Article : Dance Styles, Part 2

Ok guess Ill start on my 2nd part of the article! :) once again as I said before these articles are purely based on my point of view and open to discussion.

Now that aside, previously we discussed about genre(mainly the music element) and style (the broad headings eg. Krumping, "newschool hiphop", Popping, Bboying). That was the most difficult 2 actually... haha.... substyles and character are slightly easier to understand cuz once you get the idea of where everything falls into place, the whole thing starts to make sense.

-Substyle-

A substyle can be seen as an element of a style that is as unique as the style itself, but yet still being just part of the style.
Sounds confusing??? Ok lets take it from the top again with another example. (sorry if I keep referring to hiphop/popping examples as I am more familiar with them)

Ok so the example will be about popping. This will be the tree that we will be looking at :

Genre : Funk / Funkstyles
Style : Popping
Substyle : Tutting

Ok so we have a funk based dance called popping, with its basic foundations. Then as time passed and people got more inspiration, they decided to try new stuff and some of these "experiments" developed into their own sorta "style" which becomes the substyle. (I said "style" so not to confuse with our definitions).

Lets say in our example, tutting was inspired by the egyptian hieroglyphics and their drawings. It encompasses of using your arms and body parts and making 90 degree angles. This substyle was then put into the style popping.

So people started dancing with tutting substyle, but still with the foundations of popping because popping is the main style that this substyle(tutting) came from. Even though a substyle may contribute to even about 80% of the dance itself, the foundation is still from its style>genre. For example if you are a dancer who is tutting to trance music, then there would be a new tree being formed under the Trance genre called tutting, rather than you still being under the funk>popping>tutting tree.

I think almost everyone who dances has at least a substyle. It is still possible to dance purely to the main style, but then again its like saying you want to learn how to draw art but you dont want a wider range of crayons.

Ok now that substyles are more or less explained, I will talk about character.

-Character-

This is the most personal bit of dance and everyone has their own unique character. Even if we were dancing the same genre, same style , same substyle, the character is what sets us apart.

The basic roots to dancing again is about feeling the music. So character will show when you just feel the music. Imagine you forgot all the technicalities of dance. And you just hear a song. You groove to it, and some people may feel happy while listening to a song, others may feel sad while listening to the same song. Thus that is what character is. Its your own intepretation of the music and the song. Throw in technique and you get a "dancer" dancer.

If you are naturally a happy person, then when you dance your character will come out. It will show in the type of dance you dance or the way you dance. This is most obvious in freestlye as freestyling allows for the most self-expression. It is still evident in choreo situations as you tend to subconciously input ure own feel into other people's steps ( maybe thats why its so hard to cleanup the steps for choreos when everyone's feel eg character are different).

Yup so to end it off, its always good to have your own character and develop it. We dance to express so that is the ultimate level. Be yourself and not a copy of another person. It is good to copy sometimes to learn, but to Learn, not to BE. We should copy to improve technique and learn ideas but we should never copy and claim is as our own. Only we ourselves can be our own judges. As a dancer it is always good to spend time to think and reflect on what genre/style/substyle you are dancing and know its roots.

Freestyle is another important part of any dancer. I will talk more about that in the next article! Till then hope this helps you guys get a bigger view of the picture :)

-^_^arC

Studio Wu Recital

Tickets for Studio Wu recital is up for sale.

Call 6223 4722 for more details.

Emotions

I was taking a look at the Christepher "Monkeyking" Su's blog,
Floor The Love, and i came across this video:



Hojin (K-OGS) vs J Rong (NY Crew)
it's a mixstyle battle but what's worthy to note is the 2nd round...

i couldnt resist wanting to share this battle with everyone. you may have seen it already but what the hell, just watch it again.

Hojin completely murdered the 2nd round. he won the battle in the end, but truly, this is something you dont see in battles. the musicality... and the emotions.
as i watched the battle unfold, i found myself literally gritting my teeth, trying to hold back the emotions that Hojin was pulling out of me. i know this sounds strange but it's truly how i felt.

