Alright, this is my first journal entry related to dancing. Squash and poker feel like they have more obvious elements upon which I have to practice - squash especially. As a result, it's a little more difficult for me to write about specific elements that I need to practice when it comes to dancing. However, I've managed to come up with a few foundation moves that I want to practice and improve upon, those are listed below, along with explanations, in case anyone else wants to learn with me (which is probably unlikely, but who knows).
Before proceeding, I should mention that popping and locking (and boogaloo, and botting, and waving, and all the other styles I'm into) definitely don't come easy. They require as much dedication as any other sport does, and it's probably fair to say that they require a good deal more finer muscular control than most sports (at least the ones I've played). The good part is that this muscle control can be learned - it's not necessary that you be born with it - the only part that is difficult to pick up through sheer practice is rhythm. There's not a lot that you can do to teach yourself rhythm, save perhaps sitting down with your music player that has a visualization for the beat, and trying to clap the beat to yourself, then checking to see if you've got it right.
Anyhow, like I said, these dance styles require practice to get down, but can definitely be learned if you're willing to put in the time. The added benefit of the time put into learning is that even picking up one move gives you something that you can throw into your everyday dancing (if you're the kind of person that does everyday dancing), or bust out once in a while when you're at home by yourself.
So, the moves I'm working on right now are:
- The Fresno
- Proper locking points
This is a pretty basic looking move, but has depth to it that is not immediately obvious. First of all, you raise your left arm, and pop your left arm, left side of your chest, and left leg. Then, do a slight bob across to your right side, and do the same thing: pop your right arm, right side of your chest, and right leg. These all sound super basic (definition of popping given below), but are anything but. See the definition of popping to get an idea for exactly what is being done with this move.
Locking is the second dance style that I'm working on. Part of locking is composed of points, and poses that involve points. Points are exactly what they sound like: pointing in a direction with your hand. However, for a point to look good, your arm and hand must line up to form a straight line. Sound easy? Videotape yourself doing a point in a random direction with your left hand, or even stand in front of a mirror, close your eyes, and throw out a point quickly and hold the pose. Open your eyes or review the videotape. Your hand and arm probably aren't forming a straight line. It's these little nuances that make dancing well difficult. The details really do make a difference when it comes to the funk styles.
Okay, and now for the definitions:
- Funk Styles
- Popping
- Locking
The funk styles are composed of a number of dancing styles and substyles. Some of these including popping, boogaloo (which are often/usually combined together) and locking. Within the styles of popping and boogaloo, there are styles like waving (giving the appearance of waves travelling through the dancers body), botting (dancing and moving like a robot), tutting (dancing similar to the old school movements bugs bunny would do when mimicking Egyptians), and many more. Funk styles are given their name from the fact that they developed in response to old school funk music. Funk styles actually came about earlier than breakdancing did, but are often lumped together under the same name. If anyone wants a really good example of what some of the funk styles look like, I have a number of DVD and VHS movies that I can lend out - just ask.
Popping is given its name because of the popping motion you make with your muscles at each point in the dance. A really good popper should look like their entire body is flexing everytime they stop moving. Hold out your arm, and flex every muscle in it. It's actually pretty difficult to do until you've trained your muscles to make this motion - your body is normally used to using the muscles to move your limbs in various directions, rather than to quickly flex on the spot.
One of the things that is important when popping properly is to isolate the parts of your body. For example, when doing the fresno, (I believe) you want to only pop the side of your body that you're stepping into. If you're bobbing to your right, you want to pop your right leg, and right arm and chest muscles. For a better definition of what popping is, head over to Michi's site. He breaks down exactly what you're doing during the process of a pop, along with the correct way to pop the various parts of your body.
Locking is a dance that looks very much like those toys you used to be able to buy that would be connected with elastics, and were a character standing up. You'd press in the bottom of the toy, and the character would collapse (as all the tension was released from the elastics that were holding him up). Then, you'd release the bottom and the character would spring back into place. This is a really good way to think of locking - the dancer looks like they are going from being completely relaxed to rigid, then back again. It's a dance style that looks goofy and loose, as well as tight and precise. Capturing these elements all together is a difficult task. I've got a video of me doing a few locking moves that I'll put up in a little bit, but I'm really quite a poor locker at this point in my dancing progress, so this is not really a good indication of how the dance should look. Nevertheless, I'll have it up sometime later this week after I remove the really embarassing parts.
I'd made videos for most of the moves that I plan on working on, but I totally suck at them, so they're not going up. Once I'm able to properly do these moves, or at least be able to show some technique, I'll make videos and put them up. I've included a short video of me doing the fresno, solely to show what exactly it is I'm talking about. Unfortunately, the resolution of this move is poor, so it's hard to really see what's going on. In addition to that, if you saw the first video I put up, liked it, and are expecting this to be along the same lines - you'll be dissapointed. This is just repetitive practice, and mostly here for my sake. Nevertheless, this video can be seen here.
well, I don't see any bad habits. (or what you meant by "bad habits" are only for squash?) you can make toons of varieties doing fresno too. That way, your body will learn to make a clean hit from variety of angles. hmm, I mean,,,
for example,,
1. Swinging your arm to the right and hit
2. Swinging your arm to hte left and hit
you probably notice that the region of muscle used in order to make hits are different. So, if you practice fresno doing exactly the same motion, it means you're training only a certain kind of hits.. and once you do different move, then you notice youcanot hit clean.
Fresno is good one. But twistOflex, masterOflex, neckOflex, are good to practice. Also, make steps and hits. hops and hits.. etc..
by the way, most of my davice is may not be what EB says. "My rules" are mostly from my deep analysis. If you don't like it, just ignore.
Hmm, okay, I'm going to try and make sure that I'm practicing variations on the moves as well. Mich - I was reading what you wrote on your site about popping the chest, but am still unclear: Is there more to the motion than flexing your pectoral muscle, or is that all there is to it? Do you actually push the chest out as well, or do you solely flex the muscle?
--Adam