I LOVE dancing especially street dance such as HIPHOP, HIPHOP Jazz, Burlesque Jazz, House and Dancehall (Reggae). I'm not a cool kid started practicing dancing since I could walk; I began to learn HIPHOP groove when I was studying in the university in Taiwan (NTHU). I don't have talent in dancing so it took me so much time to make my body move like "dancing".
The main reason I liked about dancing at that time is that it freed me from the stress while focusing on body movement. My mind was occupied with the music rhythm and really paid attention to control different parts of body. I like HIPHOP because it expresses my inner intense emotion (anger? lol)
At school's dancing club, I mainly learned from the more experienced students in the same club. But I feel I learn and improve much more in professional dancing studio. People might think it must be expensive. Actually, it's quite affordable in most of the dancing studios I visited: USD $11-16/ class. I saved my meal fee for dancing class haha
You don't need to be good at dancing to enjoy it. It's also not good just trying to be cool showing off your skill. You have to LISTEN to the music. Really Listen. People can see if you're true to yourself and music while you're doing freestyle solo. That's also the reason why I like people in the dancing studio. They are real.
I sincerely respected all the dancing teachers I met no matter what style they teach. Somtimes they would tell us the history, spirit, development of a specific dancing style and share his/her experience. Dancing is also the process of finding yourself; fuse your style into the dance; use your body to express the emotion; share and communicate with your dancing buddies; act according to the music and choreography even though you're shy inside. Once I took the Burlesque Jazz in Debbie Reynolds in LA, we had to wear high heals and put on red lipstick. While practicing catwalk, the teacher stopped the music and looked at me. "Are you a shy person?" he asked. I answered timidly: "I guess so." He said no matter what kind of person I am, I should express sexy side of a woman. I come from the relative conservative culture which people usually repress emotion and sexy may refer to slutty. I was scared and insecure and not used to walk with high heels. After several classes of practice and his stimulation (he would say "give me your eyes! teasing me! teasing me!" when he passed by me), I gradually allowed myself being sexy and enjoyed the feminine dance.
Last week I went to Illadelph Legends of Hip Hop Festival Bay Area 2015 held by Embodiment Project. I was meant to help a girl filming the event and interview with the teacher and join some classes. The opening on Jun 25 (Thu) was about introducing the purpose of the event, teachers who traveled from different places to SF, and the history of HIPHOP. I noticed they talked a lot about the topic of racism and also expressed in the dancing in the performance on Sat night in Zspace. I have to say that dancing performance was one of the best show I've ever seen!! It totally blew my mind. Fluent and stunning dance, powerful storyline, great acting, and professional visual presentation made everyone stand up and clap after 2-hr show. I didn't expect the girl danced with me as a partner earlier in the House class was also the performer on the stage!! (I was flattered)
Dancing is lots of fun! Learning dancing might be frustrating sometimes but it's probably not your problem. Some teachers prefer show fancy stuff which intimidates people have no fundamentals. Below is the list of dancing studios I've been and I highly recommend:
Broadway Dance Center in NY
Debbie Reynolds Dancing Studio in LA
Taiwan: MM (I've never been there but my friends teach there), MIX, DanceSoul