Hojin's only 19, and he's the youngest member of one of the pioneer popping crews in Korea, K-OGS.

mad props to Hojin.
and mad props to Monkeyking for upping this vid. i hope all of you enjoy it.

the silence is over.

Fbodz In Taiwan - Part 7 - "eyes! many many eyes! ahhh!"

to all the people cursing at why this player is so slow, okay im sorry. i stick back to youtube next time.

As promised earlier here is some of our action at Max Party 08. So much eyes looking at us literally from 360 degrees! Here many of us are dancing first time to a very different kind of format. As this were the Audition rounds, we had to dance to the music they played and as you can see we only have so little time to clinch a spot in the best 32! However, all of us were pretty comfortable with this format. I took some time to study the facial expressions of the rest of them right after their rounds. Their faces either read 'sweee ahhhh' or..'sibei song leh'. But you really do feel a sense of satisfaction and shiokness after every run. Maybe we are sua ku la. Don't expect like superifically ultra hip and cool stuffs la...but i hope most of you guys see it like...whoah whoah whoah! singapore singapore! it's singaporeaan!!

In order of appearence:

1. Xiao Ling aka Ah Hei
2. Wei Jie aka (dowan to say later he angry)
3. Wee Kiat aka Wicked Jelly aka DJ Jelly aka The Dude Who Doesn't Want To Stop Smoking
4. Lesner
5. Melanie aka Smellie Mellie
6. David Lee Zhi Wei aka Da Stickman

I know you guys surely also want to see raw outtakes of the other styles of the Taiwan Langs. On the way. Okay? Patient!

ps. caleb everytime on SGD website the bg music i can remember in my head. I dreamnt about it a few nights back. nothing. i just want to tell you.

Chunky.

it's my first post, and it's gonna be long...

hey hey everyone!

It's an honor to be a part of SGD, big ups to all those who've been contributing, like Candy, Caleb, Marc, Princejack, and Chunky.

Hello to all the readers out there!

since it's my first post, i'll post something that i had previously posted on my blog. so here it goes, the title of my post is "Something to think about":

Well I was having a chat with Terrence from NRA a couple of nights ago and we were talking about dance and stuff... and I said alot of thing that, surprisingly, amazed myself. More like, intrigued myself. So I decided that I'ma blog about it.

First of all, in this post, I mean absolutely NO OFFENCE and absolutely NO DISRESPECT, to anyone, to any dance style, to any artform. Also, I mean absolutely NO RACIAL DISCRIMINATION.

That said, I'll start my post about what I realised about dance... and you can go think about it too.

I was just chatting with him about my trip to Japan and my experiences and we suddenly spoke about the different "styles" of dance you see nowadays and how people express themselves and stuff. We were talking solely about Hip Hop so I'm sticking to that.

Nowadays, the Hip Hop dance style can be categorised into so many different various forms / manifestations. First off, we have the "street style" Hip Hop, which (I apologize if I'm wrong) is kinda more "ghetto"... then there's the more "gangsta" type, the "raw" forms of hip hop, the very "expressive" type. And on the other hand, you've got Lyrical Hip Hop, Jazz Hip Hop / LA Hip Hop, the more "refined" type.

One can say, "Street Style Hip Hop" and "Commercial". Call it what you like. But the different dance styles were born from the very same genre of music.

Lately I've really gotten into Newstyle (more like Electric Style, because I'm a mad fan of Electric Trouble...) which was pioneered by crews like the Mop Tops (who are now Elite Force Crew - correct me if i'm wrong, but I think I'm correct!). This street / raw style hailed from NY. It's got different elements of other dance styles in it, which makes it so unique. I'm not saying "this is the best and one and only dance" but this is the dance style that I dig.

