How to dance with feet

7 Tips That Will Take Your Footwork To The Next Level

Footwork is ESSENTIAL when you dance!

If you’re not moving your feet, then you’re not utilizing your whole body to create a complete movement!

Keone, Bam, and Lyle can show you just how effective footwork can be – ON ITS OWN:

So how do we train our feet and legs to take our freestyle and choreography to the next level?

Or even just to move ‘em naturally so we don’t look so stiff?!

We’ve got 7 training tips that you should start doing today to take you from footwork.. to foot-werrrrk.

1. Know where your weight is

Let’s start with the basics – stabilizing your balance.

To do this, feel how your weight is distributed through each move.

For example, if you have to lift your left foot up, then most of your weight should be on your right foot.

Maintain a sturdy base the next time you dance and you’ll notice how much more controlled your bottom half is!

Play around with different positions, whether it’s on one foot or both, so you get comfortable with where your weight is and how to shift between them.

See Related Article: Want To Dance With More Control? Read THIS.

2. Stay on the balls of your feet

When we asked Carlo Darang for tips for his fast-moving pieces, here’s what he had to share.

"Always try to be light-footed and ready to move from one part of the floor to another!

If you dance on your toes and heels and not set everything your entire foot, then it’s kind of like jump-roping – you’ll be ready to jump from one place to another.

This skill is like a triple-threat for basketball players, or even your ready stance for football players… for us dancers, it’s the same thing, same idea – be in a position where it’s easy for you to go anywhere."

So when you’re dancing, don’t always be flat footed! Being on the balls of your feet will help you spring and rebound off the floor much more easily.

Watch him in action in his STEEZY Studio class!

Thanks for the tips, Carlo!

See Related Article: How To Execute Choreography Better By Utilizing Your Body With Carlo Darang

3. Take it high and low

Footwork doesn’t just involve your FEET.

You can utilize your LEGS to can take your body to different levels and make your changes look more drastic.

Bend your knees to dip it low (cue Christina Milian~) and releve to reach up high.

The more burn you feel in your thighs and calves, the more dynamic your dancing is. Just kidding.

But do incorporate high and low levels to jazz up your dancing!

4. Don’t be afraid of the floor

I’m one of those people that groan when the choreographer says “there’s a little bit of floorwork..”

But once I do it, I realize how awesome it is.

For starters, it trains your athleticism by taking your body out of its comfort zone of being upright.

Second, it makes the piece look so much more dynamic because that whole level change to get to the floor is a chance to do something cool.

And lastly, working with the floor opens up a whole new door for creative choreography concepts!

You can use your hands to trace things on the floor, lay down flat and do some synchronized-swimming-esque leg movements, swivel around on your knees.

It’s like having a dance partner to work off of – except your partner is flat and unmoving.

For inspiration, check out how Chris Martin plays with the floor in his STEEZY Studio piece:

5. Travel!

Using your legs means that you can MOOOOVE.

Like literally. Move across the floor.

Get out of your box and use steps to travel! It’ll add another dimension to your dancing and bring the audience along with you for the ride.

When you’re choreographing, try challenging yourself for a segment to come up with a way to dance from point A to point B maybe 10 feet away.

When you freestyle and feel yourself repeating the same steps you can utilize those same steps but change them in direction to travel!

6. Drill steps

Drill steps that you find in footwork-heavy styles like House and B-boying.

A big key here is repetition.

If you do the loose leg or 6-step a zillion times, then your feet are going to become conditioned to move in those combinations without you even trying.

This will also allow you to be more creative with variations of those steps!

So when you encounter a tricky step or piece of footwork, don’t just get through it but master it so you’ll be ready for next time.

7. Polish your turns

A sloppy turn can totally ruin the flow of a piece. You don’t want to clumsily jump out of a turn!

Here are some tips to make your turns clean:

Engage your core musclesImagine a line from the ceiling to your head, to your toes, to the floor.

You want to stay in that alignment as you visualize your turn – Plie for leverage, Spot!

TURN UP your piece or freestyle with some clean ass turns!

Same as any other step, turns just take a lot of repetition to master.

