Street Dancing, Popping and Locking

I introduced myself in the last episode of this blog but I did not mention that I compose and mix music. Hip Hop is one of the many genres I produce, although I tend to like to add a twist of my own own style or other genres to it.

The track mentioned in this blog actually tells a story about a young afro-carribean woman who has left her x boy friends gang culture after she finds success with a well paid 9 to 5 job, new friends and a new life away from guns, drugs and violence.

The style of the track is hip hop with elements of house music. It took around 3 days to complete. The vocals came from music sample librarys which were permitted for use in music eirther for non-commercial or commerical publication. Some of the melody is also sample based but some I composed as original material using software synthesizers. The mp3 of the track in question can be streamed or downloaded from the following website . It is called "Leave The Gang Behind".

First let me introduce myself. I am a DJ and music producer who does a little dancing now and again. My project is to promote myself and a very talented dancer by the name of Paul. He is very versatile and dynamic at hip hop related popping and locking.

Paul has started to teach me the hip hop moves but I have recently injured my shoulder which has impaired my instruction. Although my injury has meant I am not practicing with Paul he has his son to practice with who is extremely talented at dancing for a twelve year old. During their dance routine they continuously pop to the rhythm of a song in combination with various movements and poses.

Popping is a funk and street dance style based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in the dancer's body. In hip hop circles this is commonly referred to as a pop or a hit. Popping is also used as an umbrella term for a group of closely related illusionary dance styles and techniques that are often integrated with popping to create a more varied performance. The moves include locking and robotics. The origins of such dance routines date back to 1969, when a young afro-carribean man by the name of Don Campbell became known among street dancers in Los Angeles for inventing a dance called the Campbellock (he put out a record called ""Do the Campbellock""). Don Campbell took the hydraulic robotic movements, which were all about total control and mixed it with wild, out of control body movement dances of the tap-flash dance days plus exact stop and start movements and spiced it all with comic facial expressions and clown-like costumes to develop a whole new dance movement which is still going strong called "Locking" (Campbellocking to the hip hop veterans). Since then the original dance has evolved into many sub styles. One of them being robot dancing amongst others.

Paul and his son have a dance routine that comprises all the above styles blended well and expertly choreographed so that they flow smoothly into each other. Despite this it is evident which aspects of the dance routines Paul and his son favour. Paul is best when popping and locking and his son despite only having a few months practice already does an excellent Robot dance.

Their efforts can be read about or witnessed at the following urls:-

From their first efforts at:-
First Moves
To their most recent routines in June and August of this year (2008) at:-
Latest Dance Routine

I reccommend anyone wishing to learn the hip hop dance routine have a look.