waving and tutting have also been incorporated into the electronica dance scene to some extent, influencing new styles such as liquid and digits and turfing.
Contents
[hide]

1 Terminology 2 Characteristics 3 Music 4 Related styles and techniques 5 Notable poppers 6 See also 7 References and notes

[edit]Terminology
As stated earlier, popping has become an umbrella term for a group of closely related styles and techniques that have often been combined or danced together with popping, some of which are seldom seen outside of popping contexts.[2] However, the use of popping as an umbrella term has been criticized on the grounds that its many related styles must be clearly separated so that those who specialize in more specific styles aren't classified as poppers (ex: a waver, a tutter, a strober).[1] It is often assumed[by whom?] that popping is a style of breakdance. This is due in large part to the movies Breakin' and Breakin 2: Electric Boogaloo. In these movies all styles of dance represented, (breaking and the funk styles: popping, locking, and electric boogaloo) were put under the "breakdance" label causing a

naming confusion. This caused the media to associate funk styles with hip hop music and assume that popping and electric boogaloo were the same as breaking. The difference between the two is that breaking originated in the Bronx, New York and is danced a lot on the floor while popping and boogaloo got developed in various places in California and are danced almost entirely standing up.

[edit]Characteristics
Popping is centered around the technique of popping (or hitting), which means to quickly contract and relax muscles to create a jerking effect (a pop or hit) in the body. Popping can be concentrated to specific body parts creating variants such as arm pops, leg pops, chest pops and neck pops.[3] They also can vary in explosiveness. Stronger pops normally involve popping both the lower and upper body simultaneously. Normally, pops (or hits) are performed at regular intervals timed to the beat of the music, but the popper can also choose to pop to other elements of the song, or pop at twice or half the speed of the beat. To transition between poses, most poppers use a technique called dime stopping, common in robot dancing, which basically means to end a movement with an abrupt halt (thus "stopping on a dime"), after which a pop normally occurs. To create variation, poppers often mix in other styles as well, such as waving or tutting, which creates a sharp contrast to the popping itself. Poses in popping make heavy use of angles, mime style movements and sometimes facial expressions. The lower body has many ways to move around from basic walking and stepping to the more complex and gravity defying styles of floating and electric boogaloo. Movements and techniques used in popping are generally focused on sharp contrasts and extremes, being either robotic and rigid or very loose and flowing. As opposed to breaking and its floor-oriented moves, popping is almost always performed standing up, except in rare cases when the dancer goes down on the knees or to the floor to perform a special move.

[edit]Music
Having its roots in the late 1970s funk era, popping is commonly danced to funk and disco music. Popular artists include Zapp, Dayton, Dazz Band and Cameo. During the 1980s, many poppers also utilized electro music, with artists such as Kraftwerk, Yellow Magic Orchestra, Twighlight 22, Egyptian Lover and World Class Wrecking Crew. More mainstream hip hop music was also employed by poppers during the 1980s, including Afrika Bambaataa, Kurtis Blow, Whodini and Run DMC. Today, it is common to see popping danced to more current music genres such as modern hip hop (often abstract/instrumental hip hop) and various forms of electronic dance music such as dubstep. Songs that are generally favored have a straight and steady beat at around 90-120 beats per minute, a 4/4 time signature and a strong emphasis on the back beat, normally by a snare drum or adrum machine. The pops performed by the popper normally occur on every beat or on the distinct back beats. The popper can also

choose to follow the music more freely such as by timing the pops to the rhythm of a melody or other rhythmic elements.

[edit]Related

styles and techniques

A street dancer doing the backslide or"moonwalk", a common move in the floating style often seen combined with popping.

There are a number of dance styles and techniques that are commonly mixed with popping to enhance the dancer's performance and create a more varied show, many of which are seldom seen outside of popping contexts. They can be seen as separate styles related to popping or as a part of popping when using it as an umbrella term. Animation A style and a technique where you imitate film characters being animated by stop motion. The technique of moving rigidly and jerky by tensing muscles and using techniques similar to strobing and the robot to make it appear as if the dancer has been animated frame by frame. This style was heavily inspired by the dynamation films created by Ray Harryhausen, such as The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad (1958).[3] Video example (YouTube) Animatronics A style that imitates animatronic robots. Related to the robot style, but adds a hit or bounce at the end of each movement.

