Freestyle Dance Advice - 4 Things To Avoid
The four fatal mistakes, most popular mistakes that freestyle dancers make. And I have a special guest helping us today. It’s going to be El Zero.
Mistake no. 1, being tricked out. I cannot tell you how many freestyle dancers have practiced so hard on mastering that backflip, that windmill, those really cool glides, that head isolation, all that and the truth is it’s all for nothing.
Because a real dancer doesn’t dance by tricks, they dance by style. Here’s how you can tell a dancer only knows their tricks is because they show up. They bust that trick or whatever they’ve been working on and they’re done. Or if you notice, they’ll start to repeat their dance moves, which is super no no when it comes to freestyle dancing.
A good rule of thumb is don’t practice tricks, practice your style because your style can run forever. Your tricks? You use them once and you’re done.
Mistake no. 2, your brain on swag. I get it, you watch the Step Up movie. You want to be cool, part of the gang. You want to show off your friends your cool dance moves but you’re really missing out on the biggest point which is understanding the foundation and history of the dance.
Ok, so I’m not telling you that you have to be historian and learn the roots but I am telling you that instead of Googling all of these fancy cool dance moves, just hop on Google and search maybe the basis or premise of how the dance started or where it came from.
Mistake no. 3, rushing. I mean why is it that you show up, you’re right on time and then you hop on to this hype where you start dancing… whoa! Oh… holy… wait, slow down. Whoa whoa whoa! I mean, what’s going on here? You just started dancing. You got to somewhere? Are you late? Then why are you rushing all your dance moves?
I know, we get so excited. The music’s pumping, you feel the groove. But for some reason, if you just let it go, your body’s going to look like it, right? You’re going to be all over the place, you’re going to look sloppy, off beat, and you’re moves aren’t going to look good. You’re going to look sporadic.
A good rule of thumb is when you practice, practice slow. Build technique and practice slow before you start doing fast and quick and try to beat me like, “oops! You just looked sloppy like this guy.
Mistake no. 4, biting. I get it, you’re inspired by Nonstop. You love these twins but the problem is the more you spend watching them, and working on that toe spin or whatever move that they’re doing, then the more time you’re pretty much saying, “I don’t want to be an individual, I just want to be a copy or look alike”.
People shouldn’t be watching you dance and say, “oh sweet! Nice Nonstop toe spin. They should be looking at your dance and say, “Dude! That’s unique. I haven’t seen that before. Where did you come up with that?
One of the biggest expressions of hip hop is individually being yourself. So anytime you’re practicing someone else’s move, you’re pretty much being a hypocrite of hip hop.
Well, those are my top 4 most popular mistakes that I see freestyle dancers make. Do you see mistakes that are happening around you?