How to do the bounce dance

How to Do Bounce Dancing

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If you want to do aerobics to a beat, bounce dance gets your heart thumping as your legs pump to the music. One style of bounce dance originated in the Deep South in New Orleans in the 1980s. The main feature of this dance is wide-set feet with balance on the toes, knees bent and turned in and out rapidly to the hip-hop or rap beat. Freestyle arms and interspersed kicks and hops make up this individualistic dance. The ghetto bounce is somewhat less energetic, but does move in double time to club-style music. For beginners, or non-dancers, start with a regular bounce move and improvise as the spirit moves you. The high-energy expenditure of this dance provides an aerobic workout that burns 74 calories in 10 minutes for a 120-pound person, and up to 110 calories in 10 minutes for a 180-pound person.

Step 1

Warm up for five to 10 minutes before bounce dancing. Do stretches, such as shoulder rolls, leg stretches and head rotations. Clap rapidly to the music to increase your heart rate and prepare your body for more strenuous exercise.

Step 2

Stand with your feet approximately shoulder-width apart. For a regular bounce move, feet should be a comfortable distance apart. A New Orleans-style bounce move requires feet greater than shoulder-width apart so knees can bounce in toward each other.

Step 3

Drop your body to the beat, bending at the knee. For a regular bounce, make a deep drop that allows your knees to go slightly beyond your toes. A double-time hip-hop bounce is shallower, allowing two bounces per beat.

Step 4

Rise slower than you drop when doing a regular bounce. The count goes "one and two and," with the drop on "one" and the rise on "and two and." The ghetto bounce drop-and-rise is different, with each move made on a half beat. Drop on "one" and rise on "and."

Step 5

Move your arms to the beat, using strokes of your choice. Bend at your elbows and allow your arms to swing back and forth to the rhythm or make deliberate reaches and stretches as you bounce. Add swim arms for variation, making freestyle-swim strokes in the air.

Step 6

Cool down by walking or stretching. Allow yourself five to 10 minutes of gentle movements while your heart rate comes back to normal.

References

The New York Times: Dance Lessons from Bounce Music's Audacious Star
YouTube: Hip Hop Club Dance Moves for Men "Ghetto Bounce" Dance
ACE GetFit: Calorie Burners That Turn Up the Heat

Resources

American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance: Beyonces Bounce Steps

Tips

Wear comfortable, loose clothing for bounce dancing. An informal-style dance, bounce dancing is generally performed in casual sportswear or street clothes.

Warnings

Consult your physician before starting any type of new physical activity. Bounce dancing is based upon bouncing from the knees, which might not be advised for some people with knee problems.

Writer Bio

For Judy Kilpatrick, gardening is the best mental health therapy of all. Combining her interests in both of these fields, Kilpatrick is a professional flower grower and a practicing, licensed mental health therapist. A graduate of East Carolina University, Kilpatrick writes for national and regional publications.

Image Credit

Visage/Stockbyte/Getty Images

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Ding Dong's 'Bounce' Takes On A Life Of Its Own

Ding Dong’s prediction of his song Bounce, and its accompanying dance move spreading over Jamaica and the globe and becoming “a major crossover hit”, appears to be manifesting.

The song, which was produced by Dun3well, has taken on a life of its own, injecting itself in official state functions and international sporting competitions overseas involving his Jamaican compatriots.

Now, in the latest round of videos, Carey Bradshaw a Kingston Jamaica native and group travel curator of That Man Travels, shared a video of himself on a beach demonstrating the dance to a group of Maasai warriors in Eastern Africa, who stand looking at him. Close to the end of the video, The Maasai men who are among the tallest people in the world with an average height of 6 ft 3 inches, shyly attempted to bounce.

“I procured 2 camels & 4 Maasai warriors for the #Bounce dance in honor of Jamaica independence. Big Jamaica everytime!” Bungs mi seh!” he wrote on Instagram, to the delight of his Jamaican followers.

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A post shared by ThatMan Travels (@thatmantravels)

Last month Ding Dong had told veteran entertainment journalist Winford Williams that the Bounce track had been recorded two years ago, but that the release had been put on hold as he had not wanted it to be released at the height of the pandemic as it was a song for the streets.

Then last week Ding Dong told The Gleaner newspaper that he was not ready to release new music as he wants Bounce to continue its dominance first.

The song took up steam at the Commonwealth Games where the Sunshine Girlz Jamaica’s netball team danced like crazy, as the song blared from the speakers.

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Back home, Scotia Bank Jamaica had posted a video on its Instagram page of their employees dancing up a storm to Bounce, to celebrate sprint queen Shericka Jackson, the financial institution’s newest brand ambassador, following her imperious victory in the 200m race at the World Track and Field Championships on July 22. The video had also featured snippets of Shericka doing the “Bounce”, at a track training session.

