How to free style dance
How To Freestyle Dance | STEEZY Blog
So we've talked about how to learn and execute choreography. Freestyling is another integral part of learning how to dance.
Freestyle dancing makes you more comfortable in your own body, gives you the opportunity to explore new ideas for movement, and lets you let go and have fun expressing yourself!
This guide will teach you how to freestyle dance, step-by-step.
(But remember, the important part is that you get up and do it yourself!)
What Is Freestyle Dancing?
Freestyle dancing is improvisation. It’s when you do moves on the spot that weren't choreographed ahead of time. You probably freestyle all the time already!
You don't have to be in a battle or cypher; full-out performing while you do Karaoke or dancing with a girl at the club (ayy) are versions of freestyling!
So don't take it so seriously, especially when you're just starting to learn how to freestyle.
It's about building an algorithm in your body that understands basics of movement, and combining that with your natural groove, style, and spontaneity in the moment.
That said, the first step of freestyle dancing is to...
1. Understand the music
When you freestyle, you're not following a set of moves that was made for that specific song. So, you gotta be able to catch onto the song quickly.
First, bob your head to the rhythm/tempo of the song. Get your body to find that groove, which will set a sort of pace for your freestyle.
Then, listen to the melody – this is the layer of the song that you “sing.” (*It doesn’t necessarily have to be lyrics).
The melody helps you with the mood of your freestyle. Dancing to this layer is a great way to switch up your freestyle from hitting the 1s and 2s in the song
Notice other patterns in the music that you can emphasize.
For example, is there a bass beat every even count? A snare at the end of every 8-count?
You can take mental note of these so you can later do something to “hit” that sound.
Basically, actively listen to the music, taking in each sound and the feeling.
Brush up on musicality here: How To Train Your Musicality As A Dancer
2. Train your fundamentals
Fundamental, or foundational styles, are the bread and butter of freestyle.
These dances emerged in clubs or other social settings where dancers used freestyle to express themselves.
(This is also why our first point about music is so important. The music that’s popular in an area or period of time influences how people think, feel, and dance.)
Over time, the techniques, grooves, and combos from these styles became the building blocks for a lot of the choreography we see today.
These styles include but are not limited to: Popping, Locking, Hip Hop (Party Dancin'), Breaking, House, Waacking, Krump, and more!
Those examples are Hip Hop, Street / Funk Styles, but "fundamentals" or "foundation" can also refer to any sort of building block for movement.
Studio styles like Ballet, Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, are also great dance styles that set the blueprint for your freestyle.
If you need a place to start, then take the Beginner Program on STEEZY Studio where Carlo Darang (Choreo Cookies, Building Block) teaches the very basics of movement (a great place to start for any style).
You can also learn Popping through Boogie Frantick's Beginner Popping Program,
Or House with Jojo Diggs in her Beginner House Program.
Here are some free drills that you can do – but remember, you have to first learn the technique in the class, so that you practice the right way!
3. Groove it out
Most dance styles have a foundational groove. It's key to have that when you're drilling techniques and moves.
But let's talk about "groove" in a different sense – Hip Hop grooves! SO much of the Urban Choreography we see and do today came from these base movements.
You can learn them in Bianca’s Grooves classes on STEEZY Studio.
No choreography, just straight groovin'.
4. Play with dynamics and textures
Nothing’s wrong with doing a little 2-step, but if you want your freestyle to be more dynamic, then experiment with different variations of your movement.
Dynamics refer to how you do a move, not the move itself. For example, you can do the same arm wave in an infinite amount of different ways.
Fast and strong? Or initiate from the shoulder? Milk and then hit at the end?
At STEEZY, we call these the “fast and slows, highs and lows.”
Mixing up different speeds, levels of power, placements, and other factors can transform your dancing from flat to fascinating.
Get execution ideas: What Are Textures In Dancing?
5. Play with combinations of moves
We all have our “default” moves. It’s what our body naturally wants to do to certain sounds. Do you find yourself repeating certain movements?
That’s fine!
But you can make that move look more complex and interesting by fusing it with other movements.
For example, you got your basic two-step – Right, tap. Left, tap.
Now… Add arms! Maybe... a head tilt! Try a lean into your step! Groundbreaking.
Now your basic two-step is a whole new move! Experiment with different body parts to add more flavor to your base moves.
You never know what unique pictures or grooves you’ll come up with!
6. Use concepts to come up with moves
When you freestyle, you might keep reverting to the same "default" moves your body is used to.
If you find yourself doing this, try telling a story or depicting a concept with your freestyle. It will force you to think outside your own box.
