Post by Kye923 on Mar 6, 2010 19:39:13 GMT 8
Yo! Otis Funkmeyer comin atcha again with another certified banger.
So let’s get it started. When you’re popping, the most important thing to be focused on is the music. The music will tell you how to dance if you let it. All of the styles of popping that we now love–boogaloo, waving, tutting, animation, robot–they were all created because of a song that made someone move in a certain way. No one had ever moved in that way before because no music had ever been created to inspire that movement.
If you allow the music to sink deep inside of you, it will show you how to dance. Movements will literally just come out of you. When you add your technique and foundational movements to the music, you create magic!
Someone who did just that is probably the reason you wanted to start popping in the first place.
How the Music Creates the Dance
Almost all social dances were created because a new kind of music was created. A new type of beat made people move their bodies in a new type of way. Popping is no exception. In the 1970s, James Brown was the thing. His type of funk was inspiring dancers all over to groove to his music. This type of music inspired the dance called locking. Locking is ALL ABOUT THE FUNK. It’s just about making a face and laughing and having a good time and shaking it loose, with a point and a lock there and a scoo bot for good measure!
In the mid-70s, technology started to shift. New types of instruments came onto the market. Two of the most important were the electronic bass synthesizer and the electronic drum machine. These instruments made more electric, mechanical sounds. As bands like Parliament began releasing hit songs like “Flashlight” featuring these new instruments, dancers started moving in new ways. More mechanically, like robots.
And a very specific kind of percussive sound, the electronic clap, caused the dancers to start flexing their muscles. It made them shout “POP” or “BANG” or just “UHHH” each time it hit. They were still locking, but more mechanically. They were starting to add a rigidness to their funk. They were beginning to create what we call popping.
The Music Tells You What to Do
These early poppers just allowed the music to tell them what to do. These were not “trained” dancers. These were social dancers, who danced for fun, danced to get girls, danced to go out at night. They were more concerned with having a good time than with doing the dance “correctly.”
Because they were free, the music told them how to move. One song might inspire them to roll their body. Another dancer would see this, copy it, and the next thing you know the first boogaloo dancers have begun creating a style. Another song, with an Egyptian feel, makes people start making 90 degree angles with their hands. Tutting is born. A song with a lot of melody, a windy, light, wavy feel, causes people to sway. Waving and snaking are born.
Relax Into the Music
When many dancers start dancing, they are stiff. I was stiff when I started. I was actually stiff for the first 5 years I was dancing. I was in my head. Trying to do movements correctly. This is part of the learning process. You have to let yourself be a bad dancer before you can be a great dancer!
What can help this process, what helped me, was RELAXING into the music. When I started giving up the need to do things right, movements started coming out of me. All of my training would show up naturally, without me even trying. So relax. ENJOY dancing. Remember that this is fun.
If I had one thing to change about my dance career, it would be that I spent more time dancing for FUN. Just to have a good time. Just to be silly. Just to make my friends laugh. I spent so much time trying to be GOOD. Trying to do things RIGHT. Don’t make the mistake that I made. Because once you are good, you just start having fun anyway. And not having fun while you are bad doesn’t make you any better! In fact, the more you relax and have fun the faster your technique will improve as well.
Feel What the Music is Expressing
So how do you go about doing this? Well, a great way to start is to really LISTEN to music. Can you hear a bassline? Do you even know what a bassline is? Can you hear the difference between kick drums, snares, claps, hi hats, and tom drums? Can you hear both the lead guitar and the rhythm guitar? How about the cowbell? Or the synth in the background that only comes in once every 8 counts.
If what I just wrote sounds like a foreign language to you, that’s ok. Do your homework. Type those words into wikipedia. Google ear training. But most importantly, pull out some headphones and really LISTEN to the music. Just sit there, close your eyes. Let the music unfold. Listen closely to the left ear and the right ear. Often times, different sounds are only played on one side.
When I first started dancing, I didn’t know ANYTHING about music. I couldn’t hear basslines, which are so basic and so important, I can hardly imagine what life was like back then. But I LOVED music. I would lay in bed and put on the headphones and just listen to music. Over and over. It was so exciting when a new sound would appear out of nowhere. A sound that had always been there, but one that I had never heard. It’s like a whole new world opens up before you.
