Jamie-Lee's Dance ePortfolio 

 

This week we looked at the history of Hip Hop as we know it today. It has had many influences that stem from other styles of dance. Hip Hop has a distinct connection between culture and a sense of belonging. It is for this reason that teaching Hip Hop can link with the Interpersonal Development Domain where it says through the development of positive social relationships that individuals become linked to society, develop a sense of belonging and learn to live and work with others. Likewise the curriculum states that children should "cooperate in teams" which is a major part of Hip Hop dancing. 

In the classroom you could also link teaching Hip Hop to History where you can incorporate concepts such as continuity and change, cause and effect, different perspectives, empathy and significance of events. 

An example of where teaching Hip Hop would fit into The Arts Curriculum is in Level 4 Creating and Making where it says "they show evidence of arts knowledge when planning arts works for different purposes and audiences and identify techniques and features of other people’s works that inform their own arts making". This particular learning experience would link with the different environments in which Hip Hop happens such as on the streets, in crews, battles and performance based. Depending on how they are to dance, students would need to choreograph their dance according to the purpose and audience. They should also be able to make connections between their moves with movements from the many influences of Hip Hop as described bellow. 

 

Hip Hop is: Spoken word
                      Music
                      Art and

                      Dance

 

These dimensions of Hip Hop invite the teacher to incorporate various aspects into the curriculum through tasks such as: creating poetry about an issue that can be rapped, creating, evaluating and analysing graffiti or creating 'hip hop' music using technology that can later be used in the dance classroom.

 

There are different dance styles in Hip Hop including, but not limited to:

 

• B boy/ B girl Breaking which is inspired by African American 

• Popping - which involves moving the joints then popping 

• Locking - can be hard to distinguish from Popping however there tends to be a definite end point to the move. Both Popping and Locking are percussive styles.

• Shuffling 

• Stomping/stepping - which has strong influences from the Gumboot Dance

• Crumping 

• Freestyle/Improvisation 

• Battle  - compete in crews or individually

• Cipher - circle with dancers taking turns in the middle 

• Performance - focus on the audience 

 

Influences of Hip Hop

Most of what we see in Hip hop comes from America. Other cultures that influence Hip Hop include: African, Capoeira (fighting type movements), Martial arts and Russian as there are lots of Russian communities in Northern America.

 

The Social Dances of the 1900's such as the Charleston, Nicholas Brothers and Fred Astaire all influenced Hip Hop. Charleston used a lot of swinging movements that isolated leg movements which influenced the shuffling aspect of Hip Hop. Tap dancing such as that done by the Nicholas Brothers and Fred Astaire saw rhythm based movements that we now see in aspects of Hip Hop were their dancing is closely linked with the rhythm of music.  

 

The 1970's brought funk into the picture and people like James Brown's unique style of dancing and the Motown era have impacted on Hip Hop. The video of Electric Boogaloo and The Lockers from Soul Train we watched was early hip hop and you could see how many of the moves are still present in today's Hip Hop, however the glitz and glam of the costumes they wore has certainly changed. 

 

We watched a video which illustrated some of Michael Jackson's influences on his dance style. It was clear that he was not the first to Moonwalk. It was also interesting to note that back then dancing was in response to music but now you see dances choreographing their moves first and then producing the appropriate music that matches their dance. An example of this is the Jabbawockez. 

 

Social Media and Technology has also played a big role in the development of Hip Hop as we see various viral videos such as the Harlem Shake. We also have wider accessibility to movement inspiration as we can search the internet for dances. 

 

An issue with Hip Hop style dancing is originality as so much of what is danced stems from other influences but also your own personal influence on movements. 

 

 

Warm Up

• First Jacqui discussed with us the ways we greet people in Australia and how some other countries greet each other. As Hip Hop has a very strong connection with the sense of belonging, we had to create our own handshake type greeting with our group or as we called it today our 'crew'. I found this task really difficult as we were trying to be as original as we could but this made it difficult. Trying to do this with three people was also hard. Our group failed to formulate one at that current time. 