This video explains how you can use “concept-based freestyling” to create new pictures and shapes and pathways.
7. Practice wherever, whenever!
The best part of FREEstyling... is that it’s FREE.
Get it?? Eh?? Ok seriously. You don’t have to pay for a class or go anywhere fancy.
You can freestyle in your garage, your room, your car…
Get a group of your friends together and session… hiT DA CLUB and let your freak flag fly.
So do it anytime, all the time! And watch yourself grow more comfortable and creative freestyle dancing.
If you need an extra dose of confidence to get you going, then just watch this video!
In Section 8, we'll talk about how to keep your body in tip-top shape for dancing.
Let's go!
5 Tips To Start Your Freestyle Dance Foundation
Freestyle dance, or dance improvisation, is the when you spontaneously make movement with your body. This means you're not following choreography; just moving. Since freestyle dancing is about your own original voice, there is no wrong way to do it.
However, there are tips and tricks you can use in order to become more comfortable with freestyle dancing.
Freestyling is a skill that can be cultivated through diligence and practice. Here's a list of 5 things you can do today to begin building your freestyle dance foundation!
Freestyle dance tip #1: Just move!You might be thinking “I clicked on this blog to learn how to freestyle and you’re telling me to just move!?” Yes. JUST MOVE.
Freestyling is exercising your own voice. Your bodies' natural way of moving is what makes your dancing unique. This plays a huge part in learning How To Develop Your Unique Style As A Dancer.
So, start by putting on one of your favorite songs and just start dancing. Don't think you have to do a full-on "freestyle" – you're not in a battle! You're just dancing! Play close attention to the nuances of the music and how it makes you feel.
Let your body react to the sounds. Think of your body as an instrument; use it to create the physical representations of the things you hear. DON’T worry about how you look or if you’re being repetitive. Also, don't use a mirror. That'll just make you feel self-conscious.
With freestyle dancing, it's important for the movement to feel good, first. If what you're doing feels good to you, then you can always polish up how it looks afterwards. But focusing on the way you look first won't create an organic, comfortable style that's "you." Read more on Why It's More Important For Dance To FEEL Good, Than Look Good.
Getting comfortable with your body and increasing your movement vocabulary takes time and practice. Your ear for music will develop and your vocabulary will expand. But none of this will start to happen unless you move! So start moving now.
Freestyle dance tip #2: Train in 1 or 2 stylesFundamental, or foundational styles, are the bread and butter of freestyle.
These dances emerged in clubs and other social settings where dancers used freestyle to express themselves. (This is also why our first point about music is so important. The music that’s popular in an area or time period greatly influences how people think, feel, and dance!) These styles include but are not limited to: Popping, Locking, Breaking, House, Waacking, Krump, and more!
Learn more about some of these dance styles: What Is Popping?What Is The Difference Between Waacking And Voguing? The vocabulary of moves from any of these styles give a blueprint for freestyle dance. All the exploration you do can be "polished" up by building some technical foundation.
Think of Freestyle Dance Tip #1 as the color in a coloring book. Training in foundation gives the outlines that make the shapes easier to see. Yet, as ambitious as you are, it’d be REALLY overwhelming and not as efficient to start to learn House, Ballet, Locking, and Breaking all at once! Learn about different dance styles by watching videos and exploring their history.
See which one(s) you gravitate towards the most. Focus on one or two of those, and practice those techniques repeatedly.
Think of it as conditioning, similar to how ballet dancers tendu or plie repeatedly to ingrain that into their bodies.Hits, waves, loose legs, glides – practice whatever it is that you want in your toolkit of dance moves. These moves will serve as the skeleton for your freestyle!Using them, you can continue to explore your movements even more freely.
Freestyle dance tip #3:Stimulate your creativity
“Creativity is not created, it is there for us to find – it is an act of discovery!” More tips to Overcome Your Dance Fears And Live A Creative Life We live in a world in which our creativity is often stifled. We’re conditioned to think a certain way, learn a certain, act a certain way, etc. Through that, our originality can be lost.
In order to break free of this mold, we must actively stimulate our creativity.
Visit an art show, go to a museum, watch cartoons, study body language.Immerse yourself in all things creative, even if it's just in taking a walk and observing the environment around you. It’ll provide you with the inspiration needed to fuel your creative spirit. Then, take that with you into the lab.
Move like water; imitate the movements of a wild animal, mimic that person you saw on the street who walks a little funny. Channel the personas of some of your favorite movers, dancers or not! (My personal favorites are Aang the Airbender and Bruce Lee!) Clay talks more about the process of taking concepts and turning them into dance moves:
Freestyle dance tip #4:Take a lot of dance classesTaking dance classes will expand your movement vocabulary for freestyle dance, while also challenging you to retain choreography, and adapt to a different mover’s style.
