Mind in Chinese culture, Form of Hip-hop style
When Drunk Fist met with Hip-hop dance
Mind in Chinese culture, Form of Hip-hop style
When Drunk Fist met with Hip-hop dance
By Rongzhen Lyu
5 min read · Published on 10/20/2021 · 9:00 PM EDT
By Rongzhen Lyu
5 min read · Published on 10/20/2021 · 9:00 PM EDT
Rongzhen Lyu
Red Bull Dance your style workshop & National Finals USA
What is musicality, creativity and battle in dance
By Rongzhen Lyu
5 min read · Published on 10/27/2021 · 9:00 PM EDT
Facing the first rays of the morning sunshine, I came to DC from Syracuse. This is my first time joining an American dance event, seeing a battle—meanwhile, my first time taking a class in America. I am so excited about what I will do next.
The pre-final started at 7:30 PM EDT on Friday, Oct. 22. Both competitors and audiences were full of passion. The atmosphere there is perfect; I like it so much; I would like to share a wonderful moment with you.
The next day, on Saturday, we have a dance your style National Finals USA. During the competition, since audiences are judges who decide which side wins, MC Keeps emphasizes the judging criteria of the game: technical skills, body smoothness, musicality, and creativity. That also is the same with the workshop content. So what are musicality, creativity, and battle? And why are they essential? After I attended this event, I had more profound thoughts about that.
Musicality
Everyone listens to music differently and, as a result, dances differently. We show different styles and emotions when we dance to the same song. It is about how we hear, interpret, and skills we master to dance to music. Except how we feel the music. We also need to know what it means to be on the beat. Does that mean lay back? Those are technically dealing with music.
1. Texture
First, utilizing your body to show different textures allows you to create infinite variations of moves to match the other music or sounds. Bianca Vallar from Choreo Cookies says,
“Textures are like dynamics and musical articulation in piano. They accentuate the music, match the changes and flow of the song, and add performance techniques to a piece. Textures can be staccato, sharp, fast, and direct to the point. Or they can be legato, smooth, and flow with the melody. And textures all depend on your interpretation of how you hear the music and wish to portray that to your viewer. Dancers are physical interpretations of music and textures allow people to see the music more clearly.”
2. An 8-count
To break down the structure of the music, we employ an 8-count. It is a kind of map in dance musicality for knowing when to make a given move. You'll count into the music:" one, two, three, four, Move," The counts in-between – "and" counts – are used to mark 16 counts. "one and two and three and four." The more different and varied way of count you use, the more layered your body shows to the audience. It also has 32 counts, which will lead to faster-tempo pieces.
3. Sounds in music
what kinds of sounds in music? It includes lyrics, bass, snare, hi-hat, synth, strings, and keyboard. Different sounds also have various combinations in layers. Learning to understand those elements helps you know the patterns of sounds. Paying attention to them will help you find some logic and form in music and help you become more fluent with dance, and give some match points.
Creativity
"Creativity helps you find your pocket through music while emphasizing the importance of presence and awareness at that moment. " Kosi, a dancer who is very good at movement & creative thinking, said. She lets us know what timing is, body awareness, and mindset.
1. Using your body
at the beginning of class, Kosi asked us to purposely move a specific body part to feel how it existed. Then unintentionally use one part of your body to move. After doing that, we noticed we could fully use our bodies to express ourselves.
2. Interact with your partner
how we do that. When your partner or others dance in your surroundings. How can you use your move to see them first? Then try to make their move to yourself. It does not need to be ultimately the same; try your best to catch the action and then present this move by yourself. You will find that when you are dancing, you need to create a movement to see your partner first, then create an action according to what you see. When dancing, we are not intentionally making a move to show our skills. It is just because the music makes me feel that or my surroundings inspire me.
3. Predict music and feeling
Can you catch the tone easily if it only takes 10 seconds to listen to a song? Can you predict what will happen in this sound next? Creativity is about understanding and imagination. When deeply immersed in music, the only thing in our mind is to follow the pace, doing something based on our body accumulation.
If you want to explore these skills, you can try those three things to improve your creativity skills.
Battle
What are strategies to improve the way you battle? What is the biggest takeaway about how to entertain the crowd? The catch is and will be the audience decides who the winner is!
1. Belief
you should trust yourself and be courageous. There is no one would like to look at someone’s dance without confidence; you must show you are highly confident to the audience, the camera, DJ, MC, and even the light. It would be best if you used everything to support you, to help you finish your 60 seconds.
2. Respect
respect your opponent, and show your pursuit of peace, love & happiness. Violence is a kind of stimulant on the stage, but the core of battle is communication.
3. Do not be afraid to go first
you might like to go second so you can watch and see what your opponent did first and try to match the energy but strategizing your battles does not mean always going second. Sometimes, going first is better; if you set a bar high, starting from zero to 100, your opponent has a match the energy you give off. Everyone is great at a different field; that will be an excellent way to show what you are good at rather than following your opponents.
I learned things from this workshop, and I want to share them with more and more people who, just like I struggle with improving my dance skills to a new level, Practice makes perfect; besides, we should trust ourselves.