How to learn bhangra dancing
History — Learn Bhangra
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Bhangra is an energetic, folk dance and music form that originated from Punjab, India. Today, it’s the newest dance, music, and fitness phenomenon spreading all over the world. Bhangra has made its way to America’s Got Talent, the London Olympics, and even the White House.
HISTORY OF BHANGRA
THE BEGINNING OF BHANGRA
The first mentions of Bhangra as a dance entity start to show up in historical records around the late-1800s. The current style and form of Bhangra formed together in the 1940s and has evolved since. It originated as a folk dance celebrated during the time of the harvest. Bhangra is traditionally danced to the dhol instrument, a large drum, and boliyan, short sets of lyrics that describe scenes or stories from Punjab. These lyrics most commonly reference themes of love, patriotism, strength, and celebration.
THE REGIONAL CONNECTION
Bhangra is an amalgamation of various folk dances from all across the region of Punjab, many of which can trace their roots far back before the existence of the term Bhangra in the late 1800s. These dances include Sammi, Jhummar, Luddi, Giddha, Dhamaal, Sialkot, and many more.
For example, Sialkoti developed in the region of Sialkot, and is performed with one leg in the air. Jhummar, from Jhang-Sial, can arguably be traced back to the Aryan period and consists of a 16-beat dhol cycle. Sammi is a dance specifically dedicated to singing about a fabled girl. In the 1940s, communication between villages and regions in Punjab sharply increased due to independence movements across the area. As a result, due to several celebrated dance pioneers, these dances were shared, both in times of celebration and to ease in times of hardship. Each region quickly adapted the shared dance forms into their own folk traditions. Eventually, a standard Bhangra routine across Punjab came to consist of certain components, such as a Jhummar segment, or a Dhamaal segment. Due to the exponential rise in communication in Punjab and across India, Bhangra spread throughout the country. The Bollywood industry began to depict Bhangra in its movies while celebrated Bhangra pioneers emerged to actively spread and share the dance form.
As a result, Bhangra music is now quite mainstream throughout India, and throughout the world!
HISTORY OF BHANGRA
BHANGRA VARDIYAAN
You may have taken note of the dancers' extremely colorful Bhangra uniforms/outfits, or vardiyaan, during the performance. The vardiyaan not only emphasize the visual effect of Bhangra moves, but they also are designed to enable the dancer's maximum range of motion. In other words, the vardiyaan are the perfect combination of aesthetics and mobility. Today, men and women typically have a tendency to wear different vardiyaan while performing Bhangra.
ELEMENTS OF THE VARDIYAAN
Men tend to wear a chadr, a kurta, a vest, and a pagh, while women wear a salwar, a kurta, a vest, and a chunni. The chadr is the bottom half of the outfit, and consists of a long, rectangular piece of unstitched cloth tied around the dancer's waist. It covers the majority of the dancer's legs and is strategically tied so as to prevent the cloth from restricting the dancer's movement.
The female complement to the chadr is the salwar. The salwar consists of loose fitting trouser pants with numerous pleats stitched into the fabric. In contrast to the chadr, the salwar covers the dancer's leg completely. The trousers are stitched so that when the dancer performs high-knee and leg-lifting steps, the pleats artfully hang to mimic the effect and coverage of the chadr. However, there are some women that do wear a chadr, kurta, and/or pagh while performing Bhangra.
The kurta is common to both types of vardiyaan. The kurta is a long-sleeved tunic that comes down to approximately the dancer's knees, or just above them. The sleeveless vest is worn over the kurta. Both the kurta and chadr are colorful, and display heavily embroidered intricate designs.
The pagh and chunni are head coverings that reflect the Sikh religion that is predominant in the state of Punjab. Culturally, head coverings are common as well. They are a symbol of pride, humility, fortitude, and respect.
The Bhangra pagh is a long piece of cloth that is intricately wrapped around the dancer's head, culminating in a heavily, starched, pleated fan (turla) that crowns the whole turban. The chunni is a colorful scarf that is artfully draped around a woman's head and pinned to her kurta and vest. There are many other aspects to the vardiyaan as well. Not limited to just jewelry, these consist of various accent pieces that serve to enhance specific elements of a Bhangra routine. For example, earrings and necklaces (i.e. jhumke, kainthe, taveet) draw attention to a dancer's facial expressions. Rumaalan, or handkerchiefs, were traditionally tied around a dancer's wrist to highlight their complex hand movements. All parts of the vardiyaan complement the dance in that each element has origins steeped in meaning, symbolism, and purpose.