Then there's LA style, which, as the name implies, hails from LA. I don't know where Lyrical Hip Hop came from, but I'm guessing it's due to a fusion of Lyrical Jazz of some sort. In Osaka, I learnt that LA Hip Hop is called Jazz Hip Hop. It's got Jazz techniques and elements in it.

Now as I was chatting to Terrence, I was "laying out" these two dances in my mind. And I suddenly realised, most of the top Newstyle dancers (pioneers / innovators / famous heads) are blacks, while most of the top LA style dancers (pioneers / innovators / choreographers) are whites. Like I said, I mean absolutely no racial discrimination here.

This led me to think about the background (lifestyle / living conditions) of the dance / dancers (from whatever I know thru watching movies / shows / documentaries / reading articles), and I came to this conclusion: Although both styles dance with the same music, the black dance to express their hearts, their thoughts, with their bodies as their voices, while the whites dance to express the song, it's meaning, with their bodies as an instrument, as if they're part of the song.

Terrence mentioned that one is simply more expressive than the other in it's own unique way. The blacks are more "raw", while the whites are more "refined". Probably, to a certain extent.

[Blacks: Heart & Soul / Whites: Mind & Body]

After looking at it like that, I realised it's kinda like the "Yin and Yang of Dance"... they are entirely different, yet, they are part of the same circle. I've yet to see someone able to mix the two styles into one, but for now, this is what I thought about, and this is what I wanted to share.

Lastly, before I end my post, I would like to stress again, that I mean ABSOLUTELY NO RACIAL DISCRIMINATION AND NO OFFENCE / DISRESPECT TO ANYONE AND ANY ARTFORM, AT ALL.

I know also that Brooklyn Terry (EFC) stated that there isnt a "Newstyle", that it is just essentially Hip Hop... no disrespect to the man. I stated it as "Newstyle" in my post because I wanted to accentuate the difference between different Hip Hop "substyles / feels".

the silence is over.

Article : Dance Styles, Part 1

[Edited 18/04 11:25am]
Well, before I start, let me say that this article's contents are based mostly on my own opinions and insights, and I do not claim that these are the most logical/best/only way to view this topic. So read it with an open mind, and I hope it clarifies some questions. Im open to any suggestions or discussions that you might have, we can all learn and benefit from each other :)

Now, for the sake of discussion, let us seperate dance into different layers. Mainly in ascending order :

Genre - The widest broadest level. Usually defined by music. Eg Hip Hop, Modern, Funk, House

Style - A unique way of dancing the genre. This is usually based around a central idea. Eg Krumping, newschool/style, liquid popping, locking.

Substyle- A further breakdown of the styles. General dancers actually use a variety of substyles but some dance purely the substyle. Eg in popping, we have tutting, waving, etc etc.

Character-The most personal level of dance. This would be putting your OWN character into any style u dance to.

-Genre-
Ok so with that in mind, what happens when you use techniques in a certain style, and use it in another music/style? Are you then dancing the original style? or the one which techniques you were using.
Simply put, lets say: You decided to use the waving and hitting techniques of popping, and you do it when you are dancing hip hop. Can you righly say you are doing Popping? Most people will tend to say "Oh that person is popping!"

To have more understanding about this, we'll go back to the very basic theory of dance :

"Music Inspires Dance"

Based on that, if you are the person in the above example, you are STILL dancing hip hop. You cannot really say you are popping. That is because the feel of the music and the dance is STILL hiphop. You are just borrowing techniques from another style(popping). You can only call it "Popping" when you are dancing to its roots. That is funk music. Because popping was inspired by funk music, it generally is done to funk songs.

Some might argue that the feel may be right. Like when I pop to house or techno, the popping n hitting makes the heavy beats come alive. Well, even if it feels smooth, or right, it still cant be called popping. The dance always has to stick to its origins when you refer to it.

The only way it can evolve is when the root music; funk(for popping example) music evolves. Another type of evolution would be when the techniques could be used in another genre. If hundreds of people around the world are beginning to pop to house music, then a new feel comes that is based upon popping techniques. Further refining of this will lead to a new style being introduced. We cant really call it popping. We can only call it a new name, which evolved from popping.

