LA Dance Teachers: Chicago Footworkin

The Chicago Footworkingz are in LA. They are a Footworkin supergroup made up of the top crew leaders from Chicago.

Over the past couple weeks King Charles and Prince Jaron have started offering classes at both Debbie Reynolds in the valley and at IDA in downtown Hollywood.

I checked the IDA class last Saturday and it was epic. Jaron was subbing for Charles and taught foundations and some easy transitions. He's a great teacher. I guess he has hella experience breaking down moves if he's a crew leader.

What is Footworkin? House music started in Chicago in the early 80s, and became world famous. In the mean time, back in Chicago, the neighborhood styles kept percolating. House got faster and turned into geto house. Geto house got faster and turned into Jukin. Footworkin is the dance style done to Chicago Juke music. The music and the dance influence each other, so the accents in house have been turned sideways to match the new dance styles (and visa versa).

Here are some clips:

KING Charles & PRINCE J-Ron in Finland Work Shop! from FootworKINGz on Vimeo.

Bruk Up & Flexing

Flexing is a NY contortionist style of bonebreaking hip hop dance that evolved out of Jamaican Bruk up (Dancehall popping). It kinda reminds me of styles Ive seen in turfing. So I'm starting with a Turf/Flex battle.

LA Dance Teachers: Samba

LA has some really great options for Samba teachers.

Ana Laidley at Brasil Brasil culture center does an amazing job of teaching musicality and the soul of Brasilian dance.



Fransini at Heartbeat House teaches a fun and flashy style of Samba. She is also great for breaking down the basics. (I also recommend her Salsa class - excellent Colombian footwork)



Both teacher include other styles of Brasilian dance like Afro Brasilian, Axe, Samba Reggae, and Funky.

LA Dance Teachers: Suga Pop - BOOGALOOLOCKIN/POPPIN

If you live in LA and you want to learn funk or hip hop styles. good luck finding abetter teacher than Suga Pop. He is one of the few elite dancers who is part of both the Electric Boogaloos and Rock Steady Crew.

930PM Monday and Wednesday nights at Evolution Dance Studio in the valley.

I discovered the class by accident. Several of my prev hip hop teachers were taking the class as well as several world champion street dancers. Its at a weird time so I only get to go once in a blue moon.

LA Dance Teachers: Salsa - Tony Welch

I've decided to prop up some of my favorite local dance teachers here in LA.

I was taking salsa lessons from a female teacher and she wasnt the best match for my style. She lives and breathes flashy LA style, where females claw the air and do dramatic disco poses. FOr the guy, a lot of the moves were about setting up the womans dramatic flair. That's cool. But I like more of a playful groovy neighborhood style - the funkier the better.

So I was checking the local dance schools and pulling up the teachers clips on youtube. Bingo!

I found Tony Welch's 4PM Saturday afternoon class at the Hollywood Dance Center.



I had never checked the Hollywood Dance Center. THe place looks like the back of a run down church in a small town in the mid west or the east coast. Kinda like Debbie Reynolds but even more character.

The class is awesome. The people there are super friendly and go the extra mile helping you fit in and get up to speed. Tony is an engaging teacher who makes an extra effort to go around and give you special guidance for improving your technique.

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Cuban Salsa - essential DVDs

One of my favorite styles of Salsa right now is Cuban style. For some stupid reason Im not finding the dope cuban salsa classes in LA right now.

So fortunately there are some places like http://www.boogalu.com/
to grok the video or buy authentic instructional DVDs.

I have the Danza Boxeo,



Salsa Suelta



and a few other DVDs.



Theyre great for learning the spirit of the dance and authentic musicality & grooving.  They also offer a subscription service for online vids.

Salsa Ville is another company that offers the best Cuban Salsa DVDs that I know about...  THey are on my wish list.  Occasionally some sneaky pirate will throw them up on youtube. 

Hmmm these are kinda wicked - but the first vids from the intro DVD start verrrrry slow.

The Bump Nouveau

In the 70s it was popular to do the disco bump during my elementary school recess. It was a funny playful novelty fad dance that I gues was more popular among 2nd graders than the public at large.

Well the bump is still done around the world but has evolved in a more lurrid adult direction.

This is from Brasil. Its called "SURRA DE BUNDA" which I think means "kiss my ass"



These clips are reposted from the Radio Masala Blog. I'm being lazy. But the dance called the Choke opens up vast new territory in bumping.





THese guys are making fun of the dance and inventing a bunch of fun novelty dances.

Jika Majika

In the early 00s I used to watch a local LA dance show called 360. It featured battles between random street dancers - kinda funny since they would pair up teenagers against some ones parents and stuff like that. Last I heard it got picked up by national syndication and then poof - it disappeared into oblivion. Probly some behind the scenes drama.



It looks like South Africa has its own version of the show. I love Kwaito, Jive and SOuth African house, so its nice to see some good dance styles fron the Khossa ZUlus and etc.

Feria de Cali

I just learned that Cali Colombia has "the best Salsa Festival in the world December 25-30. It's a Fair celebrating Salsa w/ it's one Salsodrome (just like the Sambodrome in Rio). Google 'feria de cali' it and you'll see." This is exciting news except Im always in Detroit over xmas. But the feria de cali Salsodrome footage is inspirational.

Passinho

I just stumbled accross a style of Baile Funk dance - I think its called Passinho. I dont speak Portuguese. Most of the youtube clips are labelled Passinho Foda. Babel Fish translated Foda as Fuck, but didnt understand Passinho. I dont have any information about the style but it looks like its at the crossroads of Kuduro, Cwalk, Axe, Charleston and Jerkin.