Start Slow, Let the Music Carry You Along
When you get up and actually feel like dancing, which you will, start slow. Most of the best dancers do their best dancing when they start slow. Suga Pop once told me that he knows Poppin Pete is about to have a great solo when he starts slow. When Pete rushes out into ground moves and crazy boogaloo angles, Suga Pop said, that’s usually not when the magic happens. But when he comes out into a slow robot, does a pop here, a pop there, not moving very much, allowing the music to carry him along, sinking deeper and deeper into the music, that’s when Suga Pop starts to get excited. That’s when the magic happens.
Boppin Andre told me the same thing. He said to go really slow when you start. Allow the people to hear what you are hearing. SHOW THEM the kick drum. SHOW THEM the clap. Do it for a while. Not just once or twice. Allow them to see. Present your dance to them. As they catch on, they may start clapping. Now, you are ready to show them a new part of the music. When you dance slowly like this, the audience loves it, because they can follow it. Most of them are NOT dancers and most of them CAN NOT hear music very well. But if you take the time to show them, they will love you.
My last story is from Sweepy. Sweepy had just moved from New York to Los Angeles and had started training with Suga Pop. Suga Pop would sit in a chair in the corner of the room and tell Sweepy to start dancing. Sweepy would feel so nervous that he would go really fast. Suga Pop would always just say to him “Sweeps, the music isn’t going anywhere.” So SLOW DOWN! RELAX! Let the music carry you along!
How This Relates to You
YOU can create a new dance style that millions of people will be doing. YOU have the potential to give a great gift to the world. Your own dance, your own expression.
This is how Don Campbell created locking. Everyone was doing the same old dances and so was he. But at some point, he just started to let loose and feel what the music was telling HIM to do. He opened up to the music and bared his soul. He danced how he was born to dance. Today, almost forty years later, there are millions of people still doing his dance. All because he allowed the music to tell him what to do and he LISTENED.
Learn the technique, learn the music, pay your dues, and then give your gift to the world! It’s what we’re all here to do.
KEEP IT POPPING!
Otis Funkmeyer
From: WestCoastPoppin
So let’s get it started. When you’re popping, the most important thing to be focused on is the music. The music will tell you how to dance if you let it. All of the styles of popping that we now love–boogaloo, waving, tutting, animation, robot–they were all created because of a song that made someone move in a certain way. No one had ever moved in that way before because no music had ever been created to inspire that movement.
If you allow the music to sink deep inside of you, it will show you how to dance. Movements will literally just come out of you. When you add your technique and foundational movements to the music, you create magic!
Someone who did just that is probably the reason you wanted to start popping in the first place.
How the Music Creates the Dance
Almost all social dances were created because a new kind of music was created. A new type of beat made people move their bodies in a new type of way. Popping is no exception. In the 1970s, James Brown was the thing. His type of funk was inspiring dancers all over to groove to his music. This type of music inspired the dance called locking. Locking is ALL ABOUT THE FUNK. It’s just about making a face and laughing and having a good time and shaking it loose, with a point and a lock there and a scoo bot for good measure!
In the mid-70s, technology started to shift. New types of instruments came onto the market. Two of the most important were the electronic bass synthesizer and the electronic drum machine. These instruments made more electric, mechanical sounds. As bands like Parliament began releasing hit songs like “Flashlight” featuring these new instruments, dancers started moving in new ways. More mechanically, like robots.
And a very specific kind of percussive sound, the electronic clap, caused the dancers to start flexing their muscles. It made them shout “POP” or “BANG” or just “UHHH” each time it hit. They were still locking, but more mechanically. They were starting to add a rigidness to their funk. They were beginning to create what we call popping.
The Music Tells You What to Do
These early poppers just allowed the music to tell them what to do. These were not “trained” dancers. These were social dancers, who danced for fun, danced to get girls, danced to go out at night. They were more concerned with having a good time than with doing the dance “correctly.”
Because they were free, the music told them how to move. One song might inspire them to roll their body. Another dancer would see this, copy it, and the next thing you know the first boogaloo dancers have begun creating a style. Another song, with an Egyptian feel, makes people start making 90 degree angles with their hands. Tutting is born. A song with a lot of melody, a windy, light, wavy feel, causes people to sway. Waving and snaking are born.