HISTORY OF BHANGRA
DHOL
Perhaps the most famous Bhangra instrument is the dhol.
It is a double-sided barrel drum that creates the beat to which Bhangra is danced to. The person who plays the instrument, the dholi, plays various beats to create the different Bhangra segments, such as Dhamaal, Jhummar, One side of the dhol has thicker skin, which creates a deeper sound, and the other side has a thinner skin, resulting in a higher-pitched sound. Two sticks are used to play the dhol instrument. The thicker stick, called the dagga, is used to play the bass side. The thinner tilli is used to play the treble side. Both sticks are usually made of wood or bamboo.
ALGOZEY
Algozey resemble two wooden flutes that are played simultaneously, with the artist using three fingers on each side. The music created by the algozey can be classified as more rhythmic than melodic in nature. The tumbi is a small stringed instrument. It consists of a small wooden stick attached to a hollow, gourd-like shell to create its acoustics. It only has one string that is continuously plucked to create a rhythm that accompanies the dhol and boliyan.
CHIMTA
The chimta functions as a large pair of metallic tongs. Each side of the tongs has bells attached that chime loudly when the sides are struck together. The chimta player can either accompany the other instrumentalists or dance with the Bhangra dancers while simultaneously playing the instrument.
DHAD
The dhad is a much smaller, high-pitched drum. It is also double-sided, but its body is shaped like an hourglass. The dhad is unusual in that you only beat one of its sides with your hand. The other hand squeezes a cord around the middle of the instrument that manipulates the pitch of the sound of the dhad as it is beaten.
KATOS
Katos are used by Bhangra dancers during a routine - the shape of the instrument's body mimics that of a squirrel. It consists of a long stick with a wooden block resting on top. The wooden block has a flap that is the squirrel's "head," and a tail. Both the head and the tail have strings coming down, that when pulled, causes the flap to snap up and the tail to swing up.
These strings are pulled in time to the beat.
SAAPS | SHIKKE
Saaps or shikke are also used by Bhangra dancers. It is a wooden instrument consisting of small X-shaped parts that expand and contract. As you use both hands to play the instrument, it produces a loud clapping sound that is meant to sound like thunder. The khunda is a long, heavy, decorated bamboo stick. It is maneuvered in various ways by Bhangra dancers during a typical routine.
HISTORY OF BHANGRA
BHANGRA MUSIC
The huge Punjabi diaspora has spread Bhangra across the world. It has now become mainstream enough where Bhangra influences can sometimes be seen in Western pop/hip-hop music. Bhangra music became extremely popular in the United Kingdom. Its enormous Punjabi population first combined traditional Bhangra rhythms with Western music. Bhangra music and Punjabi culture became prevalent in Bollywood cinema as well, especially during scenes of jubilation.
BHANGRA TEAMS
On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, Bhangra teams began cropping up in the United States and Canada. Colleges and universities comprised a significant portion of these Bhangra teams, although a large number of independent teams and academies were also well established. Eventually a competitive circuit developed, and exclusive Bhangra competitions were held across North America. This competitive circuit experienced a high spike in popularity around 2006. With this growth came the development of various trends that pushed the boundaries of Bhangra. Bhangra music routines started incorporating a significant number of Western influences and beats, many hybrid moves were invented, and gimmicks started becoming essential to winning competitions. Another landmark moment came with the creation of all-girls Bhangra teams in a traditionally male-dominated dance form.
Evolution of Bhangra
With such an immense amount of evolution in such a short amount of time, controversy has frequently sparked in the Bhangra circuit.
There are some who believe the boundaries of the dance have been pushed too far and push for dancers to return the dance to its more traditional roots. Others believe that, as Bhangra has already changed so much throughout the course of its history, it should be allowed to continue to develop naturally and without restriction. There is much gray area in this debate, but the result is a rich diversity in Bhangra throughout the world. Teams take pride in their individual style, whether they consider themselves modern, traditional, in between, or neither, and many competitions cater toward particular styles. However, no matter the style, all Bhangra dancers agree that Bhangra is a dance of strength, power, energy and grace. In the midst of the self-discipline needed to complete a full routine comes a feeling of complete freedom and passion that encourages the circuit to evolve and thrive.