Furthermore, you’ll have access to mirrors and an audience. Use this as an opportunity to get accustomed to dancing in front of a mirror and with others around you. Pay attention to the choreographer and other movers in the class.
How do they execute their movement? Ask questions, engage in conversation. Take mental notes, and take it back to your freestyle dance.Be sure to take classes in a variety of styles, too. Taking dance classes will give you much more material to work with. Don't have any access to a dance studio? No worries. Here's How To Learn Dance With No Dance Classes In Your Area
Freestyle dance tip #5: Session and go to jamsNow the real fun begins! Set up a session with some friends or go to a freestyle dance jam.
Not quite sure what to expect? Here's What You Should Know Before Going To A Freestyle Jam
While it can feel scary to be put on the spot, discomfort comes with growth.
If you comfortable dancing alone, but feel nervous in front of others... The answer is simple: practice freestyle dancing with others! Not to mention, sessioning with friends is a great way of practicing your material and exchanging concepts. Want more tips on overcoming your freestyle dance fears? Clay's got you:
A great base to build on is Popping fundamentals. Take Boogie Frantick's beginner Popping program on STEEZY Studio!
There you have it! Your 5-step guide to start learning how to freestyle dance. Continue practicing these things and you’ll be well on your way to confidently holding your own in a circle or at a session. There should be no embarrassment, no fear, no holding back – just fun. So go ahead, freestyle dance, explore yourself, and share your unique style with the world!
Got any more freestyle dance tips? Share them in the comment box below!
What is free dance and why does it have so many fans around the world
Maria Belokovylskaya went to the strangest disco in her life
Maria Belokovylskaya
The dancers groan, growl, suddenly fall to the floor, freeze, looking at one point, and then jump wildly, falling into a trance.
An unfamiliar man puts his hands on my shoulders and looks intently into my eyes, as if we had just
returned from honeymoon. It seems that the entire musical heritage of mankind was sent to the mixer and the maximum whipping mode was chosen: after the Pet Shop Boys, the harbinger of the apocalypse rumbles Carmina
Burana. This is how a free dance looks like, it is also rhythmoplastic, it is also ecstatic dance. No aperitifs and mind-expanding substances - everything happens in a sober mind and sound memory. Only you, music and a group of strangers with whom you have to exchange something that you cannot yet formulate. At first, I feel like an uninvited guest at the Sabbath or a witness to an exorcism, and as an impostor I timidly huddle in the corner. But soon I cease to control the body and completely surrender to the action. What is happening in the hall is controlled by a tall man with the appearance of a shaman, who calls himself a guide. Not a teacher - during the free dance you are not taught anything.
You yourself find the answers to the necessary questions, and the guide only helps to come to them in the shortest way.
Nick Hobbs
Tasha Birch
My guide is Nick Hobbs, an Englishman living in Istanbul. During his Moscow tour, which happened to him every few months before the pandemic, Hobbs holds open freedance sessions for everyone. These sessions are thematic. For example, our theme sounds like female waves. It looks like the name of the trainings about seduction, but in reality it is about the study of the mysterious female soul and gender expression. “I work only with those topics that are of interest to me,” Nick explains. “And I immediately see how it responds.” Hobbs teaches yoga, translates Jacques Brel, writes plays and guidebooks about unknown Istanbul, arranges performances and speaks nine languages, including flawless Russian. Answering the question of how he came to freedancing, Nick says that he always moved a lot and did not understand what to do with this energy.
“I was an actor and performer, but not a dancer. And about 10 years ago I met Alex Nikiforov, one of the key figures of the freedance movement in Russia. My style in dance was formed under the influence of yoga and my inner feelings.” My session with Nick lasted more than seven hours, which flew by like a comet. But even this is not the limit. Dance meditation schools hold retreats in which participants dance for several days in a row. Freedance did not appear yesterday. She came up with one of the most popular techniques for working with the body at 1960s American Gabriela Roth is a director, dancer, philosopher and teacher with a special interest in shamanism. She called her practice "5 Rhythms". Roth had her own musical group, The Mirrors, and she even recorded two records with Boris Grebenshchikov - "Refuge", a kind of Buddhist ceremony consisting of prayers and mantras, and the album "Crossing". "5 Rhythms" is a mix of shamanism, mysticism, Eastern philosophy, Gestalt therapy and transpersonal psychology.