Therefore in this sense, the basic rule of determining what you are dancing is

1) What kind of music is it?
2)What is the original dance that was inspired by that music
3)Its evolution and growth

Be clear of what you are. Dont go around doing locking to hiphop music and say you are locking. You are a Hip-hop dancer. You are using locking techniques, not locking.

Note: Genres and styles tend to be often fused and combined, due to the free nature of dance. But you have to know and understand what you are dancing. Respect the roots of each genre/style.


-Style-
Styles are usually the most common thing that we associate ourselves with. We call ourselves Jazz dancers, hip-hop dancers, poppers, lockers, house dancers, Bboys. All these styles came from each genre. The birth of a style is usually due to an idea or inspiration- most of the time with influences from local culture or based around a certain principle and still sticking to the type of music that it came from.

For a simple case study, throw away all you ever knew about dance. You hear some Hiphop music. The heavy beats n bass make you start to groove.

The music makes you naturally start "bouncing" subconciously into a downbeat groove. Then you start adding basic everyday movements to it such as waving your hand, or shaking your head. Then you pay more attention to the lyrics and the feel, and try to incorporate it into your movements. Then it becomes sort of becomes very "street" and raw looking. The local culture also will effect this intepretation of the dance. And after alot of fine tuning, it will slowly becomes a style of its own

Put it in today's context and you can see how newschool came about (This is my own hypothesis, correct me if im wrong). Its mainly the evolution of hiphop dance due to todays culture. Other styles such as popping/locking/krumping/house have become more popular and people get inspired by them. As such, the central idea is to use those techniques and apply into Hip hop music.

Tastes and preferences change over time, as well as ideas. So thats why the dance is always evolving, but still staying true to its foundational roots. Every level of dance (genre,style) has its own roots. And once those roots are changed, it becomes another dance. It cannot be called the same thing.



Thats it for now...Pretty late and brain dead haha... Well so far we have covered genre, and about how styles came from the genres. Next post I will cover more on the various styles and their substyles. Hopefully ill be able to finish my thoughts about personal character and freestyle.

-^_^arC

Fbodz In Taiwan - Part 6 - "The Good Bye Dance"

Here is me and fong getting down with some funky Taiwanese friends that we have mad. It was a parting dance because the whole lot of us was saying goodbye to each other as we will be leaving Kaohsiung for Taipei the next day. Bittersweet but this was sorta like a last dance for us in the most special way. Love them Taiwanese folks for the warm hospitality. The reason why we all had fun is cause of these folks!

In Order:

1. Fong aka Fongky (Sunset Alleycats/Fbodz)
2. Chunky (Sunset Alleycats/Fbodz)
3. Sun (Max Studio)
4. Ah Niu (Funky Chicken)
5. Yu Zhen (Junkie Lockers)
6. Abo (Junkie Lockers)
7. Wei Wei (Junkie Lockers)

ps. if they were to post this video on their blogs, it will probably be titled 'how i got to join Foreign Bodies Taiwan'

Love the ending!

Fbodz In Taiwan (Almost Live) - Part 5 - 'Exchange Programme Ft. Wei Wei'

Ladies and gentlement gentlement and ladies i hereby present to you the funkiest Taiwan Lang you can ever have as a friend/tourguide. WeiWei is the joy of the people there. I really don't know if my words could do her humour justice so i just leave you to watch it. But hey you could learn some locking from this as well. Wei Wei is dope. Mel enjoys a good laugh and Chunky hates to not be able to laugh behind the camera.

