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Otis Funkmeyer Gets Interviewed and Gets Deep

Otis Funkmeyer — Tue, 18 May 2010 01:27:59 +0000

So I got interviewed by my man Liquid Metal. You should for sure read his article here. What I’m gonna do for you is give you the raw, uncut, unedited version that I gave him. Read this to get my philosophy on this dance and a much deeper sense of what it’s all about.

Hey guys, I’m Otis Funkmeyer, the professor of popping! I write an article about popping here at WCP every Sunday. I have lots of lessons, articles, DVDs, downloads, and music at my website www.funkmeyers.com! You can also check me on facebook and youtube.
And remember kids: keep it gangsta!

1. Where did you grow up?

I grew up in Arundel, Maine, a small town of 2000 white people. The house I grew up in was built in 1690 and my closest neighbor was 1/2 mile away. We didn’t have cable television in my town until I was 13 years old. All true!

2. What got you into dancing, and why did you specialise in popping?

I got into dancing because of raves and I had a very intense experience with LSD at a rave that made me want to drop everything–I was a math major in college–and become a dancer. I chose to specialize in popping because it’s the best dance. Period. It is so funky and amazing and it is so illusional and amazing it is so trippy and amazing and the way that a popper can BECOME the music. I’ve never seen it anywhere else. I was hooked immediately. I saw an old clip (this is 5-7 years before Youtube) of Skeeter Rabbit of the Electric Boogaloos and I crapped in my pants and said “THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO.” Within 2 years, Skeet was my good friend and teacher.

3. What was the reaction of your parents and peers to your dancing passion?

People were VERY surprised and VERY skeptical. I kept it to myself in many ways for a long time. I think that it’s really important to nurture your creativity and if you notice that there is someone in your life who is not supportive of your passion and your dream, you must shield it from them. Creativity is like a tiny baby flower. It is very delicate and fragile at first. It needs love and encouragement. Too much negativity can kill it.

One of the biggest things that my journey to popping has taught me is that if you stick with your passions, you develop a sense of character that can not be taken away from you and it sticks with you in every endeavor you become involved with.

4. How did you come to the conclusion to pursue dancing full-time and travel to learn more about the dance?

I couldn’t help it man. I was obsessed. OBSESSED. It was all I could think about. For a long time, I had no interest in talking about ANYTHING except popping. My friends JRock and PopnTod and I used to spend HOURS on the telephone just talking about anything and everything related to popping… it’s deep man this popping thing!

5. What were your experiences living with poppers (like Madd Chadd) and making friends with a new network of poppers.

It was the best. The way that I have always felt is that I participated in one of the amazing renaissances of the world. Like the Harlem Renaissance or Paris in the 20’s. I mean, it was me, JRock, PopnTod, Madd Chadd, Tetris, Animatronix, Pandora, JSmooth, Kid Boogie, Preying Mantas… we would just hang out and go dancing all the time. We were all young dancers just trying to get better. Now, we are all winning contests all over the world and starring in movies and theatrical productions. It was a special time and the best part is that all of us were a part of it and so we have a special look of recognition when we see each other.

6. Which poppers and teachers made the greatest impression on you during this time?

My main teacher without question was Skeeter Rabbit. He taught me as much about life and art as anyone I’ve known. Skeet and I were SOOOOOO different from such different walks of life that it just worked. He was the one who made me feel comfortable around people different from me. My first teacher who really got me going was Poppin Pete. And my VERY first teacher who showed me the ropes was Gorgeous Fon the Dapper Don, who has basically created one of the biggest and best popping scenes in the world now in Montreal. I have also learned a LOT from Jazzy J, Buddha Stretch, Boppin Andre, and Brian Green. Those guys all put together are my main teachers. And also JRock, PopnTod, and MaddChadd. We all lived together so were always showing each other new things.

7. How did you become involved with Elastic Illusion, and how did the company break up?

I got super disillusioned with the popping scene. As I started growing up and maturing and developing spiritually, I saw how lame the whole thing was. A bunch of teenage boys basically–always beefing, always talking about drama… it was actually more like teenage GIRLS to be honest. I just lost interest.

The culminating incident was when Suga Pop punched out my friend PopnTod for no reason. Basically, because Suga Pop’s whole mentality is based on dominating people. If they stand up to his intimidation, all he can do is fight. He is a sad man–at least he was when I knew him. And I’d say that to his face. It’s the truth.