The idea is that by being in motion, we free the mind and become one with our true nature, the source of limitless possibilities. In Prayer After Sweat, Roth talks about movement as a spiritual practice and details the basic principles of the 5 Rhythms.
Roth followers in the UK - Suzanne and Jacob Darling Khan, husband and wife. “After studying with Gabriela, we started teaching, and in 1996 we opened The Moving Center School UK, a 5 Rhythms center in Europe,” they say. “We have been running this school for 10 years and have worked with thousands of people from different countries.” Over the years, Suzanne and Yakov developed their own method, which was influenced by communication with Peruvian shamans. “Time spent in the Amazonian jungle changed everything.
THE DANCER'S OBJECTIVE IS THE COMPLETE DESTRUCTION OF STEREOTYPES OF THINKING, MOVEMENT AND BEHAVIOR.
There we got acquainted with mandalas and realized that they contain important knowledge for unlocking human potential.
” In 2007, the Darling Khans created The School of Movement Medicine, a synthesis of mandala work and conscious movement practice. In Russia, one of the pioneers of freedance is Alexander Girshon, a candidate of psychological sciences, a dancer and a performer. You can get to his classes at the Center for Integral Dance, which he also founded. "AT 90% of the time I conduct dance-psychological training, explains Girshon. “This is a specific genre that combines dance improvisation, dance-movement and body psychotherapy, as well as personal growth training.” In dance, a person develops the so-called moving self: a holistic creative experience and the embodiment of one's own "I".
Actor, director and creator of the La Pushkin theater Oleg Zhukovsky also conducts trainings. The task of the dancer is the complete destruction of stereotypes of thinking, movement and behavior. A lot of what needs to be expressed is repressed into our subconscious. Zhukovsky's "Dance of the Body" training allows you to penetrate into the very depths and meet with an unfamiliar creature that lives in each of us, and then release it into the wild.
In other words, wake up the inner beast. The principle of releasing pure, unrestrained
The creative flow is also at the heart of the theater project La Pushkin, with which Zhukovsky traveled to 16 countries. “Stanislavsky invented the theater of experience, and I have a theater of living” - this is how the creator describes his method.
Another Russian school at the intersection of dance and transpersonal psychology is Authentic Movement with Nina Kungurova.
Kungurova not only teaches classes, but also arranges online workshops with famous teachers. For example, with Janet Adler and Fu Schroeder. Adler is the author of the authentic movement discipline method and has been working in hospices for over 30 years. Schroeder is the abbess of the Zen Center in San Francisco, who actively supports programs for ethnic and sexual minorities. Everyone has their own way to freedance. Nick Hobbs' girlfriend, Tasha Birch, was a professional sportswoman before dancing meditation.
“I was an athlete and ran marathons,” she recalls. - Then I became interested in yoga and once got to a yoga therapy session in the Crimea. After shavasana, the master suggested moving as the body wants. And my body didn’t want anything - I didn’t understand how to start dancing among strangers and what kind of movements these should be. There are asanas in yoga, and everything is clear with them, but here you need to follow an unknown call. As an athlete, I thought that I had perfect control over my body, but it turned out that we didn’t even know him.” Over time, Tasha said goodbye to professional sports - she says that, despite her good physical shape, "did not feel fully included - as if there were not enough pieces in the puzzle." Once the girl got to the session "5 Rhythms" - and then everything fell into place. “I realized that dance practice can be very deep. For some, this is a drain of emotions, which is also great, but someone is experiencing qualitative internal changes. It is impossible to comprehend this by thinking, especially Western thinking: it is directed outward.
” In order to better understand the structure of the human psyche and the processes that occur during free dance, Tasha received an education in the field of transpersonal psychology. “Now it is natural for me to express myself through the body and movements. And when I add a voice, it’s already a cosmic level of awareness,” she smiles. The author of this text is still far from space, but something in the universe has nevertheless moved. After a session with Nick Hobbs, you want to smile, thoughts in your head are like volatile substances, and your body is lighter than a balloon. Not a single school disco gave me such a feeling. And not a single slow dance ended with such an amazing date with yourself.
Types of modern dances. Free dance.
Free dance stood at the origins of the dance of the twentieth century; it formulated the principles on which modern and jazz modern dance, contemporary, and even butoh and contact improvisation were based.
Today there are many different dance styles. And over time, only new ones appear, different from the previous ones and interesting in their own way.
And as one of the popular and relatively new dances, this is free dance .
Free dance, also known as rhythmic plastic or plastic, is a dance that emerged in the early twentieth century as a movement to free the former ballet theater from conventionality and merge dance with life.