HISTORY OF BHANGRA
BHANGRA COMPETITIONS
Bhangra competitions are one of the most exciting parts of modern-day Bhangra.
Today, competitions occur all over the world and celebrate not only the culture and traditions of Punjab, but also something more universal - joy, strength, and pride. As Bhangra evolved into what it is known as today, it experienced a variety of different audiences. It grew from a dance performed in individual villages to an art celebrated at fairs and festivals, or melas, across Punjab. When it reached a national audience, Bhangra turned into a symbol of the culture and heritage of Punjab.
COMPETITIONS OVER TIME
Competitions, however, only started cropping up around the 1960s. In this decade, colleges across Punjab began forming local teams and sending them to perform at competitions. Some of the early college teams of note include DAV College (Jalandhar) and Khalsa College (Amritsar). Bhangra competitions steadily grew in popularity and are still prominent in Punjab today. As Bhangra music became popular in the Punjabi diaspora, competitions slowly began cropping up internationally, such as in North America, the UK, and Australia.
Today, Bhangra competitions are held all over the world for all age groups. Children’s Bhangra competitions are also growing to be increasingly popular. Internationally, Bhangra competitions are not restricted to college teams and many independent academies and teams compete regularly. One of the first collegiate competitions, Bhangra Blowout, was hosted in 1993 by The George Washington University in Washington D.C.
COMPETITIVE PERFORMANCES
Originally, competitions consisted of teams dancing on live music, always including at least a singer and a dhol player, or dholi. These teams usually consist of 8 dancers. Live dancing is still the predominant style of Bhangra competitions in India. However, the popularity of dancing to recorded music routines has skyrocketed in the rest of the world. Many international competitions today use judging rubrics that specifically cater to teams that perform to recorded music. In contrast, other competitions develop rubrics that reward elements emphasized in live music routines.
Others involve combinations of the two. Universally, however, all Bhangra competition exhibit sets of highly energetic, rigorous routines. Internationally, this has created a rich spectrum of Bhangra teams with an enormous diversity of styles.
Global Classes — Learn Bhangra
Learn Bhangra hosts classes on a regular basis all around the world. If you're interested in becoming a certified instructor and teaching classes, please click here.
New York | RDU | los angeles | ATlANTA | chandigarh | liverpool | Dubai | hong kong | Chicago | alberta | LA PLATA | BUENOS AIRES
Learn Bhangra Adult Live and Virtual Workshops on Wednesdays (English)Wednesdays at 7:45 PM EST | 12:45 Am UK | 5:15 Am IST
Classes will be held on Wednesday evenings at 7:45 PM EST. Students may attend classes live in-studio or virtually. The location of the studio is at:
L.
A. Dance Studio
100 Dominion Dr #111
Morrisville, NC 27560
To register to attend classes in-person, click the Sign Up: Live Classes button below.
To register for the virtual classes, click the Sign Up: Virtual Classes button below.
Daylight Savings Time will be on November 7th, 2021 - if you are signing up for virtual class on or after that date, please double check your time zone.
Learn Bhangra Youth Class series on Saturdays (english)saturdays from 12:30 - 1:30pm EST
These classes are live and in-person. Students will be broken up into 3 levels upon registration.
Students will be expected to record videos every ~3 weeks to measure progress, give them something to look forward to, and keep them engaged. We need the parents' support to help with the recordings!
Contact [email protected] for registration information.
SATURDAYS FROM 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM
mad about dance studio, centrepoint shopping mall, m floor
next to burjaman, dubai
Sara Khippal, of Pure Bhangra, will be teaching Bhangra classes for ladies in Dubai on Saturdays from 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM.
To register for classes, contact: 055 107 3999.
HONG KONG Bhangra Classes WITH HARRY BAATH and navanpreet sranadult classes tuesdays from 7 to 8pm;
adult classes fridays from 7:30 to 8:30PM;
kid classes saturdays from 5 to 6pm
tuesday adult classes: Rm 1101A, 11/F, Sun Cheong industrial building, 2 to 4 cheung yee street, lai chi kok. mtr exit a.
Adult classes will be held every Tuesday from 7PM to 8PM.
Friday adult classes: fitness in motion, shop 105, 9 yi tung road, t-bay tung chung, hong kong
Adult classes will be held every Friday from 7:30PM to 8:30PM
To enroll, please visit the following website: https://www.
fitnessinmotionhk.com/fitness-in-motion-services/
Kid classes: Rm 1101A, 11/F, Sun Cheong industrial building, 2 to 4 cheung yee street, lai chi kok. mtr exit a.