After that, I thought, this is STUPID. I want to be involved in sharing the FUN of dance with people. I don’t want to tell you how to dance. I just want to show you HOW and let you make up your own mind.

And me and Ace and Tyson are some weird guys. So we thought. Let’s just go for it all the way. And we did.

The breakup was a sort of “you reap what you sow” thing and we all learned a lot from it. It just happened… People change.

8. How did you start producing your own tutorials?

I was always really scared of being in front of the camera so it took me a long time to start producing my own tutorials. After the Elastic Illusion experience, I realized what I actually cared about was people who wanted to learn REAL POPPING. I mean, just read my resume above. I’ve studied extensively with pretty much ALL of the OGs. I didn’t even mention how much I studied with Taco and Wiggles and Suga Pop, but I did. They just weren’t that huge an influence on me.

And people were always calling us “fags” in Elastic Illusion. I figured, I’ll show you what real dancing is, and then you see what you call me.

To put it another way, the goal with Elastic Illusion was to show millions of people how to dance. Our videos have about 23 millions views as of May 2010 so it’s like, we succeeded.

My goal with my tutorials is to create 10,000 HARD ASS, RAW, FUCK YOU UP IN THE CIRCLE, EAT YOU UP IN A BATTLE, HARD HITTING POPPERS. So it’s a different goal and it requires a different approach.

9. What does your daily practice session consist of, including any supplementary conditioning- and flexibility training?

I eat really healthy. I have spent about 10 years learning the ins and outs of nutrition and now have a diet I am very happy with. A lot of raw food, mostly (but not strictly) vegan. It works for me.

I have discovered, even though I know this might be too hard to believe, that you just have to practice when you feel like it. Look at dance as a life long journey. Some weeks or months or years you want to get down 24/7. Sometimes you don’t. Just flow with it. TRUST THE PROCESS. Don’t worry about getting rusty.

Popping, the way I teach it, is a BIIIIIGGGGGGGG dance. There are a LOT of concepts, a LOT of styles, a LOT of feels to learn. You have to take your time. Be patient.

I see a lot of people in a hurry to be the next Pacman, the next Mr. Fantastic, the next Elsewhere. Those are not the students I’m interested in. Those people come and go (not Pac/Fan/Else, but their wannabes). i am wanting to teach people who are in it for the long haul. I don’t get caught up in HOW MANY of those people there are.

So, basically, I just dance when I feel like it. is it good? I dunno. Is it bad? I dunno. But I do know that it works for me.

10. What is the most common mistake beginning poppers make, and what advice should all new poppers know?

Going too fast. On all levels. Trying to run before you walk. Trying to freak beats before you can ride beats. Trying to boogaloo before you can pop. Ignoring the robot.

The biggest advice is SLOW DOWN. Practice air posing. Work on your slow, subtle dimestops. Be patient. Don’t try to get “GOOD” so fast. Be OK being BAD! You’ll get GOOD! Everyone gets good eventually. Just be patient. ENJOY where you’re at.

This was the advice that I was given that I didn’t take! And now I wish I had.

The other advice is listening to other people TOO MUCH. At some point, you have to decide how YOU want to dance. Skeeter Rabbit did it for me but maybe he doesn’t do it for you! That’s cool. TRUST YOUR GUT. Don’t trust mine! That took me a long time to learn and when you learn that, you will have a confidence when you dance.

11. What are your thoughts on the competitive nature of popping, and how should one deal with the success of others?

Man, you gotta keep GRIIINDIN. Just keep putting in work. The competitive nature is what makes the dance dope. A heated battle is like nothing else. Fuck the contests; a circle battle is where it really goes down. No politics, just show and prove. It’s primal. It’s real.

You know, I’ve been in the game 10 years now. I’ve burned some bridges that I’ve had to rebuild and I’ve discovered that even when you think someone has disappeared, they haven’t. Work on CONGRATULATING and APPRECIATING other people’s success. Think about how special it is that you knew that person way back when. And realize that if you are around them, then maybe it’s because you’re well on your way toward success as well.

I mean, I got STOOOORIES man. I remember when JSmooth had no confidence, when JRock had no car, when MaddChadd had no home, when PopnTod had no job, when Pandora had no musicality, when Kid Boogie had no skills. I mean… that’s special you know.

I discovered I had to make my own path. As Eminem said, “I came to the fork in the road and went straight.” That’s wassup.