Relax Into the Music
When many dancers start dancing, they are stiff. I was stiff when I started. I was actually stiff for the first 5 years I was dancing. I was in my head. Trying to do movements correctly. This is part of the learning process. You have to let yourself be a bad dancer before you can be a great dancer!
What can help this process, what helped me, was RELAXING into the music. When I started giving up the need to do things right, movements started coming out of me. All of my training would show up naturally, without me even trying. So relax. ENJOY dancing. Remember that this is fun.
If I had one thing to change about my dance career, it would be that I spent more time dancing for FUN. Just to have a good time. Just to be silly. Just to make my friends laugh. I spent so much time trying to be GOOD. Trying to do things RIGHT. Don’t make the mistake that I made. Because once you are good, you just start having fun anyway. And not having fun while you are bad doesn’t make you any better! In fact, the more you relax and have fun the faster your technique will improve as well.
Feel What the Music is Expressing
So how do you go about doing this? Well, a great way to start is to really LISTEN to music. Can you hear a bassline? Do you even know what a bassline is? Can you hear the difference between kick drums, snares, claps, hi hats, and tom drums? Can you hear both the lead guitar and the rhythm guitar? How about the cowbell? Or the synth in the background that only comes in once every 8 counts.
If what I just wrote sounds like a foreign language to you, that’s ok. Do your homework. Type those words into wikipedia. Google ear training. But most importantly, pull out some headphones and really LISTEN to the music. Just sit there, close your eyes. Let the music unfold. Listen closely to the left ear and the right ear. Often times, different sounds are only played on one side.
When I first started dancing, I didn’t know ANYTHING about music. I couldn’t hear basslines, which are so basic and so important, I can hardly imagine what life was like back then. But I LOVED music. I would lay in bed and put on the headphones and just listen to music. Over and over. It was so exciting when a new sound would appear out of nowhere. A sound that had always been there, but one that I had never heard. It’s like a whole new world opens up before you.
Start Slow, Let the Music Carry You Along
When you get up and actually feel like dancing, which you will, start slow. Most of the best dancers do their best dancing when they start slow. Suga Pop once told me that he knows Poppin Pete is about to have a great solo when he starts slow. When Pete rushes out into ground moves and crazy boogaloo angles, Suga Pop said, that’s usually not when the magic happens. But when he comes out into a slow robot, does a pop here, a pop there, not moving very much, allowing the music to carry him along, sinking deeper and deeper into the music, that’s when Suga Pop starts to get excited. That’s when the magic happens.
Boppin Andre told me the same thing. He said to go really slow when you start. Allow the people to hear what you are hearing. SHOW THEM the kick drum. SHOW THEM the clap. Do it for a while. Not just once or twice. Allow them to see. Present your dance to them. As they catch on, they may start clapping. Now, you are ready to show them a new part of the music. When you dance slowly like this, the audience loves it, because they can follow it. Most of them are NOT dancers and most of them CAN NOT hear music very well. But if you take the time to show them, they will love you.
My last story is from Sweepy. Sweepy had just moved from New York to Los Angeles and had started training with Suga Pop. Suga Pop would sit in a chair in the corner of the room and tell Sweepy to start dancing. Sweepy would feel so nervous that he would go really fast. Suga Pop would always just say to him “Sweeps, the music isn’t going anywhere.” So SLOW DOWN! RELAX! Let the music carry you along!
How This Relates to You
YOU can create a new dance style that millions of people will be doing. YOU have the potential to give a great gift to the world. Your own dance, your own expression.
This is how Don Campbell created locking. Everyone was doing the same old dances and so was he. But at some point, he just started to let loose and feel what the music was telling HIM to do. He opened up to the music and bared his soul. He danced how he was born to dance. Today, almost forty years later, there are millions of people still doing his dance. All because he allowed the music to tell him what to do and he LISTENED.
Learn the technique, learn the music, pay your dues, and then give your gift to the world! It’s what we’re all here to do.
KEEP IT POPPING!
Otis Funkmeyer
From: WestCoastPoppin