Thus, free dance appeared in the 20th century; it then formulated the principles on which jazz-modern dance, contemporary dance, and even butoh or contact improvisation were based.
Wearing stylish glasses, dancing attire and energizing for the performance, this dance can really set the hearts of the audience on fire.
The creators of free dance are united not only by the desire to turn it into a high art, which has an equal status with painting or music, but also a special worldview.
To some extent they accepted Nietzsche's idea of dance as a metaphor for freedom and of the dancer as the embodiment of a more liberated and more creative spirit. And therefore, for the founders of free dance, this dance became a special new philosophy, from which the transformation of life was expected.
Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - German thinker, classical philologist, composer, poet, creator of an original philosophical doctrine, which is emphatically non-academic in nature and is widespread, going far beyond the scientific and philosophical community.
So, Isadora Duncan dreamed of a new person, to whom dance would be as organic as everyday affairs, and of a woman of the future, who possesses "the most exalted mind in the most free body."
Isadora Duncan is an innovative American dancer, the founder of free dance. She developed a dance system and plasticity, which she associated with ancient Greek dance.
The wife of the poet Sergei Yesenin in 1922-1924.
The ideological source of free dance is the desire for physical improvement, emancipation of the body.
The supporters of free dance looked for a source of rebirth in nature, called everyone to naturalness, to liberation from the requirements that are imposed on us by modern civilization.
The creators of free dance were united not only by the desire to turn it into a high art, having an equal status with music or painting, but also by a special worldview.
All of them, to one degree or another, accepted Nietzsche's idea of dance as a metaphor for freedom and the dancer as the embodiment of a liberated and creative spirit.
French François Delsarte (1811-1870) - theater actor, singer, music teacher and creator of the new gymnastics - proclaimed that the body has its own language; after him, the expression "poetry of the body" became popular.
Duncan's ideal was the "beautifully natural" movements of ancient dance, the simple movements of walking and running. She was the first of the dancers to refuse a corset and leotards and performed in clothes that did not interfere with movements - a tunic.
Tunic (lat. tunica) - clothes in the form of a bag with a hole for the head and arms, usually covering the entire body from the shoulders to the hips. Tunic , made without a waist, spread in ancient Rome
Another source of free dance was the rhythm of Émile Jacques-Dalcroze (1865-1950). A music and singing teacher from Geneva, he initially used rhythm training as a preparation for playing a musical instrument. Later, Dalcroze began to promote rhythm as a way of educating the will, strengthening physical and mental health, and the harmonious development of a person.
Another reformer among those who used dance for their own purposes was Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925).
Although the anthroposophy he created was much closer to Christianity than to antiquity, for him the harmony of man with nature, the cosmos was also an ideal.
He invented his own system of movements - eurythmy - a dance filled with symbolic meaning not only to music, but also "to the word", or poetry.
All the creators of free dance saw in it not art for art's sake - a phenomenon of elite culture - but part of a democratic, mass culture - in the best sense of the word.
The founders of free dance believed that everyone could and should dance, and that dance would help everyone develop and change their lives.
One of the creators of free dance in our country, S. D. Rudneva (1890—1989), saw in her work “mainly its human value, to create a new life."
Together with like-minded people, she developed a unique method of plastic reading of music - musical movement and founded the studio " Geptakhor ".
During the difficult years of the 1920s, its participants lived as a commune, organizing life in accordance with their ideals, and then devoted themselves to children, creating unique methods for the development of the child's personality.
New generation of dancers - Mary Wigman, Martha Graham , Merce Cunningham and others were also fearless experimenters in art: Wigman began to dance without music (her favorite instrument was the gong), obeying only the rhythms of her body; critics wrote that she herself creates music with her movements.
Graham analyzed the laws of motion of the female body in dance; as a result of her work, the dancer was no longer considered the epitome of weakness.
Cunningham worked with the creators of the avant-garde - composer by John Cage , artist Robert Rauschenberg , influenced by Zen philosophy.
But their work has centered within the individual body.
Unlike the pioneers of free dance, they were more interested not in growing a new person or developing a personality, but in physical characteristics - such as energy, movement, interaction of the body with the environment.
The spirit of free dance is present in the current movement towards improvisation, spontaneity and creative freedom.
Thus, the Butoh dance originated in post-war Japan in the wake of liberation from the rigid conventions of traditional theatre.
Contact improvisation continues not only the trend of free dance towards improvisation, but also its democratic character. The domestic direction, called the musical movement, is looking for ways to teach dance and improvisation to any person.
These features of free dance make it a powerful tool for awakening creativity in a person, developing personality and allow it to be successfully used in dance movement therapy.
