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Whether you want to impress your friends or
participate in dance competitions, or just have
fun – break dancing is an exciting hobby. A
skilled break-dancer will always grab everyone’s
attention instantly with the complex moves,
keeping up with the pace of the music.
Break dancing is
an energetic street style dance where you
perform amazingly intricate moves but appear
completely in coordination with your body.
Break-dancers are called b-boys or b-girls,
depending on their gender.
This dance form
is also a wonderful way to keep fit since you
need plenty of balance, a strong body and a fit
heart. As you become better at this form of
dance art, you will gain self-confidence as you
face your fans across the floor.
Break Dance –
Its Origins
Even though
break dancing has been around since the 1960’s,
it became popular in the 1970’s and 1980’s in
New York with the African American people. It is
believed that it might have had its roots in the
‘Lindy Hop’ and the Charleston but there is no
right way to break dancing as it is adapted by
the dancers all the time, borrowing from other
dance forms and arts. However, we can say that
James Brown takes the credit for popularizing
break dancing back in the late 1960’s. This
dance style that was called Good foot at this
time began to be called the b-boy a little
later. Soon after came DJ Afrika Bambaataa with
their dexterity in mixing music and transforming
break dancing into what we see it as, in current
times. Breakdancing also has its origin from the
South Bronx when Kool DJ Herc mixed and matched
various beats of music, creating a rhythm – and
break dancing. What started as a casual dance
form is now being offered as an option by dance
schools – opening up a lot of scope for the
performer, helping them become professional
break-dancers or giving them a gateway into the
movies. You might find it hard to believe that
you can make a career out of this dance form –
but you have very good chances of performing in
music videos, dancing on shows – and depending
on who is producing it, you can earn good cash.
Auditions will give you the exposure and open
the doors to bigger projects.
Where To Start When You Learn Break Dancing
It is important
to get used to the basic moves first, before you
can try any of the ‘power’ stuff. It is also
important to practice a lot because, especially
with break dancing, you must become good at it
while avoiding injury to yourself. The best way
to do this is by getting an instructor who is
qualified to teach you how to do this. Your
instructor will also teach you the right
exercises to warm up – like stretching to relax
your muscles before you begin your break dancing
so that your chances of getting hurt are
minimized. Some sore muscles and some minor
injury are inevitable, but with guided
instruction, you can quickly learn to avoid
these.
While learning
to spin during a headstand, most learners use a
helmet and then move on to a cushioned hat until
they can perform it well enough to do it without
any protection. Some moves are quite complex in
break dancing and that is why it is advisable to
learn with someone who is accomplished in this
dance form. For some moves, back protection is
worn for support. Sometimes wrist supports are
also worn if the entire body weight has to be
borne on the palms. Just before performances,
many break-dancers powder their hands since this
makes hand spins easier. Some also wear gloves.
Developing Your Own Style Of Break Dancing
Break dancing is
a lot of fun, but to get really good at it, it
calls for a lot of concentrated effort and
persistence. Rather than just learning a
particular way to perform the footwork, you must
develop your unique style in a natural way. This
needs plenty of practice. There are plenty of
online break dancing schools that do a good job
of teaching you the basics.
Now let us get
familiar with a few moves you will learn when
you take up break dancing:
Basics: top rock and up
rock – this is the footwork you learn to
establish your own style. Down rock and six-step
involve footwork on the ground. The sweeping
movement you see break-dancers performing with
their legs on the ground is the coffee grinder.
Power moves after the basics:
·
The basic power moves are the windmills and the
flares – these can be quite tough and need much
practice to master.
·
Abdominal – hand glides and hand spins, icey
ice, turtles, crickets, jackhammers
·
Inverted power moves are the elbow spin, solar
eclipse and scissor kicks.
-
Then we have
the freezes – hollow back, air chairs, elbow
poses, chairs, pikes and so on.
-
When you
move to the advanced power moves, you will
do airtracks, which are full windmills, and
air flares.
As for music –
you can break dance to hip-hop, funk, jazz and
soul.
Some really well
known break-dancers are the Rocksteady Crew,
Tony Touch, Mr Wiggles, Crazy legs, Fast Feet,
etc. You can learn a lot by observing other
break-dancers at parties and clubs. A lot of
people practice in front of their mirrors so
that they can figure out how to improve.
By now you must
be raring to go find that instructor so that you
can get started with all that footwork. Above
you can find links to exhaustive information
related to break dancing, where you can learn,
instructional videos, books that will be of
great help, etc. You will also find a lot of
tips to help you take up break dancing as a
hobby. And it wont be long before you’re doing
what you long to do – with style!
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