The Art of Dance with Bruce: Introduction to Foundation

TEST:

• Friday, September 20, 2019 in class
• Grade 8 retreat leaders only: Tuesday, September 24, 2019 @ 7:30am in the dance studio

Tuesday, September 10, 2019

Operational definitions:

Bounce: (Of an object, especially a ball) move quickly up, back, or away from a surface after hitting it; rebound (once or repeatedly)

Rocking/Swinging: The action of moving or being moved gently to and fro or from side to side. In dance swinging refers to a smoother variant.

Opposition: The feeling or effect created as a result of body parts moving away from each other or a common point

DON’T SWEAT THE TECHNIQUE

There are an infinite number of ways to move through space. A lot of these ways will cross over between dance styles with what’s right in one being wrong in another. There is no universal technique. Generally, the easiest distinction to make initially is by categorizing the styles by what their default groove is (note that all styles utilize both up and down however all have one that is the “default”, with the one exception being animation). The direction refers to the direction of momentum on the whole beat (1,2,3,4). A style with an up groove by default will be intrinsically funky, fun, lively, and joyful. A style with a down groove as its default however will intrinsically represent struggle, resistance, power, and grittiness.

• Up groove – Locking, Waacking, Popping, House
  • Move: turtleneck, popcorn
  • Music:
    • Lunar by Franc Moody
• Down groove – Krump, Hip hop, Breakin, House
  • Moves:
    • Steve Martin
  •  Music:
    • Don’t Sweat the Technique by Eric B. & Rakim
    • Blue Moon by Earthgang
    • Say It – Instrumental by J Dilla

One can groove all body parts in the same way or direction, or choose not to in order to create an opposition effect. For now, however, they are all following the same rhythm, this will be an important distinction later on.

There are different types of grooves one can breakdown into smaller components or movement types.

The most basic and common is the bounce. The bounce can be thought of as a controlled and softened jump (you have to bend to extend). In addition to there being bounces which generally we speak of on a vertical plane (up, down), there are rocks and swings which we generally speak of on a horizontal plane (front, back, side, diagonal). The first exposure of rocking/swinging for humans is that of a baby rocker and the rhythm/motion it has.

Rocks and swings are especially important for building momentum necessary for some moves, which is why they are so crucial for breakin’, to the point where toprocking has become a respected style of its own.

When combining bounces and rocks/swings we start to dance 3-dimensionally and become able to develop our own unique grooves and style.