See Related Article: The Class You Need To Unlock Your Dancer Potential

Ready to get those feet moving? Comment below with something that helps you with your footwork!

We recommend Ray Basa, Julian Sena, Carlo Darang, or Paul Ross’ classes on STEEZY Studio to train for quicker, more dynamic footwork.

Happy (feet) learning!

Happy Feet dance move - Hip Hop dancing lessons

Learn the happy feet dance move below:

More hip hop dance moves

[Transcript]

Hey, what’s up guys! This is Sean. Welcome to Learntodance.com. I’m going to show you the happy feet dance move. OK?

So from here, we’re going to start like this. Five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. OK?

From another angle. We go, five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, four and five, six, seven and eight. And happy feet. OK? Let’s break it down.

So this move as you can see is a little bit more athletic, so you want to make sure you have the basic idea first before you start putting a lot of energy into it. So let’s start with the basics.

You’re going to start with your feet together and you’re going to think that you want to pivot this way on your right heel like this. Your toes lift off the ground. You don’t want to keep your toes here. You want to keep your toes up. Pivot. So it’s nice and easy.

At the same time, you’re going to do the opposite. You’re going to keep the toe of your left foot on the floor. Your heel is going to go out this way. And down.

So if you’re to do it at the same time, this toe comes up. This heel goes out. It looks like this. It opens. And then it closes again. You can repeat that on the other side. Your left toe comes up. Your right heel goes out. Up and down.

So if you’re to do that back and forth, that’s probably the best way to get the feel of this move. Just pivoting one and two and three and four and just like that. If I was to face the back, from here, and again, like feet together is probably the easiest way to start. You could start like this and also go out. Let’s keep it basic to start.

So again, same pivot. My right toe is going to go up. At the same time, my left heel is going to go up. I’m pivoting on my toe. It comes back down. I go to the left side, here, and down. So going back and forth, five, six, seven, eight. I pivot one and two and three and four and OK? I know I should have kept my feet together. I kept them apart there but you can see that it would work here or here.

So that’s the beginning. Now, let’s add the forward part of this. So we go side to side, one, two and you’re going to hop on to your heels. Pretend there’s like a chasm and you’re running up and you realized you don’t want to fall into it. So that’s kind of the look you want to give. If I was going this way, kind of looks like this. So my body comes a little bit forward to keep my balance and then I hop back on to my toes.

So you’re going to hop forward on to your heels. You come back. You’re going to hop forward again on your toes and your heels come out and then back. OK?

So going forward, the two parts are heels, back, toes, back. OK? If I did the side to side and the forward part, it’s going to look like this. I go, one and two and three and four and OK?

Let’s try it from the back, another angle. The same thing. Five, six, seven, we’re going to go this way. One and two and heels back toes back. OK?

The last part of this, really simple, it’s just going to be some hands. That way, you don’t feel too, again, too stiff. When you go to the side, just like if you were kind of, I don’t know, like running this way. OK? So when your right foot goes out, your right hand is going to come up like you’re making muscle. Left hand is going to go back like this. It’s going to come back to the center. And you’re going to repeat on the other side.

When you go forward, this is where we said kind of bring your hands out like you’re going to fall. When you bring your toes forward, bring your hands back behind you. Kind of like you’re pushing your hips here. Boom! Boom! OK? So putting all four of those together. Let’s start here. Five, six, seven eight. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. OK?

From the side so you can kind of see what my forward motions looks like. Five, six, seven, eight. It goes one and two and three and four, five, six, seven, eight. OK?

We’ll do it from the back. When you go side to side, last thing, I’ll do it and you can see. You can keep it simple with pivoting or if you’re a little more energetic, you can hop into it. OK? It makes you a little bit bigger and more fun to watch. But you can do it either way.

From the back, we’re going to go side, side, forward, toes. Five, six, seven, eight. We go one, two, heels, toes, five, six, seven, eight. And that’s the happy feet.

[End of transcript]

How to learn to dance shuffle - Lifehacker

December 15, 2019 Likbez Sports and fitness

Master the basic moves, then improvise and have fun.

Iya Zorina

Author of Lifehacker, athlete, CCM

This dance style includes a lot of freedom and improvisation. That is why he is so good. You can master the basic movements in a couple of hours, and then complicate them to infinity and combine them with each other, create your own combinations and spy on others.