Video example (YouTube) Boogaloo Boogaloo or boog style is a loose and fluid dance style trying to give the impression of a body lacking bones, partly inspired by animated movies and cartoons. It utilizes circular rolls of various body parts, such as the hips, knees and head, as well as isolation and sectioning, like separating the rib cage from the hip. It also makes heavy use of angles and various steps and transitions to get from one spot to the next. It was developed in 1975 by Boogaloo Sam. In the original boogaloo you do not pop, but combined with popping it becomes the electric boogaloo, the signature style of The Electric Boogaloos (the dance crew).[1] Main article: Electric boogaloo (dance) Bopping A style of popping in which the chest is isolated by being pushed out and brought back while flexing the chest muscles. As this movement is performed to the beat the popper can incorporate different moves in between the chest bop. When practiced the chest bop can be done at a double-time interval adding a unique effect to the move. Crazy legs A leg-oriented style focusing on fast moving legs, knee rolls and twisting feet. Developed in 1980-81 by Popin' Pete, originally inspired by the fast and agitated style of breaking by the famousb-boy Crazy Legs from Rock Steady Crew.[4] Dime stopping A technique of moving at a steady pace and then abruptly coming to a halt, as if attempting to stop on a dime. This is often combined with a pop at the beginning and/or end of the movement. Floating, gliding and sliding A set of footwork-oriented techniques that attempt to create the illusion that the dancer's body is floating smoothly across the floor, or that the legs are walking while the dancer travels in unexpected directions. Encompasses moves such as the backslide, which was made famous by Michael Jackson who called it the moonwalk. Main article: Floating (dance) Miming Performing techniques of traditional miming to the beat of a song. Most commonly practiced are various movements with the hands as if one could hold onto air and pull their body in any possibly direction. Miming can also be used to allow a popper to tell a story through his or her dance. This style is often used in battles to show the opponent how they can defeat them. Puppet

A style imitating a puppet or marionette tied to strings.[4] Normally performed alone or with a partner acting as the puppet master pulling the strings. Main article: Roboting Robot/botting A style imitating a robot or mannequin. Main article: Robot (dance) Scarecrow A style imitating the scarecrow character of The Wizard of Oz. Claimed to be pioneered by Boogaloo Sam in 1977.[4] Focuses on out-stretched arms and rigid poses contrasted with loose hands and legs. Strobing A style of popping that gives the impression that the dancer is moving within a strobe light. To produce this effect, a dancer will take any ordinary movement (such as waving hello to someone) in conjunction with quick, short stop-and-go movements to make a strobing motion. Mastering strobing requires perfect timing and distance between each movement. Main article: Strobing (dance) Struttin Struttin is a dance style originating out of the City of San Francisco, CA in the 1970s. Ticking A way of popping where the dancer pops at smaller intervals, generally twice as fast as normal. [4] Toyman Based on action figures such as G.I. Joe and Major Matt Mason, developed by an old member of the Electric Boogaloos called Toyman Skeet.[4] Goes between straight arms and right anglesto simulate limited joint movement. Tutting/King Tut Inspired by the art of Ancient Egypt (the name derived from the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun), tutting exploits the body's ability to create geometric positions (such as boxes) and movements, predominantly with the use of right angles. It generally focuses on the arms and hands, and includes sub-styles such as finger tutting. Modern tutting example (YouTube) Waving Waving is composed of a series of fluid movements that give the appearance that a wave is traveling through the dancer's body. It is often mixed with liquid dancing.

Main article: Waving (dance) Isolation A variety of intricate moves that create the illusion of separating, or isolating, parts of the body from the rest of the body. The most common types of isolation that poppers perform are head isolations, in which they seem to take their head out of place from the rest of their body and move it back in place in creative ways.

Turfing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For turfing in transitional care, see Turfing (transfer).

