Style : Hiphop Choreography

Hello everybody! My name is Terence and I am freaking new to this,
Firstly, thank you marc marzipan for asking me to try this out and write for Singaporegotdance.com. Its really an honor to write for such a website and also writing beside amazing people/dancers such as cheeBen psyk who is so sick he makes me pang sai on my pants everytime I watch him dance, Marzipan who is such a sick and creative popper, KS who is a freaking young talent and jasmine whose groove is beyond insanity! I was scared at first but hell with it im going to try at least haha, Like I said im new to this and one thing for sure, I’m not good at writing. But ill try my best! So bear with me if you don’t understand the heck of what the heck I’m writing the heck about ok?

Ok firstly, let me introduce myself since it is the first time I’m writing a post. My name is Terence and my surname is Then. Since primary school, when I was short, fat and had a bowl shaped hairstyle, people have been making fun of my surname like example, “Terence.. THEN HOW?!” or “Terence.. arbber then???” . I used to be very affected by the jokes but ever since I found dance, I’ve became much more confident and able to face the hurtful jokes. Ok im kidding, but im serious about being short fat and having a bowl shaped hairstyle. Anyway, I’m 22 this year, I love dancing and have been dancing for about 4 and a half years. I am currently in NRA and I love my second family and second home :). So yea, now you know me a little better, lets talk about the actual point of the post, Style talk for hiphop choreography.

Well, firstly, in my humble opinion, hiphop is a very very LARGE genre and to me Hiphop is kinda like nonya rojak. Not Indian rojak, but the rojak that has taupok and sticky sweet sauce and pineapples and radishes that you mix it all around. By the way Indian rojak the fried bread is just too damn delicious. Anyway I feel the term hiphop is so free and so huge. To me hiphop is just self expression of how you feel towards the music. Hiphop just like all other styles is dance. Hiphop to me is just mixing up all the styles you do and expressing it. So to me I don’t really see the mega huge difference between la hiphop, lyrical hiphop, japan hiphop. Because to me its all just different styles of hiphop that ppl do and dance to express themselves, in the end its still all dance. First thing dancers should STOP doing is cutting the line in between the 2. like dissing on the other styles just because you prefer a style. We should respect all the “genres” of hiphop and learn from it and stay open :). But that is to me personally, its ok if you don’t agree :).
For me personally I LOVE the flow of Japanese choreography and I LOVE the creativity and self expressions of U.S choreography, there’s so much to learn from both the east and the west so open up your minds and eyes and learn.

I don’t really know what style is it that I’m doing or what my style is, I’m just creating choreography the way I feel towards the music. Its hard but its good to keep trying. One thing I know for sure. It is VERY VERY hard to create a DANCE. It’s easy to create steps, its easy to create nice steps. It’s easy to create nice steps to fit to the song, but its extremely hard to create a dance. To me creating a dance is freaking advance stuff man.

Many of us including myself are just at the end of the day, creating a set of steps to fit it into the music. But its ok, just keep working hard and I’m sure one day we all would be able to create a dance instead of just steps. I am working very hard too, In the past, I used to choreograph to songs that I thought was dope, or songs that has beats that made me go crazy or like “WA LAU THE BEATS DAM CHIO!”. But nowadays I try to choreograph to songs that I like. Songs that I would never even thought of creating a dance to if I go back to when I just started dancing. Or ever back like 2 years back. Stereotypes mainly will go “wa lao this song can dance meh? Can choreo meh?”. I would answer yes. You should answer yes too. I believe that EVERY SINGLE song in the world can be made into a dance because dance is about self expression. Do not be afraid to just try to choreograph to songs that you feel its impossible to choreograph to. I feel when you like a song or when a song means something to you somehow, its easier to connect to the song and thus it is easier for a choreo to be created. You don’t have to force frames in it, you don’t have to rack your brains over the different layers, you don’t have to think hard on what step should be on what count, on what layer on what lyric. The whole choreo would just flow and come out the way you want to express it. So I feel choreographing to a song you love, a song that you can connect with would bring you up a higher notch somehow. It doesn’t matter what genre the song is , whether its vasamtham central theme song, or Beijing cultural er hu piece or Tibet folk music or backstreet boys or even your wake up sound from your alarm clock. MOST important is something that you are able to connect with, something you love, something you like!

Do not care about people’s comments or thoughts. Eleanor Roosevelt said to always do what is right in your heart, because at the end of the day, you’ll still be criticized anyway. Because that is you. And nobody can be you except you.. That is why dance is so damn amazing. Because we are able to use our body language to express the way we want to on how a piece of sound or music makes us feel.

I think that is roughly a few things I want to point out about choreography. I still have ALOT ALOT to say but I guess its super long already so till next time. :)
Singapore is a small country, but it’s seriously filled with many many talented hardworking and inspiring people and dancers. Keep working hard together guys! I’m sure over time we will be able to be known to the world that Singapore is small in size, but BIG in dance :)
Goodbye and keep practicing, keep dancing, but don’t forget to go back to your basics and foundations.

Terence.