Have you ever taken class and thought, “Man… why don’t I look like the instructor?” Even people who have danced their entire life might experience these thoughts in a class.
We say all the time that you don’t need to look exactly like the instructor, which is true! We want you to make choices in how you express yourself through movement. But at the base of it all is the foundation of dance and the given style. So even if you’ve taken dance classes your whole life and you’re a seasoned pro at picking up and retaining choreography, it might still feel like something is missing…. Any ideas on what that may be?
It’s the DANCE! Sometimes in a choreography class, it can be so easy to focus on just getting the movement and framework of the material that we forget to actually dance. It might sound self explanatory, but how do you go from someone who is just “doing the steps” to someone who is actually dancing? We think there’s two overall factors:
1. You have to know the foundations
Let’s take Popping for example – If you have 2 dancers: one who has trained in Popping for 10 years and the other who has trained in Jazz. The Jazz dancer might be able to easily learn an entire popping routine, but we guarantee you that it’s going to look like a completely different dance than what the Popper is doing. That’s because dance is not just about the choreography. It’s about moving your body in different ways to express yourself in combination with feeling the music. And the authenticity of this movement come from training from the source. If you want to dance a certain style, you have to train in the fundamentals, from someone who is connected to the culture of the style amd understands where the movement comes from. Without training with a connection to the source, you might be able to learn the movement, but it’s going to feel and look a little off.
2. Become one with the music
It sounds cheesy, I know. But if you just do choreography without true connection to the music, it feels disconnected. Songs carry their own energy and how they make you feel. So soak in the music and let your body react.
When you combine your training of the fundamentals with your synchronicity to the music, that’s when your movement truly becomes magnetizing.
We certainly give you training of the fundamentals in our choreography class, in addition to the element of learning choreography. But if you want to become a better dancer, you have to spend more time training. The more time spent on the actual training of a style will allow you the confidence to own the movement. And then combine that with the grooves of the song, and you’ll be unstoppable.
If you’re ready to take your dance to the next level (whether you’ve danced in the studio your whole life or you’ve never stepped foot in the studio), we’re pleased to add a new class to our Musicality Central offerings: Funky Foundations.
This class will help you to build on your dance skills in various styles, with each month having a different focus, such as popping, hip hop, waving.
We couldn’t be more excited to have James Levy officially join the MC instructor crew to offer you guys this new class. Talk about connected to the source! This man has trained with the OGs of hip hop over the past 10 years, and he’s ready to share this knowledge with you.
This is a prefect complimentary class to our Choreo 101 and Choreo Vibes classes! Training in different styles each month will put more movement in your arsenal that will make your execution of choreography even stronger.
So let’s do this! Funky Foundations starts on Monday, September 23rd at 7:30pm.