I’m happy to say that Penn State has a very nice dance scene, and while it is not massive, it is a nice size and has a lot of things to offer. For one, Penn State offers A LOT of dance classes, one that leans towards hip-hop dance is DANCE 283 which is Beginning hip-hop dance. I was going to take it this semester, but it was full very quickly, and freshman do not exactly have the upper hand when it comes to scheduling, so I was denied my opportunity. I do plan on taking the course at one point in time as a student here though.

Penn State also has many clubs that pertain to hip-hop dance. The most notable being RAM Squad, something I was a part of during the first half of fall semester. I left for my personal reasons, but it was glad to see many people all together for the same reason, to enjoy hip-hop dance as an art and perform it.

One other dance group that is predominately hip-hop is Urban Dance Troupe. Urban Dance Troupe, while not as big as RAM Squad in terms of reputation and members, is still a very good group and deserves recognition. I am not a member, but they have competitions and performances frequently and are growing to become just as big as RAM Squad.

Penn State’s dance scene is big, and I’m very glad that it’s big. Penn States hip-hop dance scene is not as big, but it is slowly growing as more people become exposed to it. I’m sure that by the time I am graduating, Penn State will have a very notable hip-hop dance scene, and most people around campus will know about it.

Starting from the early 2000’s, pop culture and hip-hop have started to merge in many aspects. Shows, movies, music videos feature all sorts of hip-hop dance, and it is continuing to grow as time goes on.

There are many shows that feature dance as the main focal point. One show in particular that has kept on going for a while is So You Think You Can Dance, and while this show does not feature exclusively hip-hop dance, hip-hop style is a large part of it. Competitors around the nation audition to be a part of the contest, and if chosen, are put through more auditions. After this, the finalists for the show are chosen and are given a series of tasks to complete. For example, they must do a solo, duet, and many group pieces that go across a wide variety of dance styles, from Ballet to hip-hop.

Other shows existed that were related to dance, but were ultimately cancelled, including Americas Best Dance Crew, a series that lasted 7 seasons that put dance crews around the world against each other to compete for first place, bragging rights as “Americas Best Dance Crew”, and $100,000. There was also a web-series that lasted from 2010-2011 called LXD (Legion of Extraordinary Dancers), which combined drama, action, and dance all in one.

The movie industry tapped into hip-hop dance as well at one point. The most known movies relating to hip-hop dance are the Step Up movies, that depict love stories and unification all through dance. The Step Up series currently has 4 movies, with another one coming out sometime this year. Another very good piece of film is the Documentary Rize, which explores the rise of the dance style Krumping.

Pop culture and the media have taken hip-hop dance and are spreading it like wildfire. Youtube channels, shows, movies, all forms are using hip-hop dance because it attracts an audience, and it will only continue to grow.

Talking about New Style can get pretty confusing, mainly because it is such a new “style” of hip-hop and it doesn’t have any set technique really. However, it is a dance style, and it is the style of which that I categorize myself to most likely.

New Style, short for New York Style. The name was dubbed by people who live outside of the US because they would see documentaries about dancers that live in New York. Dancers outside of the US wanted to move like the New York dancers, thus created New York Style, or New Style.

From a technical aspect, new style is urban dancing with choreography aspects put into it. It is characterized by hard-hitting moves and isolations. There is a very big relationship between the music and the dancer in New Style. Slow, soft parts require soft and light movements, while hard beats and loud songs require hard-hitting movements and a lot of movement in general. Musicality is very important in New Style, there is not necessarily a count when it comes to dancing New Style. When talking about street dance, which is a root of New Style, Timothy Solomon said that it is based on the crowds reaction. Hearing “ou”, “ah”, “aw”, and “tsi” is considered the dancers “count”.

Some of the best dancers I know, and arguably one of my favorites, are twins and dance duo “Les Twins”. Composed or Larry and Laurent Bourgeois. Dancing since they were about 2, they have taken the world by storm, spreading new style all around the world and showcasing their unique dancing ability. They are my inspiration and considered to be one of the best dancers that had ever lived. Here are some videos showcasing Les Twins talent.

World Of Dance San Diego 2013

Hiphop International 2012

World Of Dance 2012

World Of Dance San Diego 2010

One of my favorite dance styles, ever, Krumping. Not because I am a hip-hop dancer and I have bias, but because to do it well you need so much heart and energy that it is probably one of the most mentally demanding out of the hip-hop styles. Weirdly enough, it is also one of the most made fun of due to YouTube videos circulating around of many people who claim to Krump dance, but instead just flail their arms around.

