Food For Thought : If you're stuck, seek your thoughts.

Yo yo! It's KS in the house *flabbing arms frantically*
In this post, I will be touching on how dancers can improve themselves BY themselves :D


I believe that every dancer has experienced the 'stagnant period' before, where you are unable to get a breakthrough from your dance.

YES. You might be wondering, what ways are there to get out from it.



Obviously, that the best way to breakthrough from it is to continue improving. (In terms of free-styling)
For me, I like to take videos of myself down whenever I have the chance to session. Usually I'll just ask my friends to help me comment on me, and we'll repeat it vice versa. Here's the thing: You don't get to see yourself dancing. So whenever I comment on my friends, I will take a mental note on myself not to repeat those mistakes. Similarly, if there is any good parts, I will try to make an analysis on why that particular set was good.

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DISCLAIMER:

There are some 'theories' that should not be analysed, and BY RIGHT should not be explained (notice the contradiction here), because I believe that these are things that differentiate the good dancers and the BETTER dancers, in terms of both dancing and judging. If you know it, good for you. If you don't know, learn :D

This one, quite bo pian, you need to train by yourself and learn through experience. Otherwise you'll never be able to apprehend it completely.

One more thing. Don't try to explain too much of dance in theories. Bad for health *coughs*

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This is how I break it down: (comes with additional locking terms)
1a.Flow (how the movements alone transit from one step to another)

I like to see movement alone when people are doing sets. Like for example, how a person transits from a wrist twirl to a double lock and then a kick-ball-change.
You could do it the simple way. Or maybe do a single lock on both sides. Or you could transit to a whichaway after the kick-ball-change.
You could break it down into isolations, dance with a stiff body (which looks more animated), or add in the upbeat rhythm.

1b.Flow (How the movements goes in sync with the music)
Obvious examples would be like: When you hear a trumpet sound in the song, it is natural to 'whip' out a point. Or you don't do beat-ish steps when the music has a drag in it.

In general, every song has their own 'feel' interpreted differently from each dancer, expressed through different musical instruments. That 'feeling' that you get from your interpretation, will represent your flow when you dance to the song.

For example, a locker doing moves to a funky song, as compared to another locker doing moves with and extra upbeat to a funky song. The flow that comes will definitely be different, because the second dancer has added rhythm into his dance.

2.Rhythm
Rhythm is referring to the way your body move in a rythymic manner.
A good example would be drum beats.
Simple rhythm, 1 2 3 4, 5 6 7 8
Alternatively, 1 2, 3 and 4, 5 6, 7 and 8
OR maybe 1 and 2 and 3 and 4, 5 6, 7 and 8

So when the music goes a normal basic rhythm "Boom, pa, Boom, pa, Boom, pa, Boom, pa",
This is where you start to create your own rhythm. Take note, you don't have to neccesarily follow the normal rhythm. In general, good dancers are able to follow the rythym. But better dancers create their own rhythm and add it into their freestyle.

3.Musicality
What's the difference between musicality and rhythm? Well, rhythm is representing the basic and regular beats that you dance to when you freestyle. Musicality on the other side, refers to hitting irregular beats, or very subtle sound effects that may come out in the song.

Let me use a song as an example: Blockbuster - rhythm heritage
A simple explanation of rhythm, would be dancing to the basic beats of 1 2 3 4, 5 6 7 8.
Musicality comes in when you hear the very climatic parts (eg. trumpet)
These are the parts where the beats are irregular, and hence different from the normal basic beats of the song (rhythm)


After understanding these 3 basic components in doing a good dance free-style,then you will be able to do your homework - record your dance videos and comment on it. This will help you to see your weaknesses and strengths in a clearer view so that you can work on them.

Just one point to take note of:
One thing about musicality, is that dancers are trying too hard to hit all of the subtle sound effects and crazy beats. However, when we dance, we need to maintain the rhythm and flow to be able to present the crazy beats at its best. Otherwise, you'll just end up waiting to freak the beat and it's back to waiting for the next beat to freak, which doesn't make sense because you're supposed to dance.

I will recommend everyone to get a pair of good inner-ear earphones and start listening to the different layers of instruments to understand the song better. House songs in general add/remove another instrument in the song in every 4 sets of 8, so it will be easier for people to differentiate the layers :D


"If you're stuck, IMAGINE." - KS