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