A Beginner's Guide to Street Dance: Where to Start

A Beginner's Guide to Street Dance: Where to Start

Street dancing is hands-down the coolest style of dancing, and one of the best communities to be a part of. But as a beginner coming into this large world of street dance, it's often hard to know where to start. This post will give you a great foundation to start you off into becoming a great dancer, and developing your own style. Keep in mind, reading this post won't turn you into Nonstop or one of the Les Twins. Take Action. Practice the concepts and moves you'll learn as you read through the guide. This the best way anyone can progress as a new dancer. Also, be sure to read El Tiro's full guide Here, for a more detailed, in-depth guide.

What is Street Dance?
Before we get started with street dancing, it's pretty important to know what it is in the first place, as well as a little history and some background information. According to yourdictionary.com, street dance is defined as "Any of several forms of dance that evolved outside of dance studios, usually accompanied by some form of hip hop or dance music." This is a pretty solid definition. “Street” in “street dance” for the most part, means any form of dance formed outside a professional dance environment. Calling a dance style "street dance" divides it from any commercially developed dance style identifying as hip-hop, such as Modern or Zumba. Street dance is made up of many different individual styles, mainly known for: popping, locking, b-boying, shuffling and krumping, as well as the more recent new style, which combines many of the previously listed styles. Almost every style of street dance style is based off freestyle and improvision, using your interpretation of the music at that moment.

Proof That You Can Do It

Learning something can be very challenging and sometimes discourage you. For example, when I first started I was really into breaking, and one more I wanted to learn more than anything is called a flare, a fundimental b-boying power move... a move that can take years to make perfect. Long story short, I wanted to quit. Starting like this will more often than not make you want to quit. Becoming a great street dancer means you have to start from the ground up.So to save you some trouble, here's a quick video teaching you 3 basic moves to get you started.



Full Beginner Playlist Here: YouTube.com

The Basics

One fundamental part of street dancing popping is called ‘hitting’. It is an essential component when street dancing popping. The ‘hit’ in hitting in its purest form is tensing and relaxing your muscles in a brief moment creating a ‘pop’ or ‘jolt’ illusion to the beat of a song. Because of it's importance, this isn't something you should do now and never look at again. If you look at great dancers such as Popping John for example, hitting is something he practices every single day.



Dimestops, similar to hitting are very important as well. After learning popping, dimestops should change me fairly easy. Dimestops can be described as quick stops or freezes in increments of time, often used when roboting.



Waving is another fundamental part of this dance style, and it helps introduce you to things such as isolations and angles. Waving can be defined as isolating parts of your body to make the illusion you don't have any bones. It's very cool and a great place to start before learning harder more complicated moves.



Having Fun

Some people thing street dancing is all about foundation, technique, following rules and practice. This is definitely not the case. While those are very important aspects and do require attention, it's all about expressing yourself, and having some fun! Street dance and freestyle are limitless. The only law in the world of street dance is to be origional. Be yourself. Learn and be inspired by others, but don't copy them! Nobody likes a biter.



Remember, try not to just take these tricks and imitate them. Add your own style and personality to it!

Final Words of Wisdom

I want to let you know it does not end here. This is just a brief start to your journey as a street/freestyle dancer. A good thing to remember is to always be yourself. Think of it as your voice. Everyone has their own voice or natural way of moving that makes us all unique. Music makes us all feel different, so say how it makes you feel, not how someone else does! Also, remember to PRACTICE! Practice really does make perfect. The more time and attention you spend on something, the better you get at it, and this goes for anything! And above all, remember to have fun. I mean what's the point if you aren't enjoying yourself? I hope you guys liked this post and be sure to check El Tiro's full article!

How To Street Dance Ultimate Learning Guide for Beginners | Brambilabong - El Tiro