 

• Jacqui then put some music on and we walked around the room. We had to pick a beat that would be our 'down beat'. Making us listen carefully to the music was a good teaching strategy as the music connection is important in Hip Hop. As we walked around we had to do our handshake when we came across our 'crew'. Hollie and I decided to do a handshake that we knew of which made it easier. 

 

In my classroom I would like to give visuals to students on the various ways people greet each other in order to make the cultural connection between greetings and the place. I think students would be quite good at formulating their own special handshake because in my experience, they often already have one with their friends. I think this activity develops a sense of inclusion in the environment but also replicates the culture of Hip Hop in a slight way. 

 

Body of Lesson 

 

• Jacqui then taught us a 8 beat phrase that we were to do when we bumped into a person not from our crew. Learning the moves through observation then practicing in front of another person as we walked around the room was a good strategy to prepare us to learn more moves.

 

• Jacqui then progressed us through a series of new moves that were from early, middle and new school Hip Hop. 

• The first three moves she taught us were:

1. The Smurf (moving our hips forward and back with knees bend and moving side to side) Jacqui modelled and scaffolded this move and explained how its different to pushing your hips forward but more so tucking your bottom under and moving forward with your hips. 

 

2. The Prep (moving our shoulders forward and back and keeping our hips still whilst stepping side to side) 

 

 

 

3. The Wop (swinging our hands and hips side to side with a loop of the arms thrown in) 

 

 

• The Motif of our task was the various specific steps Jacqui taught us. The expressive intention, although not explicitly stated was to create a Hip Hop dance. 

 

• We were then given the task of creating a phrase that was 16 counts long using whatever moves we liked and could use the ones we had just learnt. Hollie, Jenna, Adele, Bec and I were in a group. I felt that I took leadership over the group but we all had input into what moves we would do. We initially picked two moves that we wanted to do and put them together. We organised our group in a formation that meant each member could be seen by the audience but also incorporated locomotion to move into a straight line from our formation which lead onto adding The Wop and The Prep which we had learnt. 

 

• Jacqui continued to teach us moves and each time we used the choreographic devices: accumulation, addition and re-arrangement to add to our dance. 

 

• The other dance moves we learnt were:

4. Up Rocks (starting with one leg in front of the other then jumping to switch legs we went slow, slow then quick quick drop down) 

 

5. Steve Martin (step three times to the side then lift back leg up and rotate, the body movement was then emphasised once we had mastered the move) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

6. Bart Simpson (rotate step side leaving arms behind, step together arms up toward chest) 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

7. Top Rocks (step forward, back together, transferring weight to the forward foot) Once we had mastered this move we did it backwards and then sidewards and used our arms.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

8. Drops (Jacqui taught us various drops such as the twist and lunge)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

9. Floor work (Jacqui also taught us various floor movements such as the over leg where you move your body over your leg with one knee bent)

 

10. Freezes (Jacqui showed us the Spy, Claw, Chair and Motorbike still moves) Mouseover to see the images larger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In my classroom, I would do as Jacqui did and continually teach new moves to the students but giving them a chance to make their own dances out of them. When attempting to incorporate the Bart Simpson move, we didn't know how to do it correctly, rather than saying we couldn't change it, Jacqui said it was fine, as long as we gave the move a new name. I would like to encourage students to be creative and appropriate the moves I may teach them whilst still being able to relate them to the original movement. I would use the language of choreographic devices as students used them in practicing their phrases. I would explain that as they add new moves they may have to rearrange their current movements which is a choreographic device. When teaching the moves from the different times in Hip Hop I would like to try and show videos of the exact move where it has been used. I would also like students to come up with their own move that is somewhat original and give it a name. I would then ask them to teach it to a partner. 

 

Using all the moves we had learnt we modified our phrase and refined it ready to perform as a whole dance. Jacqui asked that we perform one after the other and instead of a sitting audience, that we stand, ready to transition to our dance. This created a whole different experience to normal viewing as we found ourselves participating in clapping, cheering and encouraging one another. This created a scene similar to a cipher but with a group rather than individual. Jacqui said that it's important to explicitly teach students how to act as an audience in various environments.