Kid classes will be held every Saturday from 5PM to 6PM.
For additional information, contact [email protected].
New york Bhangra classes with silky kadakia and juhi launganiWeekly classes AND MONTHLY WORKSHOPS
lOCATION: MIDTOWN WEST NEW YORK
Silky Kadakia and Juhi Laungani will be teaching Bhangra classes in Midtown West New York. For location and timing updates:
Follow @learnbhangranewyork on Instagram
Email [email protected]
Thursdays from 6:00PM-7:00PM GMT/UK time
Classes are held via zoom
Kinga Malec will be teaching online classes via Zoom. Classes are open to students globally.
To register for classes, please email [email protected]
atlanta bhangra classes with kishan bhutSaturdays and sundays - various timings
gleaming event hall | 2560 peachtree pkway, cummings, Ga 30041
Kishan Bhut, Learn Bhangra's Certified Atlanta Instructor, teaches Adult and Kids Bhangra classes on Saturdays and Sundays.
Saturdays: 8am - 12pm
Sundays: 7:30am - 5pm
For class registration information, please visit www.gabhangra.com/registration.
Los angeles bhangra classes with katrina jithursdays from 8:30pm to 9:30pm
Mid city arts center | 1644 S La Cienega blvd, los angeles, ca 90035
Katrina Ji will be teaching Adult classes in Los Angeles on Thursdays from 8:30PM to 9:30PM. Classes start on September 16th, 2021.
To register, please visit www.cultureshakti.
com
Coming soon
Dalwinder Kalay, the founder of Airforce Bhangra Club, will be teaching classes in Cold Lake, Alberta.
Chandigarh bhangra classes with ishpreet singhComing Soon
Flexit gym | SCO-4, Sec-26, Chandigarh
Ishpreet Singh will be teaching classes in Chandigarh. Stay tuned for class information.
For more information, please contact 8558008481 or email [email protected].
Chicago bhangra classes with amrita randhawacoming soon
Amrita Randhawa will be teaching classes in Chicago. Stay tuned for class information.
la plata & Buenos Aires bhangra classes with karina amadocoming soon
Karina Amado, the Director of Indostan Escuela de Danzas de India de La Plata, will be teaching classes in La Plata & Buenos Aires.
Stay tuned for class information.
For more information, email Karina at [email protected].
90,000 12 life hacks, to quickly learn how to dance from Mamita DanceDances
Author: Pavel Gather
Psychologist, Lecturer Salsa and Tango
Dances
Author: Pavel Pavel
Psychologist, Lecturer Salsa
on 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 mere act of attending a pair dance class 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.
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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 withstand 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 both beginners and more advanced dancers
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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 couple 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 able, for example, to be 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 leave 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, don’t be afraid to go beyond, develop in different directions, be inspired by music atypical for the 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 by how dexterous, hardy, sexy, etc. we are. Modern laws of the jungle in the entourage of large 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.
Universal principles and the ideas they articulate have a much longer and more practical perspective than meets the eye.
Accept that, for example, behind the words "listen to your partner" is not only a beautiful metaphor, but also a practical skill to literally listen to your partner. At the same time, always treat every thought, even the most respected teacher, as a private opinion.
Your skill will lie in finding the scope of the idea even in conflicting opinions. Most often, the contradiction is speculative and the truth lies in the angle of perception or situationality.
Your dancing growth will stop sooner or later. This can happen at the level of three basic steps or years of experience in teaching and show performances. Regardless of your level, the suggested 12 life hacks can get you off the ground and greatly accelerate your dance growth. There is no way here without your motivation and activity. Take your dance development into your own hands. 9Ol000 Dangerous sexuality
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The seven deadly sins of teachers
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Dispute over musicality
Selection of dances according to alcohol preferences
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Is there a predisposition to dancing?
Which is more effective: individual or group lessons? How to learn to dance shuffle - Lifehacker
Iya Zorina
Author of Lifehacker, athlete, Candidate Master of Sports
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0 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 make all the basic movements with your feet, your hands most often move freely - as your heart tells you.
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 foot 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 place your feet crosswise with your toes out, then with the same jump, spread your legs to the sides.
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. There is 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.
