Hip Hop

Quote of the day:- "Dance is silent poetry, dance is the mother of all arts, dance is the hidden language of the soul and nothing is more revealing than dance."

Hip hop is a form of musical expression and artistic culture that originated from African American communities in the 1970's and is still largley used in cultures of dance all over the world. I have taken hip hop classes from a very young age and have always enjoyed popping, locking, breaking and jumping to cool and current songs. Hip hop is always developing in the world of dance and there is always a move that has never been created which adds to the excitement of this kind of dance. 2 years ago it was my dream to attend Telfrod College in Edinburgh and study dance there, I was planning to do a HNC then continue onto a Degree though my perception of dancing and how difficult it is to be successful has changed. I came across a workshop that was going on at the college and you didnt need to be a student to participate in it so this took my attention immediately. It was called Funk Physics and was run by Kimberly Jay who has choreographed for Nike Dance adverts. It was an all day event which consisted of three dance classes, the first one was break dancing in which they showed us lots of poses and stunts though I found these quite difficult to perform as it requires a great amount of upper arm and core strenght. The second class was general hip ho and the last was folk. All of the classes were full of complicated moves and had a fast pace which was difficult to keep up with but at teh same time I definately enojyed the challenge and made a few new friends at the same time.Funk Pysics is still up and running and is still holding events over the UK though their dance studio is based in London. Hip hop is a good way to get your emotions out as it can be full of high energy routines which can help to relieve stress. It has also been a great diversion for young people as community centres put on dance classes and this keeps them off the streets and out of trouble. 

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Cheerleading

Quote of the day:- " A cheerleader is like an elastic band, they are flexible, they stretch, they spring, they get snapped up into the air. They do their hair but with too much stress they can break! Cheer hard and love life.

My squad, Dance Dynamics currently dance for O'Couture night club, Albion Rovers football club, Breast Cancer Care events, M&D's theme park, Uddingston Pride and Bellshill Street Fair. These events are a good way to get noticed, keep us fit and at the same time we all enjoy it, We have been cheerleading for Albion Rovers  for about 2/3 years now and they have always been very generous and welcoming towards us.  They have provided us with all our new uniforms and also refurbished a changing room. Cheerleading has been a big part of my life for about 4 years although I'm sure if I lived in America I would be much more involved in this sport. This is because cheerleading is a massive part of  high school culture there and everybody is highly competitive with it whether its competing in competitions or cheerleading for your high school football team. There is a squad of cheerleaders in America called All Star Cheerleaders that take part in three different types of competitions throughout the year. The first one is "Locals" these are the smallest of competitons and take part in loccal gyms and sports halls, the second is "Nationals" these are next level up and are done in bigger events around America. The last of the competitions is the "Cheerleading Worlds" which are most important, whoever wins this competition will be seen as the best cheerleading squad for that year. They are hosted at Disney World in Orlando Florida. During a routine in the competitions the cheerleaders will perform a choreographed piece of work which involves stunts, jumps and tumbling incorporating dance aswell. There are lots of organisations that run these events such as ICU (International Cheer Union) though to win one of these competitions is not easy; there are many rules and regulations and the judges are very hard to please. Here is a video to show cheerleading in America.

Introduction to Dance

Quote of the day:- "We dance for laughter, we dance for fears, we dance for madness, we dance for tears, we dance for hopes, we dance for screams; we are the dancers we create the dreams."

This quote sums up for me the real reason why we dance, it is all about emotion and expressing yourself through movements. Throughout the next few weeks I will updating and informing everyone about different genres of dance that I am involved in. My first topic and most favourite is Cheerleading. Cheerleading is all about precision and tricks, this takes a great amount of concentration. It is my favourite style of dance because the songs are usually current, upbeat and vibrant. Of course with cheerleading you use pom poms and my dance school have recently bought new gold shiny pom poms that look great while we dance. (I have added a picture of these for you to see.) My cheerleading squad is called Dance Dynamics and you can search for us under CMDance on facebook. The squad consists of girls aged 15-24 and we meet every Thursday night for training which is similar to an intense workout though I do enjoy it as it keeps me fit and I have met lots of close friends through cheerleading.