12. What changes do you see in popping now then the time where you started?

You know what. I just saw JRock for the first time in a minute last night and we were talking about this. The youngsters don’t understand the importance of foundation. I always thought Youtube was gonna make an army of dope dancers and on one level it has, but on another level, there is so much eye candy to try to bite on Youtube that a lot of people are not historians. Trust me. Victory is achieved by the patient.

Our generation had to be DETECTIVES man. I’m talking PRE-DVD era. We were mailing each other VHS cassettes back and forth across the country. Trying to find ANY SCRAP of footage we could possibly find. I always thought this sucked for us. But actually, it made us HUNGRY. We were forced to always be looking, always be grinding, always be searching.

And I think for that reason our dance has more SOLIDNESS. The architecture of our dance has more of a foundation. There’s a basement and good scaffolding. You can’t BS that stuff.

The way I think about it is like–what’s the longest-lasting building on the planet? The Pyramids in Egypt.

Now I actually think that there was extraterrestrial assistance in their construction, but ignoring that for a moment…

What’s the first thing you notice. IT’S NOT EASY TO BUILD THAT SHIT MAN. You got THOUSANDS of MASSIVE stones. So you do that hard work for 500 years and the shit lasts for like 10,000 years. That’s how it goes.

You wanna be a dancer who LASTS. Who not only gets on the TV-show-of-the-moment but who is still going strong, getting more and more respect at age 50, 60 and beyond, you gotta do the HARD WORK. There are no shortcuts to foundation. That’s plain and simple truth.

13. What are your future plans?

My goal is to create the ultimate popping teaching resource and game that the world has ever seen. I spend so much time thinking, analyzing, brainstorming the best way to teach this dance. You know when you go into a ballet or jazz dance class. They got a SYSTEM man. You learn in a very specific way. I want to create the Funkmeyer method of learning popping. I want to produce well-rounded, super hard, very unique and creative dancers by the thousands.

My other goal is to be the star of a holographic video game popping instructional. Something like rock band/guitar hero for popping. The technology is not there yet but we get closer everyday.Similar Posts:

You Know You Want To: The Arm Wave

Otis Funkmeyer — Sun, 18 Apr 2010 22:53:52 +0000

So the first thing that you need to know about the arm wave is that it’s easy to learn but takes a lifetime to master.

The good news is that with a solid week of practice, you should have something resembling a decent arm wave. That’s what we’re gonna focus on for now. Getting down the basics!

The 3 R’s
There are 3 R’s of waving. Everybody knows that, right? Well, actually, I just made them up, so no one except me really knows that. But it’s true. The 3 R’s are REPETITION, ROLLING, and RELAXATION.

Repetition
Let’s start with the first R. Repetition. Especially with a move like the arm wave, the most important part in learning is doing it OVER and OVER and OVER again. It’s really the only way to get good.

But make sure you do it with FOCUS. You have to really WATCH your armwave. How good is your isolation? Which parts are smooth and which could be smoother.

It’s these little details that separate people like Pacman and Salah from your average wannabe.

Rolling
Most people just wave up and down. They bend their wrist, then their elbow, and then they lift their shoulder. Just up, then down. The true illness in waving comes when you start ROLLING your joints. Roll the wrist clockwise, then roll the elbow (MAKE SURE TO ISOLATE) clockwise, and then roll the shoulder clockwise. This creates a more fluid, flowing effect.

Relaxation
Now, before the hate mail starts coming in, realize that I understand that muscle tension can be critical to a good wave. But for the basic, most fluid wave, what you want is RELAXATION. NO tension. If you want inspiration for this, look at clips of Shallow. Shallow is definitely one of the absolute nastiest wavers in the world and he is totally relaxed when he waves. This is how he creates such fluid waves.

The reason I put such a focus on this is that a lot of people want to rush into hard animated waves like Taco or Shrimp or J Smooth, but they haven’t even learned the basics of muscle control. You must walk before you run young jedi. And trust me, if you get the smooth, relaxed wave down, it’s gonna make your animated waves straight ill-nasty. Trust!

So Now What?
NOW it’s time to get back to practice.

