This kid rules at dancing

[IronFist]

What style of dancing is this?

http://www.kollaboration.org/videos/david2003.wmv

['MegaPoint]

That's called Popping, the element of so-called breakdancing or "b-boying" that is missing from todays breakin which usually contains very little of the rhythmic aspect of breakdancing (popping). Unlike most spinning you can really do it to the beat. It's the pentultimate in dancing in my opinion.

Popping, which came from pop-locking and the robot (what he started out with in that vid), is divided into many subsets:

1) "Waving" is the most fundamental which is what this guy's routine is based on. You learn to sequentially move all the muscle groups of your body in a fluid motion. This is the basic popping movement.

2) "Floating or Gliding": The foot movement you saw him doing where it looks like he is floating across the ground is appropriately called "gliding" or "floating". Michael Jackson invented the moonwalk, from there b-boys learned to use this smooth movement in all directions to cause this floating effect. The gliding used in the video was very basic and a fundamental skill all good poppers must possess. The Bay Area cats did their own version of gliding and waving called "baby rock". Very cool to watch.

3) "Ticking": for a quick second he took those smooth waves and tensed his muscles sequentially trying to cause a stop-motion effect. He didn't do it for long, but he did do some basic arm and body-ticking. This is also a very elementary poppin' skill. You learn to sequentially tense each joint and muscle group in large movements. Later when you have muscle memory the movements are chopped-up even more and made smaller. You learn to do this in the arms (like "Waving") then you progress to your body and legs and head and neck.

4) Animation: This is where you walk forward looking like a stop-action villain (claymation figure) in an old Sinbad movie. This takes sometime to master. You are ticking your entire body while walking forward, your legs also ticking instead of walking normally.

5) "Ground moves": Flexibility is important in popping. You should be able to fall back with your legs in a "W" formation and lie flat on your back. You might have seen this in your MAs stretching regimen. From there you can wave your entire body up from the ground (worming) while you still sit in that "W" form. Conversely, you can tick your body up, like a marionette from a slumped position. Another move is to drop to your butt, sitting in a "W" position and opening and closing your legs so that you move forward. Some cats would cross their arms in front of their face, creating a "mouth" where the elbows are pointing forward, in effect becoming like a surreal Pac-man. This kid in the video added his twist to these moves, using his elbows as extensions of his legs. Very unique and cool. Also seen in groundwork is the forward and backward "dolphin dive" what some peeps call the worm. This is a movement straight from Chinese MAs, as are a lot of elements of breakdancing.

6) "Vibrating": This is where you tense every perceivable muscle in your body so much that you start to force a shiver or begin vibratin'. Now instead of just waving or ticking you can vibrate your muscles sequentially throughout, freakin' out the audience.

7) "Advanced and Combo moves":

* Hitting: This is where you bounce and tense your muscles at the same time. By bounce I mean tensing as hard as possible then relaxing completely for a millisecond, causing the muscle or body part to look like it is coming out at the observer. You must limit the bouncing and continue the action as crisply to do this right. Done wrong it just looks sloppy.

* 3-D Ticking: This is where you now sequentially "hit" but you also tick and wave your muscle at the same time. Most people who popped couldn't even do this, as it takes years to master. If you've ever seen the movie "Breakin", the character Turbo (Boogaloo Shrimp) does a little of it when he pops as does his rival, the Mexican popper in that flick (Poppin' Taco was his b-boy name).

* Strobe Light: This might be the most advanced poppin' move. It's done sequentially. You simultaneously wave, vibrate, hit and tick and you do this in very small controlled movements. It can be done standing or in locomtion. Strobing towards the crowd was a favorite move of mine back in my b-boy battling days and this move took out most cats even those breakers who could do continous halos, headspins, 1990s and other advanced acrobatic movements.

* Staggered Arsenal; One side of the body waves while the other ticks and/or 3-Ds. This move is the epitome of popping skills and very few folks could ever hope to do it.

I was real happy to see that cat doing what I use to do like 20+ years ago. Before he even began his routine I knew he was gonna pop. That head down, loose look is just to familiar to me. What he was doing was what I did when I very first learned to pop. What he was doing was actually very rudimentary. I learned the really advanced stuff from an LA cat and a couple of Bay Area Filipino cats. I learned to pop in 1982, practiced everyday for about 4-8 hours (time permitting) up until 1986 when it "died out", as well as learning to DJ (very well), write rhymes, do Graf' and breaking. Most pure breakers can't really pop and most pure poppers were never good breakers. I think I accomplished both, but was definitely one of the best popper I've ever seen. Too bad it died out as it's harder to learn that breakin' and is a real total body workout and sensitivity training. It's helped me in all my physical endeavors, especially the MAs.

Try to figure it out and see. Push hands and Tai Chi ain't **** compared to good popping skills and training! Too bad people think that hip hop dance is all this frilly Wade Robson crap and Jazz-influenced gay **** you see in videos and on TV. The only real Hip Hop dancing is b-boying, which is comprised of pop-locking, popping (electric boogie) and breakin'. Without the 80s where would the all you kids get your ideas and artforms from? Will this generation ever be able to come up with something like the Hip Hop culture?

If that guy was amazing you should have grown up in the 80s in a big city or a place where Hip Hop took hold. You would have ****e yourself and then proceeded to dis it as a fad!

Anyway good eye. That guy gets mad props for trying to keep true b-boying alive, even if he doesn't know it.

BTW I can still do it all!!!

:)

[Vash]

****, here I was expecting "the good style."

[JohnnyMnemonic]

That video is very cool. That is a heck of a lot of information about dancing.

That shivering stuff, hell I don't know which name applies, is a skill some kung fu guys demonstrate. The one where you move while shivering at the same time.

I like that video because the kid seems so fresh and.....nooby-ish. He does not look like the kind of person who could do what he did. That was what startled me about it. Some white boy who looks like he is going shopping at K Mart starts doing that crazy stuff. ;)

[Kristoffer]

That was great! I've seen another guy do this before and I was just as impressed then. I didn't know what it's called either. Hey MegaPoint thx for the explanaition, u got any more vids of this maybe? How do u even learn this? I mean what's the basics?

[mortal]

That was really cool!

I saw the other clip with the kid locking. That one was even better.

[norther practitioner]

Interesting waves...


I've been popping, waving, and stuff for a few years...

he wasn't half bad, I'm not into some of those waves, but over all, he's got some really good stuff.

I did really like his floats, slides and glides... his wrist roll stood out too.

[Toby]

That's the same kid as in the vid from the same contest that someone posted a year ago on kfm. He pulls some of the same moves in this routine. I've gotta say, that's awesome. If that's viewed as rudimentary, I'd love to see some advanced skills. That kid kills it IMO. Wish I could do it.

[Kristoffer]

Look under 'Media' for some vids.
http://www.massdestruction.se/