Muack.
Chunky

Fbodz In Taiwan (Almost Live) - Part 4 - 'A Sunset Alleycats Experience'

Sunset Alleycats - Chunky, David aka Stickman, Fong & Weijie (Alex & Rachel not in routine)

Here is part of the showcase routine from the Sunset Allecyats for the Max Party. Did not show the entire routine because it was too lengthy. Wanted to prevent anyone from falling alseep in the midst of watching. Props to david for putting up an amazing front despite his brain beating itself up. Waiting gives David headaches. Team Trademarks represented well too but i do not have a front view captured for their routine! When i do get hold of one i would definately post it up. Meow. Sorry la i don't like to post very boringly but im really tired today! We are going to Taipei tomorrow!

Oh yes i know some of you thinking, where the hell is the Max Party action? I know you freaking want to see all the action from the event. I know I know. Give me more time to gather my footages and i will put it up okay? Keep tuning in! At the same time, you could check out the battle footages here. http://www.youtube.com/user/gogoeri (props to Ah Niu. Within 8 hours after the party, all the clips had already been up. He must have super freaking fast internet conenction.)

ps. Fong can really sleep everywhere.

Love,
Chunky.

Event : KO Night

For all you dancers in Singapore, its time to get those gear shined up and hit the battle arenas! Its come a long way and finally battles are beginning to show up here in Singapore. So be part of the culture and battle it out. Dance battles are games that dancers play. It doesn't matter if you win or lose, you just have to feel it and go with it. No single dancer can be the no.1 in every battle. You can only beat yourself everytime to the music. Not beat your opponent everytime. So dont wait, dont be shy. You will never regret taking the first step. Everyone has to start, so why not now.

Bboy, locking, popping and hip hop categories; And awesome prizes as well

Check it out , and GO REGISTER QUICK

http://oschool.com.sg/konight.php

-^_^arC

Fbodz In Taiwan (Almost Live) - Part 3 - "Terry Educates!"

Interview with Brooklyn Terry from Elite Force Crew, NYC

Need not say more, the man himself, the pioneer, the legend and the very few that laid the foundation for us all, Terry Wright gives Singapore something we need to hear. Shut that music, stop talking, don't blink and just listen. 

Chunky

Fbodz In Taiwan (Almost Live) - Part 2 - "Best 8!"

hey guys sorry for the late updates. The Max Party battle has ended. I must say it was one hell of an event. The dance standard was awesome, the people were friendly and the events were really entertaining. What touched us most about the event was it's people and their mindset. The general participants have this level of fun as they dance and you could tell from their faces that its a damned priviledge to be dancing on a stage like this. While Singaporeans love to compare others and try to be the 'best', the people here compliment each other with their dance and try hard to entertain, more than impress.

A good news i would like to deliver is that i have achieved a Best 8 placing out of the 90 odd that joined the locking category! I didn't really expect that but was secretly happy also la! hehehehehehehhehehe. Let me bring you through my journey during the day.

ps. See i am so patriotic. i wear our national colour okay!

Best 32 Audition

This was my second set by now. I have had gone through the 1st round of auditions to get into this best 32 selection. According to Melanie, she said that my style for the 1st round was too laid back and that i needed more Ommmppff!! So i tried that a little although down here it still does look like i am laying back! I like the other guy's set too. Love his ending!

Best 16 Battle

For best 16. It was already battle rounds and i am honoured to be dancing with Ah Niu from Funky Chicken crew of Taipei. I was happy because Funky Chicken is one of my favourite performance crews in taipei. I must say i was really lucky for this set because they played a music which i knew!

Best 8 Battle

At this point of time i already know that my route ends here because Air Con from Chayi City is a well known Locker who has great music skills. I would already consider that he was playing nice with me on this round la.. but you see i so gabra on this round i din even look like i knew what i was doing. Was talking to Nick from Studio Wu today and he felt that i lacked the levels. Which i think was so true. But it was all good because i think it was an honour to be on the stage stage as these guys. I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Other results: (will post videos soon. Still sourcing)

Hip-Hop Best 16

Melanie Tay

Hip-Hop Best 32

Ah Ben Toh

Lesner Chua

Melanie Tay 

Ah Hei

Yours Funkily,

Chunkier

Fbodz In Taiwan (almost live) - Part 1 - "Infiltration"

Earth to SGD, Earth to SGD. The Taiwanese have kidnapped us. Sorry for the delay on posting the first video up. The schedule here has been tight and full of issues (good ones). Yes i used the word 'schedule' because the kind Taiwanese have actually planned up a timetable for our stay here. So pai Say. 