KEEP IT POPPIN!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of Popping Similar Posts:

The 5 Basics of Tutting

Otis Funkmeyer — Sun, 11 Apr 2010 22:48:11 +0000

Tutting is a style that is based totally on geometry and patterns and angles, mosty with your arms. It is a great style for feeling like you are building puzzles or boxes and there are an infinite number of patterns you can create. Once you learn the basics. The basics of tutting mostly involve learning the basic angles and how you can move between them. And then a LOT of drilling. You need to know that when you lift your arms, they are in the position you think they’re in. Once you have that down, you can start freestyling your tuts and go for days.

So let’s cover 5 tips for basic tutting mastery.

90 degree angles

Let’s begin with the most obvious. Tutting is based pretty much entirely on 90 degree angles. All of movements involve your elbows and wrists being at 90 degree angles to the rest of your body. This is the reason it’s called tutting. It’s like the Egyptian tut poses in all of the tombs.

Now, making 90 degree angles is harder than it sounds and a lot of people end up with what we all used to call duck tuts, where the hand is bent at the knuckles into the shape of a duck’s beak. Also, when you are doing outer tuts, there can be a tendency to not lift your elbows up to 90 degrees (to where there is a straight line from one elbow, through the shoulders, to the othe elbow). It’s HARD to lift your elbows that high. You usually feel strain in your shoulders. It wears you out. But this is the price of excellence. You gotta WORK IT OUT.

Wrist rolls

Wrist rolls were made famous by Mr. Wiggles but are used by almost all tutters. They are an incredibly amazing technique because they are super easy to do and super dope looking. They have a lot of bang for the buck.

All that wrist rolls involve is rolling your wrists so that your hand moves in a circle from one side to the other. You can throw them in at any point. You can hit an angle and then roll the wrists. Then hit another angle. Then roll the wrists. It can go on forever. You can flip it in so many ways so it never gets old. Definitely practice the wrist rolls.

Incorporating your whole body

It’s important to practice incorporating your whole body from the start because it’s really easy to turn into a stand-still tutter who doesn’t move and just moves their arms around. You might come up with cool poses, but it doesn’t have the same dope dance feel as when you use your whole body.

This is especially true for the flexers out there. They have so many incredible combos and concepts but they are usually just standing there and executing. They don’t really move or dance through their tuts.

One good way to practice this is to tut on one leg and move the other leg into tut angles while yout tut your arms around it. Bend forward, duck down, hit ground moves, bend to the side. Moving with your tuts adds a LOT to the possibilities.

Adding texture

I learned this concept from Tetris who learned it from Mori. When Mori first saw Tetris tutting, Mori told him–nice, but ADD TEXTURE. Adding texture means changing rhythms, strobing your tuts, moving at different speeds, hitting sometimes… basically, switching it up.

Tutting can get old quick if you don’t switch it up, because it can just look like tut-tut-tut-tut-swing-the-hands. But if you add a whooooooooooosh and a tick-tick-tick and a fast-slow-fast-fast-fast, people will never know what’s coming next and they will become your biggest fans.

Tut to the Beat

This should be obvious, but just in case it’s not, do your tuts to the beat of the music. The music should inspire your tutting and help you come up with new patterns and new ways of doing your existing patterns.

When you tut to the beat, the tuts flow with the music and you can really accent the music, which always gets points with the audience, the judges, and the opposite sex.

Start with basic rhythms like 1-2-3-4 and then you can work your way up to more advanced rhythms and beat freaks.

The Wrap-Up

Learning and applying the basics of any style are the way that you really become a DANCER. You can piece together 10 tut sets and do the same routine over and over and that’s cool! But to really become a bona fide tutter, you need to take the basics of the style and come up with your own ways to flip them.

KEEP IT POPPIN BABY!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of PoppingSimilar Posts:

Let’s Get This Party Started: The Basics of Isolation

Otis Funkmeyer — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 22:41:52 +0000

Along with the groove and the actual pop, isolation is the most important technique of this dance called popping. The ability to isolate everything from your fingers to your toes, from your neck to your hips, is what separates a beginner from a master.

Almost all dance styles, from ballet to bellydancing, use isolation extensively. But the way we isolate in popping is one of the things that most sets the dance apart. So let’s take a look at what isolation is, how you do it, why it’s important, and how to incorporate it into your dance!

What is Isolation

Isolation is the ability to move some part of your body while another part stays perfectly still. In most cases, even if you get close to perfect it’s good enough, but the top isolators are usually considered the top dancers as well. Whether it’s Madd Chadd doing the robot, PopnTaco waving, or Acki boogalooing, one of the things that makes them who they are is their ability to isolate.