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. No cleanup reason has been specified. Please help improve this article if you can. (May 2011)

Turf dance is a form of American street dance that originated in Oakland, California. The term is credited to dancer Jeriel Bey, who created it as an acronym for Taking Up Room on the Floor.[1][2]because the terms "having fun with it" or "hitting it" (as it was originally known) didn't seem marketable. Turf Dancing originated as a way to describe dances that different 'turfs' from Oakland performed to represent where they were from (the same as 'blocks' or 'sets'). The dance form had its earliest influences in the Oakland Boogaloo movement of the mid-1960s, later developing into a distinctive dance style.
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Foundation 3 References 4 External links

[edit]History
Turf Dancing has its earliest origins in the Oakland Boogaloo movement of California in the 1960s,[2] developing into a separate genre of dance in during the 1990s, and along with hyphy music came to be seen as distinctively representative of Oakland.[3] The movement rose to prominence in 2002 following Jeriel Bey's establishment of his group, "The Architeckz." Turf Dancing was first displayed on videos from artists such as Baby Bash, Keak Da Sneak, and E-40 by innovative and influential turf dancers (and creators of the turfing Lifestyle) Jeriel Bey. Along Demetrius Zeigler, Chare' Johnson, Rawnay, Ronald "Head" Singleton & Yun Shep, and Dav 2.0.[3] Turf dance had been promoted as a means of dispute resolution within the Oakland community,[3] and in 2005 The Architeckz built on this concept of dance battle by engaging krump dancers from Los Angeles in city-level competition.[1] Friendly rivalries with dancers from New York and Memphis[2] have developed as well. The artist E-40 brought international attention to the movement with his 2006 single Tell Me When to Go.[4] In 2012 Alonzo (Turf) Jones [5] , AKA Retro, a turf dancer and skateboarder from California's Bay Area competed on NBC's America's Got Talent (season 7).[6]

[edit]Foundation
Turf dance is an improvisational, free-flowing form of dance that is based on the idea of pure cause and effect but focuses on storytelling, the creation of optical illusions, and the display of distinctive personal style. Dance elements include popping, locking, and miming.[7] The genre has a relatively small base of established steps to draw from, some of which are associated with their neighborhoods of origin, such as the Brookfield, a gliding move that originated in the east Oakland neighborhood of Brookfield Village. Other foundation moves include "the two sep", "shoulder shaking", " the cliffhanger", " the stutter walk", and the "Busta", named after rapper Busta Rhymes. Gliding is heavily used in turf dance because it enables the creation of optical illusions. "Going dumb," or completely letting one's emotions loose on the dance floor, is also a distinctive part of the tradition.[8]

Jerkin'
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the 1960s dance, see The Jerk (dance).

Jerk

Stylistic origins

West Coast hip hop, Hyphy

Cultural origins

Late 2000's, Los Angeles,Southern California

Typical instruments

Sampler - Synthesizer - Drums -Keyboard Rapping

Mainstream popularity Late 00's-Early 10's

Other topics

Hip hop music History of hip hop music Timeline of hip hop

Jerkin' or Jerk is a street dance from Los Angeles.[1] Since 2009, jerkin' has gained fans along the West Coast and, as of 2009, was gaining popularity on the East Coast.[2] The dance itself consists of moving your legs in and out called the "jerk", and doing other moves such as the "reject", "dip", and "pindrop".[3]
Contents
[hide]

1 Music 2 Dance crews 3 Fashion 4 References

Music
The rap group New Boyz wrote and recorded a hit in Los Angeles entitled "You're a Jerk",[4] while Audio Push wrote and recorded "Teach Me How To Jerk". As the jerk culture continues to flourish, several new groups specializing in the Jerk style are being courted and signed by major labels. Arista has signed the group The Rej3ctz, and the label is looking seriously at many other jerk groups that are flourishing on the Internet.[5]

Dance crews
As Jerkin' mainstreams, new dance crews and artists are competing and performing at events not only in Southern California, but spreading to other parts of the world. The Ranger$ crew not only competes in dance contests, winning numerous awards, but have recorded several songs and have been signed to a major label. Other notable crews in the Southern California area are Action Figure$, U.C.L.A. Jerk Kings, and the LOL Kid$z.[5]

Fashion
People who jerk usually wear skinny jeans (varying from the unusual to the usual colors and washes), considered a rejection of the baggy pantsstyle. Many elements of scene and the raver are used in the jerkin' movement, such as bright colored clothing, tight pants, or novelty graphic tees. Also people who dance the jerk wear hightop or retro shoes, including Chuck Taylor and Nike hightop shoes. Shoes may or may not be multicolored[3]

Krumping
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A krumper dancing in Australia.

