arts4view: Learning

Tuesday, September 06, 2011

Learning Locking From Tutorials Posted By : Kevin Shwe

By: Kevin Shwe
Post Date: 2010-01-21 Locking continues to be a popular dance form today even if a somewhat underground movement. There are new people who are becoming interested in locking all the time and wish to learn some so they can do a bit for themselves.

Learning a couple of moves from a few tutorials on video websites is definitely a good start. This will start to expose you to some of the locking moves and you will know how to do them with a bit of practise.

However if you wish to take your locking further, it is important to further your education and take an approach that covers the whole dance form in more detail. This is something that can take time to achieve.

Many lockers learn for many years before they ever reach the sort of standard where they are confident performing to an audience or perhaps participate in locking battles or competitions.

The reason it is important to further your education is because locking is a very unique dance style that has its own vocabulary. It has its own performance style, way of doing things with that funky feel, unique rhythms and much more.

It takes quite a lot of exploring of the stylistic elements before you feel that you are really nailing them and actually dancing in a way that looks and feels funky to you.

The reason it takes time to reach this perch line is because an understanding of the dance is key. And once you understand what the dance is about, you also need the bodily understanding so your body knows what it's doing and to make the funkiness evident, so your dancing says something.

Education and practise is the starting place to allow these parts to come together collectively. For when they do something is achieved that is greater than the sum of its parts, something that's just so downright funky.

You must take yourself on the path to understanding the dance and continually explore this dimension as you do any new moves you learn. Whether you choose to learn from DVDs or in person with a teacher, you must pay close attention to the descriptions the instructors indulge you in.

The descriptions are the little details that make the difference. It is often said that the difference between success and failure is tiny. And the difference between understanding the dance and not understanding is tiny, but the visual output and results are miles apart.

One is the visual depiction of funk and the other is just plain empty vacuous moves...or simply put nothing.

Article Source: http://www.easyarticlesubmit.com

Additional Articles From - Home | Industry Publications | Entertainment | ArtsAbout the Author:

Kevin Shwe, otherwise known as Strawberry KS is a locking teacher from London whose locking tutorials often get thousands of views. He runs his own locking lessons in London and also has a DVD entitled 'Introduction To Locking.' Find out more about his DVD and tutorials at http://www.lockingvideos.com/

????? Bookmark This Article

Facebook, Twitter, Del.ici.ous, etc

View the original article here

This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Friday, September 02, 2011

Are You Learning To Dance Locking? Posted By : Kevin Shwe

By: Kevin Shwe
Post Date: 2010-01-25 Like undertaking the task of learning any dance style, learning locking takes time, practice and perseverance.

There is also another vital ingredient if you wish to take it to a high standard. And that ingredient heeds itself in the form of an understanding of the dance.

When you are a beginner you will be eager to charge towards learning the moves, which is understandable and in fact to some extent the moves do play a role in locking's signature style.

However possibly even more critical is to grasp and to understand the dance itself. For there is something that underpins even all these moves and it makes itself known in the form of 'funk.'

Funk is a vital ingredient of locking. It cannot exist without it. This is not talking even about funk being pervasive in your surroundings but having that funk inside you, so that is a part of you and your dancing.

Funk does not need to be surrounding you if you have the funk in you. You do not even need music to dance to if there's music inside you.

A prime example of the funk being with you is watching 'The Lockers' dancing to Swan Lake if you can ever get your hands on the footage or DVD. Swan Lake would not be classed as funk music by any stretch of the imagination, yet The Lockers are still funky when they dance to its soundtrack and make the performance work.

There are elements to locking that make it work and make it different from other styles. And this leads to why you should learn locking as a style in its own right.

Often elements of locking will be incorporated into choreographies that may include other dance styles but if you wish to learn locking to a high standard you really need to take the time to learn it on its own.

Figure out its structure and grooves, its touches and subtle flavours that make it unique. Once you can see why these elements are in place you can develop a bigger picture and begin to understand with greater clarity what you can bring to the dance.

You need to know what the 'rules' are before you can break them. Having said that 'rules' would be a rather terse term and is really being used to say 'what the dance embodies that makes it unique and makes it function properly'.

You want your locking to look like locking. And that comes from understanding all of these various elements that are characteristic of locking.