Dance in sneakers, socks or barefoot, in any outfit, anywhere.

Master the basic movements of the shuffle

In this style, you do all the basic movements with your feet, the hands most often move freely - according to the heart.

Running man

This is the most basic and essential shuffle movement. You can do it in three different ways.

Full foot

The movement begins by bending your knee and lifting one leg. Next, you need to simultaneously put both legs - supporting and raised - at a distance of one step from each other.

The raised leg is placed forward on a full foot, the standing one behind slips back on the ball of the foot and remains on it - the heel is not placed on the floor. The weight is evenly distributed between the two legs.

After that, it remains to return to the starting position. To do this, the front leg slides back, and at the same time, the back leg is pulled up. You find yourself in the starting position and repeat the cycle. The movement itself is soft and springy: do not stick into the floor, keep your legs relaxed.

Heel

This is a lighter and faster running man look that may be needed for some combinations. Here you put your foot not on the whole foot, but on the heel. At the same time, the one standing behind remains on the toe.

On pads

In this variation, the foot is placed forward on the pad. At the same time, the one standing behind also remains on the ball of the foot, and the body leans slightly back.

T‑step

In this movement, one foot constantly makes a “herringbone” - turns the heel in and out - and the second touches the floor and immediately rises back.

When the heel of the skating leg turns inward, the toe of the other leg touches the floor; when outward, the other leg rises, turning the knee inward.

It turns out two positions: closed - when the legs are wrapped with the knees inward, and one leg is raised, and open - when the legs are turned out with the knees outward, and the toe touches the floor. Practice doing the T-step in both directions: slowly at first, then with acceleration.

Rocking

You jump on one foot while the other touches the floor in different places: on the side of the supporting leg, across, behind - anywhere you want. You can put your foot on the toe or on the heel - the latter is called a kick. The supporting leg can simply rise low or perform a T-step - move the heel out and in.

Charleston

To begin, you turn your knees and toes inward and lift one leg. Then turn your toes and knees outward, and put your raised leg forward crosswise. Repeat the same with the other leg.

All movement occurs on the balls of the feet, the heels do not fall to the floor. You can move both forward and backward.

Diamond

First, with a jump, you put your feet crosswise with your toes out, then you also spread your legs to the sides with a jump.

Slides

One leg is straight, stands on the whole foot, the other is with a bent knee on the pad. Leaning on the pad, you slip the foot of a straight leg back, as if wiping the sole on the floor.

Immediately after the slip, you turn around. In the turn, the straight leg bends and goes to the pad, and the one that was on the pad, on the contrary, turns on the heel. After that, it remains only to change legs and move in the same way in the other direction.

Scissors

From the starting position - standing with a raised leg, as in Running man - you turn your hips to the side with a jump and put your legs crosswise.

The front foot is on the heel, the back foot is on the ball. Then you jump back to the starting position and do the same on the other side.

Sidekick

From the starting position, you turn your hips to the side with a jump and spread your legs a step apart from each other. The standing foot in front is placed on the heel, the standing one behind remains on the pillow. Then, with a jump, you collect your legs and do the same on the other side.

Try other variations of the basic shuffle movements

You can perform basic movements in different directions: forward and backward, turning around. This will give you more freedom to improvise.

Variations Running man

Do several times in place and then turn around. You can also try walking this way to the side. Each time the leg will need to be placed slightly crossed in order to slowly move to the side.

Variations T‑step

You can lower your foot on the toe, on the whole foot, touch the floor to the side of the supporting leg or forward and behind it.

You can also keep the other leg on the floor at all - leave it on the toe and turn the knee in and out.

Variations Diamond

Here one more element is added to the movement – the heel strike. In the starting position, you wrap the toes of the feet and knees inward, and then jump on the heels, turning the socks to the sides.

From this position, without jumping, you turn your toes and knees inward, cross your legs with a jump, turning your feet with your toes outward, and then return to the starting position.

Charleston Variations

After three turns of the Charleston, turn both toes in one direction and then in the other. At the end, you can turn the knee to the side.