Krumping is a street dance popularized in the United States that is characterized by free, expressive, exaggerated, and highly energetic movement involving the arms, head, legs, chest, and feet.[1] The youths who started krumping saw the dance as a way for them to escape gang life[2] and "to release anger, aggression and frustration positively, in a non-violent way."[3]
Contents
[hide]

1 History 2 Style 3 Vocabulary 4 References 5 External links

[edit]History
The root word "Krump" came from the lyrics of a song in the 1990s.[4] It is sometimes spelled K.R.U.M.P., which is a backronym for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise,[4][3] presenting krumping as a faith-based artform.[5] Krumping was created by two dancers: Ceasare "Tight Eyez" Willis and Jo'Artis "Big Mijo" Ratti in South Central, Los Angeles, California during the early 2000s.[2][3][6][7] Clowning is the less aggressive predecessor to krumping and was created in 1992 by Thomas "Tommy the Clown" Johnson in Compton, CA.[1][3] In the 1990s, Johnson and his dancers, the Hip Hop Clowns, would paint their faces and perform clowning for children at birthday parties or for the general public at other functions as a form of entertainment.[8] In contrast, krumping focuses on highly energetic battles and dramatic movements [3] which

Tommy describes as intense, fast-paced, and sharp.[8] CBS news has compared the intensity within krumping to what rockers experience in a mosh pit.[9] "If movement were words, krumping would be a poetry slam."[1] Krumping was not directly created by Tommy the Clown; however, krumping did grow out of clowning.[1][7][10] Ceasare Willis and Jo'Artis Ratti were both originally clown dancers for Johnson but their dancing was considered too "rugged" and "raw" for clowning so they eventually broke away and developed their own style.[2] This style is now known as krumping. Johnson eventually opened a clown dancing academy and started the Battle Zone competition at the Great Western Forum where krump crews and clown crews could come together and battle each other in front of an audience of their peers.[3][9]
"Expression is a must in krump because krump is expression. You have to let people feel what you're doing. You can't just come and get krump and your krump has no purpose." Robert "Phoolish" Jones; Krump Kings[6]

David LaChapelle's documentary Rize explores the clowning and krumping subculture in Los Angeles. He says of the movement: "What Nirvana was torock-and-roll in the early '90s is what these kids are to hip-hop. It's the alternative to the bling-bling, tie-in-with-a-designer corporate hip-hop thing."[11]LaChapelle was first introduced to krump when he was directing Christina Aguilera's music video "Dirrty".[2] After deciding to make a documentary about the dance, he started by making a short film titled Krumped.[2] He screened this short at the 2004 Aspen Shortsfest and used the positive reaction from the film to gain more funding for a longer version.[2] In 2005 this longer version was released as Rize which was screened at the Sundance Film Festival,[12] the Auckland International Film Festival,[13] and several other film festivals outside the United States.[14] Aside from Rize, krumping has appeared in several music videos including Madonna's "Hung Up", Missy Elliott's "I'm Really Hot", The Black Eyed Peas' "Hey Mama", and Chemical Brothers "Galvanize".[8] The dance has also appeared in the movie Bring It On: All or Nothing, the television seriesCommunity, and the reality dance competitions So You Think You Can Dance and America's Best Dance Crew. Russell Ferguson, the winner of the sixth season of So You Think You Can Dance, is a krumper. The original web series The Legion of Extraordinary Dancers also featured krumping in season one during the fifth episode, "The Lettermakers".

[edit]Style
There are four primary moves in krump: jabs, arm swings, chest pops, and stomps.[6] Krumping is rarely choreographed; it is almost entirely freestyle (improvisational) and is danced most frequently in battles or sessions rather than on a stage. Krumping is different stylistically from other hip-hop dance styles such as b-boying[8] and turfing. Krumping is very aggressive and is danced upright to upbeat and fast-paced music,[3] whereas b-boying is more acrobatic and is danced on the floor to break beats. The Oakland dance

style turfing is a fusion of popping andmimeing that incorporates storytelling and illusion. Krumping is less precise than these and more freestyle.[3] Thematically, all these dance styles share common ground including their street origins, their freestyle nature, and the use of battling. These commonalities bring them together under the umbrella of hip-hop dance.

[edit]Vocabulary

Battle: when competitors face-off in a direct dance competition where the use of arm swings and chest movements known as flares and bucks are common.