How do you Isolate?

The way that you practice isolation is usually fairly simple. That’s the thing about isolation. It’s easy to understand, it’s just a lot harder to do! Let’s say you want to isolate your wrist, like you might want to do in tutting or waving. What you do is practice moving your wrist–and only your wrist–making sure that every other part of your body stays still.

The best way to practice this is to use your own shadow. Mirrors can lie and if you’re eye is not well trained, even a video camera can be hard to read. But your own shadow does not lie! What you want to see is ONLY the part of your body moving that you are trying to isolate. In this case, you would want to see ONLY your wrist move. If any other part of your body moves, even slightly, you are NOT doing a perfect isolation.

I know from personal experience that this is a frustrating exercise, because at first it seems impossible to get everything else to stay still. One trick that you will discover over time is that if you make smaller movements, the exercise will be easier. Start small and get bigger over time. It’s better to get something down perfectly and then move on rather than just get a jumbled mess of a lot of half-mastered techniques.

Why Is Isolation So Important?

Isolation is CRAZY important! It wasn’t obvious to me at first, but over time, I got the picture, and all that time when it wasn’t obvious was time wasted! The reason isolation is so important is that it makes everything you do LOOK CLEAN AND PRETTY. When you see someone who trips you out with their smoothness I guarantee that they have EXCELLENT isolation.

See, when you isolate well, it’s easier for the audience to see what you’re doing, because fewer parts of your body are moving! All of your movements READ better and whether your audience is your friends and family or the top poppers in the world, everything appreciates that, whether or not they know WHY.

Also, when you isolate well, it means you really understand your body well and it allows you to come up with new movements on the spur of the moment. By learning the basics, you can start making up your own moves just based on the basic isolations.

The Different Styles and Isolation

You might think if you are a popper or an animator that isolation is less important than if you are a tutter, but it’s just not true. Every style uses isolation extensively, but how they use them are different!

Robot–The robot is ALL isolation. In fact, the basic robot, where you only move one part at a time, might as well just be called an isolation exercise. It’s just one isolation after another. The same goes for the styles that come out of the robot, like strobing and animation.

Boogaloo–At it’s core, boogaloo is the ability to isolate the neck, the shoulders, the hips, the knees, and the ankles, and specifically to move them in circles, or what we call rolls. Beginner boogalooers usually look sloppy because their isolation is not strong yet and they try to MIMIC the smoothness rather than ISOLATE to create smoothness. Boogaloo is ALL isolation.

Waving–From a technique perspective, waving is really no more than an isolation exercise. Fingers, wrists, elbows, shoulders, chest, neck. Just one isolation after another that when put together looks like a wave. If you want to be a good waver, just get in front of the mirror and start isolating.

Tutting–Tutting is no different. Isolating the wrists, elbows, and shoulders. Learning to only move one piece at a time is the essence of tutting.

The Wrap-Up
As I think you can see now, when you look at from the perspective of technique, this dance is ALL isolation. Practice your isolation like crazy and you will find people enjoying your dance more and more, no matter what style you are doing. Practice the same isolation OVER AND OVER AND OVER AND OVER until you really can do it in your sleep.

KEEP IT POPPIN YALL!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of PoppingSimilar Posts:

Dude, Where’s Your Technique?

Otis Funkmeyer — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:43:49 +0000

In order to express the music in a way that other people can understand, you need a strong technical foundation. In order to move in a way that is pleasant to others, you need technique. Without technique, even the most creative expressive dancer just looks like an embarrassing mess. Harsh but true. It takes technique to bring your vision, your unique talent, into form. And what really means it that it takes work! And time! Get ready for the journey of your lifetime, young Jedi!

What is Technique?

Well, let’s ask this question another way. What separates ballet from tap dancing? What separates African dance from Irish clogging? Or more importantly, what separates popping from spazzing out on the dance floor?

The answer to all these questions is TECHNIQUE. Technique is the specific movements that make up a style. Without technique, it’s just… moving. You can’t call it anything. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with that, but if you want to learn a dance style, what you really mean is you want to learn the TECHNIQUES that make a dance style.

Techniques are movements and movement styles that make a dance a dance. In terms of the actual moves, hip-hop dance and house dance are very similar. But in terms of the movement, the feeling, they are totally different. Hip-hop feels DOWN and house feels UP. That may sound strange, but these kinds of ideas will help you start to notice the FEELING of dances as well as the moves.

