How to Be a Good Hiphop Dancer

Love it. If you want to dance, you have got to love it. Your heart must be into it. Maybe you want to dance to look good in front of boys or girls. However, to look good, you must ignore how other people view you, and concentrate solely on yourself. Your heart must be ‘fully’ into it. If your heart is not into dancing, you will most likely give up when you cannot do certain moves, because it will stress you out. But if you have a desire, you will stick to learning one move until you get it down.

Research some well-known dancers. There are many legendary dancers who encourage many amateur dancers. It is good to look up to them and learn how they learned how to dance.^[1]

• Of course, you should not try to imitate moves that the professional dancers do. It is very hard. But let me remind you this; pick one of your favorite dancers, and whenever you dance, think of him/her and imagine yourself as if you are him/her. Let him/her be your invisible teacher!

Learn the moves. You can either take classes or learn it by yourself. A lot of people watch videos and try to follow along, but most of the time it is difficult. You need someone who can take a look at your moves you have taught yourself, someone you look up to, and he/she can fix your problems.^[2]

Learn some history. Dancing is one of the ways to express one’s feeling. It is artistic, beautiful, and sometimes indescribable. Also, there are many types of dances. For example, there is breakdance, popping, tutting, locking, etc. These sorts of dances are generally in the Hip-Hop category.^[3]

Dance with your friends. Practicing dancing alone may be boring. And you might want to learn moves from other people too. Look for a nearby dance studio, gym, or even on streets! Hit your friends up, get speakers, and jam!

• Even though you might think that you look bad in front of other people, there’s always something satisfying after the hard work right? Ignore the others, just practice and freestyle with your friends, and who knows? Maybe you and your friends can be the world-best dancing group in the future.

Don't be hard on yourself. Maybe your friends would tell you that you are bad at dancing. Just ignore them. Even though you think you are bad at dancing, stand in front of a mirror and look at yourself. Why not? Why would you think that you cannot dance?

• Never say never. Tell yourself, You can do it man! You’re just either too scared to show off or too lazy to practice! Of course I can do it! I’ll get the moves down and show them who I am. That’s right!

Choose your preferred style. Be specific. If you want to breakdance, also known as ‘b-boying,’ you first need to know what kind of dance it is.^[4] It involves a lot of strength, along with your own creative styles. For this, you have got to be into it. You may feel like the moves you want to learn are so hard, that you just want to give up, but have faith in yourself.^[5]

• There are lots of different moves for breakdancing. Remember, you can learn any one of the moves, and transform it into your own style.

Be aware of your skill level. Popping, which is one of the common dances along with b-boying, requires some natural skills, as in skills you naturally have, because as you get older, your body’s flexibility tends to become stiffer and stiffer. So you should start practicing when you’re young, or have natural skills.^[6]

• If you do not have natural skills and didn’t even know about popping when you were a kid, it will require a lot of practices, for popping is literally popping your body on beats. It will either look good with the music or make the audience want to just leave you.

Keep practicing. Practice every day. It doesn’t have to be a harsh practice. Let’s say you’ve been practicing hand-stands, then before you eat dinner, as you wait, just practice little by little.

• When you have free time, practice anywhere around your house. As you walk around, do some moves, keep doing them, keep practicing, because if you practice certain moves a lot, it will become natural.

Perform. Audition for performances! Work hard for it, and make it a good memory. Throw out everything you’ve learned. You can do it individually or with your friends. Put every single move you learned in a song and make a dance! Listen to the audience’s reactions, listen to their advice, and make it better next time! Dancing on stages will encourage you a lot. Be proud of your work, but do not let go, keep working until you reach your goal!^[7]

Be prepared for the commitment. Dancing takes time. You need to learn the moves, feel comfortable with what you're doing, and try to practice the moves into something new.