Biter: someone who attends sessions or watches battles in order to feed on others' styles and originality so that they can mimic those moves later at another battle and pass them off as coming from their own inventiveness i.e. plagiarism.

Session: when a group of krumpers form a circle, or cipher in hip-hop context, and one-by-one go into the middle and freestyle.

Buck: an adjective used to describe someone who excels in krumping. Call-Out: when a krumper initiates a battle with another dancer by "calling" them "out". Labbing: when krumpers get together to create new moves and/or adapt their style. Kill-Off: when a krumper performs a move that excites the crowd to the point where the battle is over and the crowd surrounds the krumper; the opponent is "killed off."

Jabs: short, sharp, staccato movements using the arms.

Gangsta Walking
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the 2006 single by rapper Coolio, see Gangsta Walk.

This article may be too technical for most readers to understand. Please help improve this article to make it understandable to non-experts, without removing the technical details. The talk page may contain suggestions. (April 2011) This article includes a list of references, but its sources remain unclear because it has insufficient inline citations. Please help toimprove this article by introducing more precise citations. (February 2008)

Memphis Jookin sample

Gangsta Walking (often referred to as G-Walk , Buckin, Buck Jump , Jookin, Rollin, Reading, Raping, or Choppin) is a street dance that originated in Memphis, Tennessee alongside "Buck" music during the 1990s. The dance has been suspected to be created by a street dancer named Capital D - real name Dima Grinevich.[1] In Memphis, in an alley, he decided to display his new idea for crunk dancing, which evolved into the Gangsta Walk. The Gangsta Walk is commonly performed to crunk music due to the particular 'bounce' in the beat and the movement the dancers make to keep with it. Though Gangsta Walking has been around for many years, much of the dance is still exclusive to the city and surrounding areas.[citation needed] Due to video streaming websites like YouTube and social networks like myspace.com and others, "gangsta walking", "jookin', "choppin", "buckin" or whatever it may be called, has spread in popularity. In 2007, Memphis rapperdirectorproducer Young Jai, of Jai Productions / Black Star Enterprisers, released Memphis Jookin Vol 1 DVD. This DVD featured the new generation of jookers/Gangsta Walkers. It featured such Jookin as G-Nerd, Mike Doss,Chopper king, Lil Daniel, Dr. Rico, Lil Buck, Lil Black, Bobo, female Jooker Shuante, Underground King Keviorr, DJ Sidewalker, North Memphis Legend Lil Jayson and many others. This DVD helped springboard the Jookin/ Gangsta Walking movement. In November 2007, Jookin was featured on Channel 3

WREG news in Memphis and also on Channel 5 WMC. There are several videos on Jookin on http://www.memphisjookin.com and Youtube.com, with some videos receiving hundreds of thousands of views in months and thousands of views in a week's time. Jai Productions and The Memphis Jookin community was also featured in the December issue of the French magazine Juste Debout as the Dance of the Month. Jai productions also released a solo Jookin DVD on G-Nerd entitled "Truth Be Told" and Tutorial entitled "Memphis Jookin wit G-Nerd". Jai Productions has also released the entire Memphis Jookin Vol 2. 3-part series, which showcases more of the Jookin community that is involved in the movement to help get this dance on the map. Nowadays our youth have somewhere to go and learn the Memphis style. Memphian Tarrik Moore And Marico Flake (Dr Rico) have opened U-Dig Jookin Academy, located in the Raleigh Springs Mall.
Contents
[hide]

1 Origin 2 Positives of Gangsta Walking 3 Types of Gangsta Walk 4 Spin-offs 5 Music videos featuring the Gangsta Walk 6 References 7 External links

[edit]Origin
The origin of the Walk itself is a mystery. Gangsta Walking has constantly evolved over the years into the much smoother version it is today. Some state that this style was created during the early 1980s, a Memphis based dance & rap group, G-Style (composed of Romeo, Wolf, and Hurricane) went to New York City and saw dance the most practiced dances (e.g. breakdancing,popping, gliding, locking, etc.) and incorporated these styles into the traditional Walk. When they returned, they brought back a new style Gangsta Walking that was new and notably similar yet distinctly different dance that matched the new wave of rap music,which matched the beat down to the bass, snare and hi-hat. Others suggest a New Orleans connection. Early gangsta-walking in Memphis was often called "buck jumping", and "buck jumping" was another name for second-lining in New Orleans. The two cities shared a love for the Showboys' "Dragrap" (a song that would become the basis for New Orleans bounce music) and New Orleans performers such as Gregory D and Mannie Fresh often appeared at Memphis' Century 21 club on Winchester Road. There is some speculation that the term may have evolved from a tune "Down South Jukin" But lot of peolpe say the term Jukin came from the midewest the city peolpe speek of is chicago.