Vocabulary

When most people talk about technique, they are referring to vocabulary. Vocabulary is all the different movements techniques that make up a dance. In popping, you have: the fresno, the arm wave, the walk out, the finger box, the wrist roll in tutting, the sac, old man, and on and on and on and on.

Each of these movements is a part of what we call popping. Each of these movements can be practiced and mastered.

What is GOOD Technique?

When I see someone with good technique, the first thing I notice is how natural they look. They look they were born dancing. Their movements are crisp and sharp. Their angles are good, meaning when they put their arms out to the side, it’s at a 90 degree angle. Their movements are isolated. Their rolls are clean. Their footwork looks good. They are on beat.

All of these things are part of what it means to have good technique. You can be a great dancer without great technique. I think when it comes to angles, Salah is a great example of this. A lot of his angles are frankly not that great. But his ability to perform and his musicality and moves are second to none. At the same time, I think Salah would be 1000 times better if he practiced his technical foundation more.

Why is it Important?

Technique is important because it allows you to interpret the music in a way that other people can appreciate. If you just want to express yourself on the dance floor, you actually don’t need any technique. You can just run out there and jump and shout and flail and you may have a really good time with it. Other people may even appreciate how free you are. But, if you want to be a DANCER, if you want to express yourself as an ARTIST in addition to a free spirit, you need technique. You need to learn the movements so well that they are completely ingrained into you. You need to be able to do them without even thinking about it. They need to be absolute second nature to you.

A good example of this is walking.

You actually LEARNED to walk. There was a time in your life when you COULD NOT walk. You were crawling around and you would stand up and then fall down. Walking is actually a pretty advanced technique. You have to shift your weight from side to side as you fall forward. It takes a while to learn. But you DID learn it. And now you don’t think about it at all. You can talk while you walk and you can even read while you walk.

This is an example of good technique. We all have good walking technique. My goal is that we all have good POPPING technique as well!

How do you Learn Technique?

There is only one way to learn technique. And that is practice. Practice practice practice practice practice practice practice. It takes time and you have to do it OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER and OVER. Just like when you learned walking!

At first, it is quite likely, especially if you are a geeky nerd like I was, that you will suck. You will have two left feet and no ability to coordinate your movements. Now that you are being forced to THINK about how you move, you will get more and more awkward and you will find yourself getting frustrated. This is good! Be patient!

The Important of Patience When It Come to Technique

C’mon man! It even took God six full days to create the world, and he did that 24/7 until he finally got to rest on the seventh day. The ideal attitude to have when it comes to technique is to work really hard and not worry about how far along you are. Maybe it will take you five years to get good. Maybe only five days. There’s no way to know until you try. And if it takes you a long time, just be willing. I was one of the people who it took five years to get good. But here is the upside! Because it took me so long, I *really* learned it. I can teach it so well now! I know EXACTLY how every movement works, because NONE OF IT came naturally to me. For a long time I was really frustrated by this, but now I look at it as a huge gift! Stay optimistic!

Work really hard, and then you rest. The less you worry about where you are and the more you trust the process and understand that this is the ONLY way to get better, paradoxically, the faster you’ll improve.

It’s ALL ABOUT THE BASICS

One of my personal favorite dancers, Jazzy J, blew my mind the first time I saw him. I could not BELIEVE what I was seeing. This guy was so smooth, so funky, and so unpredictable. I had no idea what he was going to do next. Being the kind of dance nerd I am, I immediately went up to him and asked him if I could take a private lesson with him.

The next day, I showed up and we started drilling the basics. I’ve never seen someone more interested in instilling the basics in me. Over the course of the lesson, he showed me that everything amazing that he was doing was just an application of a basic movement. His ENTIRE dance style is just doing the basics and flipping them a little bit–giving them his own unique twist.

But this guy has the basics DOWN. He doesn’t just KNOW the basics. It’s like he IS the basics. He’s trained the twist-o-flex for so long he can do it in his sleep. He can boogaloo roll without blinking an eye. He can switch from puppet style to toy man to scarecrow like it’s nothing.

Because he can do this, he can focus on the little things. The finesses. He can start moving 3 different parts of his body all in different directions all at different speeds all at the SAME TIME. Because he’s MASTERED the basics.