Krumping is a street dance that became an idea sometime in the 1990’s. It is actually backronym for Kingdom Radically Uplifted Mighty Praise. It was created by Caesar “Tight Eyez” Willis and Jo’Artis “Big Mijo” Ratti by the early 2000’s in Southern LA and that’s when it got its popularization. Krumping is an extremely energetic dance that involves all parts of the body moving in very rapid ways. It is definitely one of the most cardiovascular demanding dance styles I can think of. Originally, it was used as a way to relieve anger, which is why it looks and feels like such an aggressive dance. It became very popular in urban and underdeveloped areas because many people sought to krumping as a way to connect with their community and relieve themselves of the anger they felt over the bad conditions. It is also used as a way to escape gang violence and to “release anger, aggression, and frustration positively, in a non-violent way”.

There are no specific set moves per-say for Krump style dancing. Much of the style is created from off the top of the head, which is why it was so popular, literally anyone could do it. Christopher “Lil C” Toler describes it as taking a ball of energy and holding it in a certain position, and then throwing to another part of your body and holding it again. Many people seem to think Krump is just flailing your body in hopes of looking half-decent, meanwhile although it doesn’t have a certain moveset, there is an etiquette to it.

Here are some examples of real krump dancing:

Lil C and Miss Prissy Krumping

Tight Eyez Krumping

Rebel Vs. Jigsaw

A documentary about the history of krump and everyone involved in it is Rize. It is a very good documentary and I highly suggest you watch it if you more interested about the topic of Krump.

Locking, a dance style that is not nearly as big as it used to be, is one of the earliest styles of hip hop dancing. How the dance is done is self-explanatory to the name, you lock your position after a series of rapid movements.

The beginning of locking can be traced all the way back to Don Campbell. The style was actually created on accident, because Campbell was not able to perform a move called “The Robot Sweep”. He would stop at a certain point during the move, which created the locking effect in his body. Campbell thought these sudden halts in his body created a very nice effect, so he started to incorporate them into his routines and choreographies, thus created the dance style Locking. From then on, Campbell formed a group called The Lockers and they popularized locking around the nation. The Lockers danced for many entertainers (including Frank Sinatra!) and were showed on a lot of TV shows, giving locking and hip-hop dance a very large audience, especially with how small hip-hop dance was at the time.

Locking “music” is basically Funk music. With a strong and steady beat, it is the perfect music for locking. Some examples include:

Ren Woods – I Don’t Wanna Stop

Jap’s Gaps – Dance To The Music

Funky Bureau – Clap Your Hands Together

Here are some examples of the dance style in action:

Koreas Got Talent – Khan and Moon

The Lockers

P-Lock & J. Soul Vs. Masato & Cio – Juste Debout Locking Semi-Finals

I hope you enjoyed the blog post! Keep dancing!

Breakdancing, one of the most known forms of hip-hop dancing, and also one of the most exciting styles.

Invented in the early 1970’s around New York City, breakdancing has taken the world by storm because of its intensity and it’s skill. The origins of breakdancing can trace back to the Rock Steady Crew”, comprised of Richard “Crazy Legs” Colon and Kenneth “Ken Swift” Gabbert.

Breakdancing is a style of dance that is a lot of floor work. It mainly has 4 components to it, the toprock, downrock, power moves, and freezes. Toprocks are very common ways for breakdancers to start their dance set. Here is an example of different toprocks. Downrock is the footwork of the person while they are on the floor, Downrocking usually has a lot of foot swipes and switches. Power moves have become very popular now as breakdance continue to grow. They mainly exist to showcase the physical strength of the breakdancer as well as his skill. A very popular power move is the hollowback, as it requires strength in your arms, back, and core. It also shows a lot of balance, making it a very hard, but impressive move to do. The last component, freezes, are self-explanatory. They showcase balance and strength as well. One of the most popular freezes is a baby freeze. It is also on of the most basic freezes and usually the first one a breakdancer learns.

Baby Freeze

Hollowback

Breakdancing is still a very powerful movement, taking the world by storm. Many kids are getting into it, and it is being popularized in many movies (See the Step Up franchise). With it being the most popular dance style, it has the biggest following, and will probably continue to have the biggest following, most likely next to popping.