Karl Samuda, Minister of Labour and Social security was also spotted doing the Bounce at a Diamond Jubilee ceremony, while at the offices of the Tourism Enhancement Fund, Carolyn McDonald-Riley and her team used the song to promote their celebration of Jamaica’s Diamond Jubilee.

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Staff at Montego Bay Airports also had a field day dancing to the song for their own version of a Diamond Jubilee tribute.

Bounce was also one of the songs of choice which were used by school principals to spice up graduation ceremonies across Jamaica, among them Hydel High, Holmwood Technical and even basic schools in early July.

In his Onstage interview, Ding Dong, in explaining how he came up with the dance move, had said it was inspired by God.

“A dream mi dream di dance enuh. Caw mi beg Faada God; mi seh Faada, mi need it now caw wi a guh do di video now and everything. A foreign mi deh a lie down an a think bout di dance weh mi a guh do. Mi dream it an get up an guh in front a di morrow… and call Dunwell an seh ‘mi find it!’ Wi rich; it a guh be di biggest thing,” he had explained.

“Mi confident bout it yu know, like Holiday. Mi did seh Holiday a guh bi di biggest song inna di world – a suh mi confident bout dah song here,” he had added, referring to his 2009 combination by singer Chevaughn.

During the interview, Ding Dong had also lamented the fact that Jamaican Dancehall dancers and creators of dance moves have, over the years, for the most part, been mistreated and sidelined, despite their critical importance to the genre and culture.

He had explained that in light of this, he was using Bounce as a landmark project to promote unity, showcase Jamaican dancers and professionalize the dancing sector of the music industry, as oftentimes many dancers are taken advantage of by artists, who use them for their talent, yet treat them poorly.

He had also issued a message for Prime Minister Andrew Holness who himself had lamented earlier this year that there was a dearth of wholesome Dancehall music being produced.

“Mi need somebody fi tell our Prime Minister Mr Faada Bro Gad, rememba a mi fren – mi waan si him do video too… we need everybaddy within this community of Dancehall fi endorse did because it has the potential go be that big major crossover hit,” he said.

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.

Connect 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!

12 life hacks to quickly learn how to dance from Mamita Dance

dances

Author: Pavel Collect
psychologist, salsa and tango teacher

dancing

Author: Pavel Sobiray
psychologist, salsa and tango teacher

At the start, you always want to get a quick result. When it doesn't happen, the hypothesis arises that everything takes time. After a conditionally acceptable time, humility comes to mastering pair dances, which, perhaps, is not given, and I will just do what I learned somehow.

This is the most common story of those who believe that the fact of attending pair dance classes is enough to learn how to dance.
Absolutely not. If you want to really dance well, you have to make an effort outside of the dance class. A good teacher will definitely be needed, but the initiative should be on your side.

1. Listen to music

The most common and accessible advice that is given already in the first lessons. And it definitely works. Music creates a certain atmosphere of the dance and intuitively you want to move to it. It doesn't matter where you listen to music - in the car, on headphones while walking or doing household chores.

An addition that will help you dance better is your active participation in the music. Sing along, dance or simply beat musical accents with any free parts of the body. In the subway, for example, it is enough to tap out bright moments with your fingers, in the car to sing along with sounds, and at home you can jump for pleasure.

2. Watch videos of good dancers

It's complicated, but also obvious. It’s more difficult, because without recommendations from more experienced dancers, unfortunately, it’s not so easy to find a good quality video on the net (I mean not the resolution quality, but the content itself).

Meaningful video viewing is about building an understanding of HOW dancers make a particular impression on a partner or viewer. Technology is at the heart of everything. Understanding how the pros do it is a big step forward.

It is important to distinguish a show from a disco dance, a staged performance from an improvisation, a stylized dance from an authentic one, etc. Ask for recommendations and dance teachers will always throw off a couple of videos of worthy landmarks.

Tango Z. Showreel.

Online modern tango courses

Tango nuevo is the most advanced version of tango. We can quickly learn to dance from zero to a steep level.

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3. Dance in salsatecas/milongas/discotheques

A very delicate moment when it is worth coming to the first party. From a technical point of view, most students in 1-3 months have a sufficient set of figures and techniques to come and dance calmly. Psychologically, the same moment can be stretched out for an indefinite time. After all, it is imperative to “not lose face”, “learn more figures” and be sure what to do in case “there is an unfamiliar movement”.

In fact, the partygoers don't really care (except for a small layer of non-professional teachers who want to help inexperienced dancers by treating them as customers in the future). It is important to come and try dancing after a month of classes. You can only with friends or guys from your group. This will be enough to feel the adrenaline and inspiration from the dance.

4. Dance with partners or partners not of your level

The conventional wisdom that you need to practice in groups of your level does not stand up to the test of experience. Perhaps now your eyes widened in surprise, and you want to meaningfully read the phrase again. Yes, you saw everything correctly: when you dance with a partner of your level, you don’t grow anywhere.