Let me reiterate. It is ALL about the basics.

The Path of Mastery is Long and Worthwhile

I am not that interested in teaching you tricks. I am happy to show you the arm wave or the moonwalk or a head isolation if you want something cool to show your friends. I wanted to learn those things when I started too.

But this dance is a big thing. This dance has the potential to be a lifelong pursuit like painting or martial arts. To do it right takes a long time. You should know that going in. This doesn’t just happen overnight. You might have a few impressive moves in a couple months if you are a quick learner, but to have a foundation, to be rock solid and able to improvise at the drop of a hat, it takes time.

Anything worthwhile takes time. Anything worthwhile is a long road, filled with ups and downs. One day you will feel like the greatest dancer who has ever graced this planet. The next day you will feel like quitting cuz you just can’t take how much you suck.

It’s normal. It happens. Get used to it. Because no matter what happens, you can keep training the basics. Day after day. Month after month. Year after year. And it will pay off. I promise you it will pay off. I sucked so bad when I started. It was painful to be so bad. I actually had friends tell me to stop dancing around them cuz they were embarrassed. It was not fun. It was not easy. But I LOVE THIS DANCE SO MUCH THAT I COULDN’T STOP. I just kept moving forward. Slowly. Surely. Day after day. And then one day, I woke up, and I was pretty good. Something had happened. I wasn’t half bad anymore. And on I go. Moving forward. Still day after day. Still training the basics. Still improving. Still learning.

The Most Important Technique

If you ask a hundred dancers, they are likely to give you a lot of different techniques that they consider the MOST important. To me, it would be the fresno. The fresno is so important to developing a good popper that I can hardly overestimate its importance.

The Fresno teaches you:
-how to be on beat
-how to develop rhythm
-how to coordinate your arms and your legs
-how to coordinate your pops
-how to move on the balls of your feet and be light on your toes
-how to travel
-how to incorporate your whole body into your movement, including your neck, shoulders, chest, and hips
-how to dimestop with a hit

All in one movement. I still practice the Fresno regularly. So does Wiggles. And Suga Pop. And J Rock. And Popula. And Acki. And Kid Boogie. And Gucchon. And Kite. And Future. And Rashaad. Almost all of your favorite poppers are still practicing the Fresno.

It will help you. Even if your goal is to be a waver or a tutter or a robot or an animator. Because it teaches you how to connect movements and styles. You don’t HAVE TO do it with a boogaloo feel. You can animate your fresno. It’s all possible.

So that’s a lot right there. The main thing is to take the dance seriously while still having fun, and just give it a long-term perspective. The best things come to those who wait.

KEEP IT POPPING!
Otis Funkmeyer, The Popping Ph.D.

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OMG! WE’RE GONNA LEARN THE MOONWALK!

Otis Funkmeyer — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:00:54 +0000

It’s the first move everyone wants to learn, and it’s usually the first thing people will ask you if you can do. It’s…. the MOONWALK.

Well… wait a sec.

Actually, in the popping world, it’s not called the moonwalk. It’s called the backslide. Which makes sense. Since you slide backwards. And it doesn’t really look anything like walking on the moon. In the popping world, the moonwalk refers to a circular movement where you float up and down and it looks like–you guessed it–you’re walking on the moon!

Either way, the late, great Michael Jackson made it famous so most people know the backslide as the moonwalk. Don’t go around being an annoying twit telling everyone it’s actually called the backslide either. As long as YOU know, that’s what’s important!

So, how do we do it, this most amazing move?

We start by analyzing how walking works, throw in a few techniques, make it extra smooth, and next thing you know, you’re moonslide/backwalking :)

How do we Walk?

That’s the question. And the easiest way to find out is to get out of your chair and walk slowly and analyze it. If you’re too lazy for that, well you’re in luck, cuz I’m gonna explain it to you anyway.

The way that we walk is that we put all of our weight on one of our legs. That leg, the one with the weight on it, is straight. The other leg is up in the air, it’s bent, and it has no weight on it (duh).

So, to repeat. Two legs. One straight, has weight. One bent, no weight.

How do we MOONWalk

So what we do to get the effect of the moonwalk is we REVERSE this normal way of walking. We make it LOOK the same. One leg is bent and one leg is straight. But ahhh… something is different.

THE BENT LEG HAS ALL THE WEIGHT ON IT. The straight leg has no weight on it!