Combine familiar shuffle moves

While you lack the skills to move freely and come up with something of your own, learn a few combinations. They contain interesting movements that will replenish your dance vocabulary.

Combination 1

This is a simple combination of two basic movements - Running man and T-step. First take five Running man steps, then four T-steps to the side and repeat the same in the opposite direction.

Combination 2

Another combination of two basic movements. Here you do three Running mans, then one T‑step with a back foot touch, and two front heel touch kicks. The same on the other side.

Combination 3

There are no standard steps here, but there are already familiar Sidekick and transition from heels to toes.

Learn more difficult combinations

We will add some videos with good combinations.

1. Cool video for beginners: movements are repeated in slow motion to make it easier to dance to the music.

2. And here the combination is analyzed step by step in slow motion, dividing it into three parts. Very comfortably. Look for more on this channel, there are several such analyzes.

3. No slowdown here, just a great combination. But you already know almost all the movements, so you can figure it out. If something is not clear, watch the video at a speed of 0.25.

Pick the music and improvise

You probably have a favorite song to shuffle to. Include them and start with basic movements: just do the Running man and periodically add different elements when you want. Move in different directions, relax and have fun.

If you don't have favorite tracks, try our selection.

I must say that the shuffle is an amazing cardio workout. In just a couple of tracks, you will be out of breath and sweat, like after a run, but you will feel absolutely happy!

What's more, if you have to force yourself to keep going while running, shuffle requires you to have the willpower to stop and not dance. As a bonus - a short video from a beginner after a couple of hours of practice.

Shuffle is cool!

Tik Tok dance with feet: learning and video creation

Hello seoslim.ru readers! Tik Tok became popular in Russia a few years ago. Now the main audience is youth and teenagers.

Owners of social network profiles create clips, among which the entertainment format is especially popular.

Young people use different methods to attract users to their page. It is very important to be the first to suppress trends before they become mainstream.

Among these was the trend associated with dancing with the feet. Now it has become very popular, so almost every second network user repeats it.

The most popular dances with legs on Tik Tok

The essence of the direction is that a person moves to the music, but does it mainly with his feet, without using or using minimally his arms, head, as well as the whole body.

Dance rollers with feet appear more and more often from 2021. At the same time, many users shoot not only them separately, but also launch personal challenges.

They compete with each other, for example, who will get more positive reactions or who will perform a more interesting and original dance.

Foot dance from English is translated as Foot Dance . The most famous variant is when the legs are simply rearranged very quickly from place to place, creating the feeling of a jump at a height or a fast run.

In particular, there are options when bloggers perform various pirouettes and jumps in the dance. These can be both fairly simple elements, and those that a real stuntman can do.

Performers try and jump over a friend, and even show emotions and feelings.

In any case, foot dancing deserves a lot of attention from users, so everyone would like to learn how to do it.

How to learn to dance with your feet

Learning to dance is not as difficult as it seems at first glance. Bloggers themselves post videos on TikTok, where they show how to properly perform the elements with their feet (of course, in slow motion, so that everyone can understand). You can also find the dance algorithm on YouTube.

Videos designed to teach you how to perform certain elements correctly. Get ready for what will have to spend a few hours. Before shooting, it is recommended to stretch the muscles.

Even if dancing with the feet seems simple at first glance, it actually requires an investment of good physical strength and endurance.

Related: How to stream on Tik Tok

Don't forget plasticity. Rough and repulsive execution of elements is not so good and will look ridiculous in the frame.

Training will allow you to perform the dance beautifully and clearly. Do not be afraid to experiment, because you can come up with your own movements and even launch a challenge that will become mega popular.

How to record a dance

Recording a video on your phone is not difficult if you know the basic algorithm of actions. But do not forget to pay attention to editing - this will take the video to a new level.

Phone setup

It's best to place your phone at the bottom to capture foot movement. But the options look interesting when the smartphone “flies” around a person or listens to the dance from the side.

Take your pick - the angle can change the video a lot.

Music selection

Tik Tok has a separate folder containing music trends. You can find the song you like by searching.

There are special tracks for foot dance, but you can add your own song, the main thing is that it fits the rhythm and is of interest to users.