[edit]Positives

of Gangsta Walking

Along with being a popular street dance, the Gangsta Walk is often viewed as a form of self-expression and relief from the hardships of living within the inner city. Some have even considered Gangsta Walking as being a less extreme kin of Krumping due to it steering many the youth away from street violence and exacting their energy into something positive and constructive. The dance can commonly be found in urban areas of Memphis like North Memphis, South Memphis, Orange Mound, Whitehaven, East Memphis, West Memphis etc.

[edit]Types

of Gangsta Walk

There is a variation of styles for the Gangsta Walk:

One particular style requires the dancer to take (in a jerking motion) quick steps, stomp, twists and throwing their arms around all while moving to a beat, the best example being Crunchy Black's style, referred to as G-Walking [1]. The style is considered the basis of all Gangsta Walking done in Memphis since the 1980s.

Another style requires three or more people hopping around in a circle in a rhythmic motion, while throwing their hands into the air and yelling "Get Buck" or the lyrics to a Buck song. This style of the Gangsta Walk is more commonly referred to as the G-Train. It is said that this style was banned from the clubs shortly after being created due to the wildness it invoked in performers as well as onlookers. Reminders of its existence are still left behind in older clubs or closed down night spots around the city [2].

The most known style of Gangsta Walking is within the standard crunk atmosphere, involving a crowd of people slamming and pushing off one another on the dance floor.

The most famous and practiced style of Gangsta Walking around the city takes bits and pieces from other street dance styles like liquid dancing (the wave, tutting, tracing, contours and hand flowing), the robot, locking, popping, gliding and even breakdancing all merged with the traditional dance. The most recognizable moves in the dance is the dancer does moves similar to thetwo-step between making another motion and spinning or walking on the tips of their toes. This style of the Gangsta Walk is mostly done by the younger generation and the generation behind them who grew up shortly after the invention of Buck music, thus titling it Buckin.

Jookin took the classic steps and combined a much more smoother look due to the music change in Memphis Music during the early 90's. Jookin is most noted for not only its smooth steps, but it introduced

pantomiming into the styles heavily. Jookin took to the isolation of the footwork in a way that focused the crowds attention on the feet. Jookin is really characterized for their abilities in sliding and stepping

Buckin brought in the exaggerated movements of Gangsta walkin and Jookin. The movements were made to appear even bigger because of the buckness of the dancer. Clearly the most explosive style of Gangsta walking. Buckers began to lift the slide off the ground and creating even higher glides than ever seen before.

Choppin came in the mid 90's as dancers in Memphis started to add the animated effect of Gangsta walkin, jookin, and buckin to the dance floor. Choppin consisted of stiffening the muscles until they began to vibrate and then moving trying to create a very unreal stiff Gangsta walker.

Icin the newest form of Gansta walkin is most known for the ability of sliding one foot while gliding with the other. Icers give the illusions of ice skating with fire by the explosiveness they applied while icing across the floor. Some nickname it "Blazing." Icers also included different ways of freezing the body parts while carrying yourself around the floor.

Basics of all the styles include stepping, pacmans, and buck jumps.

[edit]Spin-offs
Turfing whose name is an acronym for Taking Up Room On The Floor, is an Oakland, California based street dance that heads the Hyphy Movement, has its roots in Gangsta Walking. . Oakland Museum of California. 2006-04-07. http://www.museumca.org/exhibit/exhi_cool_remix.html, Cool Remixed: Bay Area Urban Art + Culture Now [Brochure]. Retrieved 05/06/2009. In the late 1980s, native rapper, MC Hammer, toured in Memphis and saw the dance in the crowd while performing. He began performing the Walk and the dance eventually caught in hometown to create a more rugged, less smoother version of the Walk. Many people consider Turf dancers as a recreation or a "knock off" of their own Gangsta Walking style.