FINDING YOUR STYLE: THE COMPLETE GUIDE TO UNLEASHING YOUR PERSONAL STYLE
The best way to approach finding your breakin’ style
Discover The Style Within You
Style in Breakin’ (and all dance styles in general) is what sets you apart from every other dancer. Every dancer can learn how to execute the movements of Breakin’, but it is not until you find your style, that you transition from simply copying movements (I call this mechanical dancing) to showcasing who you are as a dancer.
The good news is that you already have a unique style. The trouble most dancers face is uncovering it.
In this guide, you will discover 3 tips that have helped me uncover the style within me.
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Express Yourself
The first tip I have for you to find your unique style is going to sound a bit cliche but, in my opinion, it is the best way to truly uncover your dancing style. That tip is to…
simply dance the way you would dance if no one was watching you. Put another way, just express yourself
This may sound obvious, but I have one question for you… Do you dance differently when you are by yourself vs. when people are watching you?
If you answered yes, you wouldn’t be alone. Let’s face it, when we are alone, our minds don’t think about the things it does when we are in front of people.
The fear of being judged or making mistakes is nonexistent when you are alone and naturally allow yourself to try new things and let your body move in ways that you might normally think others would consider weird or incorrect.
To me, that is when you are truly expressing yourself and your natural style. So the next time you’re training by yourself, start to be more aware of what you are naturally doing and start to bring that side of yourself out when you are in front of people bit by bit. In time you will have found your unique style that everyone gets to see.
Surrounding Influences
A lot of your own style can come from the surrounding Influences in your life. Whether it’s the people that you hang around with or even what you watch on tv (I guess I should say Netflix… do people still watch tv?) you can shape your style around the things that affect your life.
A good way to express who you are as a dancer (and as a person) is to tap into all of the creative inspirations that are presented to you.
There are many ways that you can utilize your surroundings to provide inspiration to your dance moves/style
For example, when I see my friends execute different styles of dance such as isolations, house, or even contemporary, I find inspiration in how they move and some of the movements that they do. I then try to utilize what I liked from their movement and mold it into the way that I break to create unique movements and my own style of executing them. It can be as simple as seeing someone do a spin on one foot and then you decide to spin on one knee instead.
Once you start to look for things in your life that you could utilize in your Breakin’, you will be amazed at the creative movements and concepts that you start coming up with and incorporating into your dance style
The “Flip It” Technique
In Breakin’ there is a term known as “biting”. Biting is where you perform a move or sequence of moves exactly how someone else does it. Usually, people will get called out for this if you are copying someone’s creative, unique, signature move or sequence.
It is argued that there are no more unique movements anymore and everyone is “biting” from someone to a certain degree. I believe that it is ok to be influenced by someone’s moves but you should come up with your own unique way of doing it.
After all, if you are biting a movement, you are essentially being a mechanical dancer who is merely copying a style instead of showcasing your own personality and character as a dancer.
This is where the “Flip It” technique comes in. The “Flip It” technique is a way to create a move that matches your unique style from a movement that you are influenced by (A little similar to the “Surrouding Influences” technique)
*Disclaimer: Although flipping a movement is a good technique to create your own style of movements, it should be noted that you should always remember where, what or who the original influence came from and give them credit.
Let’s take a CC for example…
A normal CC you might see someone do is one leg straight out and on the toe and the other leg is bent in the air and the knees are together. Using the “Flip It” technique you could execute the CC with one leg bent and the knee touching the ground and the ankle of that leg is connected to the knee of the other leg in the air. A similar move, but different enough to start making it your own.
The more times you tweak and evolve a move, the better chance you will have of coming up with a move unique to you.
The “Flip It” technique can also be used to take movements from other styles of Dance and incorporate it into your Breakin’ as I mentioned earlier with seeing someone execute a spin on one foot and then you decide to “Flip It”‘ and spin on your knee instead
The more unique you can make a movement you are flipping, the more your unique style will begin to reveal itself.
Continue Your Break Dance Training…
Style is what makes you unique, so it is no surprise that something so important doesn’t reveal itself overnight. As you grow as a dancer, your style will shift and change constantly but eventually, you will start to uncover bits and pieces of your true style that lies within you.
Read the complete Break Dance Training Blueprint Guide here:
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