Have fun and keep breakin’ 🙂

Since this is my first post, I thought it’d be appropriate to give you some information about the dance style I do, popping.

Popping, as defined, is a style in which the dancer quickly flexes and relaxes his muscles to cause a jerk in either the entire dancers body, or a certain area. This is called a “pop” or a “hit”. This motion is done repeatedly to the beat of the song while obviously changing his pose and movements.

Popping is one of the earliest hip-hop dance styles, popularizing along the same time as locking or breakdancing. It is still an extremely popular style and has been used as an umbrella term for many other styles, including waving, gliding, tutting, etc. It originated in the 1970’s in California, and has since blossomed into one of the most well known hip-hop dances around.

One of the most famous poppers is Steffan “Mr. Wiggles” Clemente. He is a huge inspiration of mine and is considered to be one of the greatest hip-hop dancers. He was a part of many crews including Rock Steady, The Electric Boogaloos, and Zulu Nation. Here is an example of Mr. Wiggles popping.

A lot of the music still used for popping derives from that 1960’s-1970’s funk and disco sound. Some examples are Evolution Of Battle by The Sleepers RecordZ and Space Bella Coola by Aaron Evo. An average “popping” tune is roughly 90-120 BPM (Beats per minute) and 4/4 time signature. It is also important to have a heavy back beat, because that is what the popper relies to hit the beats with. A very distinct bass pop is important to have in a song that one would want to pop to.

I hope you enjoyed this information on popping. Next week, Breakdancing :).

Since the semester is ending, I will be taking a hiatus for 3 weeks. I have thought about switching my blog to a different topic but I am choosing to stay with this blog. I like discussing dancing and I enjoy reading everyone’s comments. It has been a great time writing these blogs. They really get to express myself and how I feel about dance. It has been a great experience and I hope to continue keeping this blog very active next semester. See you in 3 weeks!

I talk a lot about hip hop dance, but that’s expected of me because I AM a hip-hop dancer, but I’ve always loved other dance styles. If you were graced with watching my stammering and cringeworthy TED Talk, you knew that I grew up with mainly ballet dancers. For those who weren’t there, when I first started learning about dance, I looked up to people like Gene Kelly and Martha Graham, as well as Michael Jackson.

Ballet was a big inspiration to me because it looks so beautiful. If you watch a very good Ballet piece, you are literally just watching a story being unfolded, much like reading a book except with your body. There’s so much to it and even more that I don’t know because I’m not a ballet dancer, but I wouldn’t mind taking a class or two. I was going to take one in Spring, but then it was full so I couldn’t and the only one’s open were advanced ballet classes, which I would get absolutely murdered in.

For anyone that doesn’t know, I think Ballet is one of the hardest, if not the hardest dance style there is. Sure, I drop to my knees from when I’m standing, and I bend my back in ways that people would consider unhealthy, but I cannot imagine to feel the pain of standing on your toes straight for a 20 minute performance. Nor am I able to bend my legs/arms/everything in ways that professional Ballet dancers do. I want to learn, so badly.

I mean come on, look at this, HER ENTIRE WEIGHT IS ON HER TOES. That’s dedication to an art, and huge respect in my book.

So over the thanksgiving break I broke both wrists. It’s quite a story to explain, so I won’t bother explaining it. I have splints on both wrists, which makes doing basic things annoying, but at least I can take them off. If I had casts on I think I would have cried, honestly.

Anyways, back to the point of the original topic of the post, inspiration. Inspiration is hard to have. Well, scratch that, it’s not hard to find, but it’s hard to keep for a long period of time. Sometimes I’ll see a choreography of an amazing dance and say to myself “now it’s time for me to make one!” and then I’ll develop the first couple of seconds and get bored. It’s a vicious cycle that I have not yet stopped, and it makes me angry. I have all the time in the world to make a dance and practice, but I keep coming up with excuses. Actually, now I have a legitimate excuse because my wrists are broken, but I could still work on footwork and leg movement.

Also, just a quick question for everyone, I’m having a little trouble about minoring right now. I want to minor in dance, but some people tell me to minor in something that works with my major (Psychology), and I don’t see dance working with that at all. On the other hand, a couple of other people also say “Major in your career, minor in what you love”. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love Psychology, but I also love Dance, but I don’t know if it would be worth it. Any comments about that?