Learn Hip Hop Dance

However, the internet is notorious for being unreliable and full of misinformation. So is it really possible to learn learn hip hop dance from the web?

Learning to Evaluate Sources for Hip Hop

The answer to that question is a qualified "yes." As with anything on the web, checking the sources of the content you are looking at is the key to ensuring that it is accurate and useful information. Here are some of the ways that you can identify a quality source of hip hop instruction online:

• Well designed web site - Someone who has taken the time and thought (and, to some extent, money) to create a professional-looking and easy-to-use website is someone who is serious about their dance instruction.
• Name Recognition – Hip hop dance has been around for well over a decade. The source online should either be a name that is recognizable to dance aficionados or else have recommendations from other big names in the industry.
• Recommendations – One of the advantages of the web is the ease of feedback. There should be at the very least reviews from people who have used the material. Even better is a forum of some kind that provides ongoing feedback and interaction between dance enthusiasts.
• Skills – Of course, the biggest determination of an instructor's ability is going to be actual demonstration of the dance skills, usually through photos and videos of them in action. In fact, this one quality can trump all of the others – if you actually like the style of dance that is shown on the website, it may not matter if it is a "legitimate" form of the dance. Like any other art form, hip hop dance is constantly growing and evolving, and the web is simply another effective way of spreading new ideas and techniques.

Learn Hip Hop Dance with Real People

Often, people refer to the world outside of the internet as "Real Life." This is something of a misnomer, as the people whose ideas you find on the web are every bit as real as the people reading it. Still, there is something to be said for the fact that dancing with a video online is not going to give you the real experience of dancing hip hop.

To do that, you need to take advantage of the more traditional learning methods of teacher/student. The most obvious way to learn hip hop would be through a dance class offered from a local dance studio – many traditional studios have recognized the popularity of hip hop and offer introductory to advanced classes right alongside their ballet and social dance classes.

Unfortunately, these also need to be watched in terms of quality. While it is certainly possible to apply the principles of movement theory common to all dance to the technique of hip hop, unless they are a very good dance teacher, several aspects of other techniques will creep into their pedagogy. Many hip hop classes have been criticized by established dancers for being more like jazz or modern dance simply performed to a hip-hop beat.

The best way to learn hip hop dance is in the traditional way: finding a dance jam, where dancers are freely practicing and teaching each other. Don't be intimidated by their skill – at one time, every dancer is a beginner, and usually these hip hop dancers are happy to welcome fellow enthusiasts to learn, laugh, and grow together. Often these jams are held in dance studios, schools, or even just in a local park, broken cardboard boxes used as a makeshift dance floor. But the dancers are the most legit there can be, because they are simply out there dancing with no thought other than the pure joy of hip hop dance.