It's important to understand that not only does it work one way and you have to dance with cooler dancers, but it works even more effectively the other way. It is no coincidence that teaching pair dances dramatically raises the level of the teacher himself. You have an endless stream of very beginner dancers.

How it works. A more experienced partner needs to be "stretched". It's easy and obvious. With beginners, you need to take more initiative on yourself, see the general pattern of the dance more widely, turn on and insure more, try to be an example and be more careful. The quality of interaction begins to grow significantly. And wonderful partners too.

Dancing with partners of your level doesn't make you grow. Dance with beginners and more advanced dancers

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Want to learn how to hypnotize those around you with the most appetizing part of your body? On the course we will tell you all the secrets.

Interesting

5. Learn to dance for a partner and for a partner

Turks and Argentines are one of the best partners in the world. In Russia, partners are highly valued. Why? The answer is simple. In Argentina and Turkey, it is not questionable for men to ask another man to lead in one piece or another and give feedback on the quality of the lead. For them, it will be a great shame to hear moralizing from a partner, or even more so to be known in the community as an insecure partner.

In Russia, due to the constant, often far-fetched, opinion that there are more women in pair dances, partners calmly get up and study their partner's part. Such partners then grow into very cool dancers and teachers. In no case do this at parties, only in class. Here we are talking only about the learning strategy. At parties, be yourself.

6. Do not memorize the links

Always try to look deeper and understand the through principle and idea of movement. Understanding what and how is done will make it possible to independently generate any sequences and chips.

Human memory is limited and there will always be a moment when something will escape and your repertoire will be limited by the size of RAM.

In Argentine tango, for example, there are seven levels of movement construction that, when mastered, will allow you to make millions of combinations. And how many dance sequences can you really remember? In rueda, more than 150 figures dance in a rare circle. It's hard to keep more in mind.

7. Develop your body

Many years of experience in teaching pair dance shows that as soon as everyone pairs up in a class, any progress in individual style ends. But it is the individual style that distinguishes everyone at the disco: partners change, and style is always with you.

The body as the main instrument of dance must be very plastic, responsive and emotional. Surprisingly, not all pair dance schools have a general physical warm-up. It is vital to tune the body and understand how it works.

You can always train extra and concentrate more on the basic steps, as their true value is as body work. The sequence of steps is, in fact, the simplest thing that can be in pair dancing. The quality of individual performance determines the craftsmanship.

8. Try on the images of inspiring dancers

A psychological life hack for those who have already mastered the steps, but still feel that there is not enough brightness and drive. Most are terribly afraid of being someone else's "clone". Here the action is the same as under the influence of hypnosis - the more you resist, the more you plunge into an altered state of consciousness.

With a high degree of probability, you are already dancing like someone else's "clone". A meaningful fitting of someone else's image is that you mentally take the image of the one who inspires you (inspiration is critical in this case) and "put on" yourself. Then you start dancing and trying to feel in general how it is to be in a state, for example, of the best partner or the sexiest partner in a disco. This is much more difficult than it seems. But it works extremely efficiently.

9. Dance to offbeat music

Habitual rhythms keep you tight. Tango salon or speedy timba leaves little room for experimentation and fantasy. Pattern dancing is always noticeable and is reserved for beginners.

The truly new is born outside of the usual. Look for places to experiment. If there is no place, organize self-training. The main thing is not to get carried away, because music determines the style. We bring something new to pair dances, rather than trying to change them.

Search, improvise, do not be afraid to go beyond, develop in different directions, be inspired by music atypical for style

10. Try your hand at basic dance directions

dances exist according to their own non-choreographic laws.

This is the deepest delusion, which has turned into a ceiling for the qualitative development of partner dances. After all, all professional dancers, for example, in salsa or bachata, build their ideas on the basic choreographic principles.

Do not think that choreography is only applicable on stage. Any meaningful movement of the body can be choreographic. In general, try classical or modern choreography. Basically, hip-hop can work too.

11. Look for battle sensations

Pair dances return us to an active position of manifestation of our body. As in the days of our ancient ancestors, we impress the members of the opposite sex with how dexterous, hardy, sexy, etc. we are. Modern jungle laws in the entourage of big cities.

If you look around the dance floor, it becomes clear that the majority are clearly herbivores (not in the sense of vegetarians, but in relation to those around them). I am sure that predators are always more interesting in terms of the attractiveness of the image - try to find a counterbalance among herbivores, for example, a cat woman or a lion man.

The conversation is about an internal position, not about aggressiveness. Lability and lack of control are inherent in adolescents, and not in adult self-sufficient people.

Accordingly, even a training or friendly battle gives, on the one hand, practical skills - to make a bright sequence of movements, bring an idea to a climax, show a spectacular feature, on the other hand, develops the psychological basis of the dance - self-confidence, resistance to extraneous attention, self-control and self-control in complex elements.

12. Communicate with professionals

The environment shapes the internal position. Basically, real passionaries of the dance community are ready to openly talk, discuss and support the development of dance in every possible way.