I would like to apologise if i would take 1000 years to post up the next video because you know we end our day late. But anyhow, just do keep checking this space la can? Read the older post la? Read already before then read again. If not feel free to visit the links we posted. Support abit mah.

Our stay so far here for the last 1 day has been great and enjoyable man. I first would want to declare that there might be no other place in the dance world that has more warm and hospitable and nice and friendly down-to-earth's-core people as the people here are at Kaohsiung. Everybody is a dancing santa claus. And everyday is christmas. So giving. Im surprised that we have gotten pretty used to the life here within the first few hours. It was so nice to see a place finally without any Mas Selamat pictures around.

Sorry i had to give you one mouthful but still yet to talk about Part 1's video feed. Part 1 is called infiltration because we feel like we're on some top secret mission. As you can see from the post we do lots of stupid stuffs. Beleive me we have had lots more dumb footages that we had from the plane but we couldnt post it up because i think even youtube maximum time limit also cannot handle our stuff. Sorry for the looney tunes standard of dance in the video. Although it was pure embarrasment content, this blog is still called singaporegotdance. Cannot be post something then no dance mah. So had to make do with that.

17 motorbikes to pick up 17 naive kids who some prolly still dont even know how to tie their laces. This must have been the coolest thing that could happen to me in a long time. 

The Max Studio Party 2008 is starting in 7 hours time. Some of us are going to take part in the battles. While Team Trademarks and the Sunset Alleycats are going to put up guest performance for the event. If Terrence(NRA) was here he will probably go " wah this one feel like going for Dance Delight in japan leh"  Lots of great dancers are going to be there man. Popping Kwon, Popping Snowball, Originality Lockers, Terry Wright (Elite Force Crew) are going to be there. 

I know many of you sure thinking, Wah Lou why this Ian person talk so near the Camera? I tell you its because i have this habit of doing so because i want the sound to be damned clean near and clear. I do not want to lose the the background sound. Stop counting my pimple. And many of you thinking, why this guy is called Chunky. For the 32423409809th time,yes i am fat. okay?

Watch out for my next post k? Alot more is going to come out from this next one. 

As of now.. i would like to say:

- Hello Sabrina. Im doing fine. I miss you.

- To Fong.Is.Dope Crew(invitational only), Fong is doing fine and he sleeps everywhere 

- Wassup Caleb. Multiply how? 

- Hey Marcus! can you ask Caleb: Multiply how?

- To Diane. Fong was trying to contact you just now but cannot. He whined like a 4 year old.

- To Ben, we are fine here. Your Ah Hei is doing fine.

- Robin, yesterday i dream we join KO night together. We joined bboy.

- Jasmine, you told me Taiwanese people way of saying Dope is Hao Du Ping Ah! You were right.

Chunky. (peed once today.beat that)

Going Taiwan

Our dearest Ian will be flying off to Taiwan (Kaoshiung) with 16 other members of FBodz today for the Max Studio Party!!!!*Jealous*

He'll be updating the misadventures and happening stuff on his trip on this space here. Do keep a lookout!!!

Caleb

Article : Style?

Just a short prelude/preview of my next article.

What makes a style? Can you truly say you are doing hip hop or popping or are you abit street jazz or reggae - When you dance???

What happens when you put a jazz dancer in a hip hop environment? Vice-versa?

Music and dance is so free yet society imposes the limitations on itself; But that in turn gives birth to the word 'Style'


Thats all for now...Keep a lookout for the more in depth thought spiller one. Haha...


-^_^arC