And now begins part three of my dance blogs.
This is a continuation of the last blog, which will cover some of the other moves that are common in freestyles and battles in new style hip hop and hip hop in general.
The first type of move is called an isolation. Isolations are a simple concept that when executed accordingly and uniquely yield a very positive response from the audience. When you combine an isolation with a beatkill (remember in the last blog? when a move is perfectly in sync with the music), that's basically an A+ if you were getting graded on dance (which of course you're not because what fun would that be?). An isolation is executed when the dancer only moves one part of his/her body or keeps a body part (joint, limb, etc.) fixed and moves the other body parts in relation to it without moving that part of the body. Here is a video that breaks it down with a visual. What's different about the videos I'll utilize in this blog is that they are mostly from dance tutorials, which are about 2-4 mins each, making them digestible. The dancers who break down their own combos are accomplished and know what they're talking about. I would encourage you to view other tutorials by the awesome youtube channel who does this, if you feel inclined to do so, as their is a style for everyone. These videos also give you a mini biography on each dancer right before they start demonstrating. In this video, a dancer from a well-known dance crew in Oakland, CA breaks down the isolation aspect of his combo. Choose a video: Isolation or isolation. As you can see in videos, isolations are illusions that create imaginary objects or shapes through the dance, or show various levels of control by fixing body parts in a freestyle. A very impressive skill to know.
Now this next one is part of a style known as popping. Popping is a pretty mainstream style that I am sure you've seen at some point in your life while walking down the street somewhere. Aspects of popping are adopted into new style hip hop -- especially waving. Waving is an illusion that, as the name suggests, depicts a wave passing through the dancer's body. It is really cool to watch because when done correctly -- in a swift, fluid, connected motion that seems impossible -- provides a temporary sense of disbelief, until the next ridiculous move is executed. In this video, a korean dancer shows her style of waving that has many "breaks" which comprise the wave. These tutorials do not need to be watched in full because the move is shown in the first few seconds, but it is fascinating to see how the dancer breaks it down: Funky waving. For those of you smarty pants reading this and have already made the connection, waving is a subset of isolations. Waving is a great asset because it is a visual of the undulation to the beat. Yep, combined with a beatkill makes it a deadly move in battles.
Another important move that is used in a large number of styles is gliding. Without going into too much detail, it is essentially the concept of not blatantly moving the feet to create an effect in which the dancer appears to be "gliding" across the dance floor. This video says it all: Funky gliding. That video accentuated it a little, but you get the idea.
The last move I'll talk about today isn't much of a move. It is a fundamental of popping called the hit. While popping is a pretty different style from new style, "hitting" is used in new style hip hop a lot because it is a static move that is almost always a beatkill in new style, but not so much a beatkill in popping. Hitting in new style can serve as a transition to other moves by providing emphasis on the hit -- which is the most simple beatkill one can do -- and then moving into more complex moves. Here's another tutorial: just skip to 4:45 to watch the full combo and keep an eye out for abrupt stops in his movements Nelson Hitting. Nelson is pretty good at this move. It's simple, but makes an impact.
I know this blog and the last one have been quite technical, but it is useful information to know about dance. If you've read all my blogs, you'll be able to spot the differences from a bad dancer, to a good dancer to a great dancer to a master dancer from ten feet away by the end of this series. Next week I am going to cover one of the most interesting topics and a personal favorite of mine -- dance battles and dancer interactions. Ooh that'll be fun. See if you can spot these moves in this video :) Les Twins
-Kylesh
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