*THAT* is the illusion of the moonwalk.

There’s some good news in this and some bad news. The good news is that you now know how to do the moonwalk. You’re pretty much half way there. The bad news is that you now have to actually DO the moonwalk. As we’ll see, it’s a more challenging move than it looks!

How Do we Do the moonwalk?

The first thing we have to do is get good at balancing on one bent leg. That’s the fundamental secret of the moonwalk. You balance on your leg that is bent. Now, normally when you stand on one leg and you bend it, one of two things happens. You either go up in the air or you squat down low. We are doing neither of these things. In fact, it is critically important that we stay at the EXACT SAME HEIGHT at all times. Otherwise the illusion is ruined.

So what we are doing is this. You raise up onto the ball of your foot without changing your height. If you look in a mirror, you should not move at all. ONLY your foot should move up and your knee should move out. Everything else should stay still. This is easier said than done!

For the Beginners

If you’re new to this, it might be too hard to do that at all. So here’s what you can do. Practice going up on the balls of BOTH feet at the same time, while you hold onto something like a wall, and look in a mirror to make sure that you do not move up or down in height. This will train your calf muscles and you will get a feel for what it feels like.

Every so often, you can practice taking your hands away from the wall and even lifting up one of your feet so that you can try to balance on one foot.

The Next Step

Once you can balance on one foot, you’re really almost there. The next step is to slide the other leg back, pulling from the heel first, like you’re trying to kick a rock that’s right behind you. As you slide this leg back, make sure it has no weight on it. At the same time, come up on the ball of the foot with the weight on it.

When you have slid the leg back to the point where you can’t slide it anymore, you’re ready for… the TRANSITION

The Trickiest Step of All

What makes or breaks the moonwalk is the transition. People who are dope gliders basically have great transitions. That means that the switch between weight is seamless and it really looks like they are gliding on ice. What you have to do is REALLY QUICKLY switch the weight from one leg to the other by bending the straight leg and straightening the bent leg.

As you do this, you must IMMEDIATELY start sliding the leg that is now straight back, always pulling from the heel.

Also it’s really important in this step to keep your upper body straight and not bend forward. Only your LEGS should be moving. This too is easier said than done!

After the transition, it’s just the same thing all over again. Slide back, switch, slide back, switch, slide back, switch. You’re making Michael Jackson proud!

Some Tips

Let’s go over the steps again, because this is a little complicated.

When we normally walk, our straight leg has all the weight. The bent leg has none.
When we MOONwalk, our bent leg has all the weight. Our straight leg has none.
We start by coming up on the ball of one leg, making it bent. We make sure to stay at exactly the same level while we put our way on the ball of the foot.
We start sliding the other leg back, pulling from the heel. This leg is FREE and has NO weight on it.
When the leg sliding reaches as far back as you can get it to slide, you quickly switch the weight, straightening the bent leg while you come up on the ball of what was the straight leg, and putting your weight on that leg.
Repeat. Slide the leg that is now straight back and continue!

So, to make it smooth, try these tips.

Hover the straight leg just above the ground. Don’t actually slide it across the ground because the friction between your shoe and the ground will make it stick.
Use baby powder on the bottom of your shoes. I learned this from one of the best gliders I’ve ever seen, named Tiev. Apparently, Michael Jackson did this as well.
Keep your weight forward and your body upright. There is a tendency to start leaning back since you’re moving backwards. To prevent this, actively put your weight forward slightly.
Don’t move your arms and body too much. The illusion looks best when you are still. Watch MJ. He doesn’t move too much and it makes it that much more trippy.
Feel SMOOTH. The moonwalk works best when you move SMOOOOOTH and feel SMOOOOTH. That’s just the kind of move it is.

THE WRAP-UP!

I didn’t realize when I started writing this how complicated the moonwalk is. Especially to put into words! My best advice is just keep practicing and everyday, even if you’re already starting to get it, practice balancing on the ball of your feet. You can never practice that too much!

KEEP IT POPPIN!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of Popping

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The Hidden Realms of the Boogaloo

Otis Funkmeyer — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 13:00:32 +0000

Ahhh…. That sweet sweet boogaloo. It’s like the epitome of funk. When I see boogaloo done to classic funk music, it makes me think that the music was made just so that people could dance like that. The rolls, the groove, the attitude, that’s what boogaloo is. But let’s dive in a little deeper.

All right… What *IS* it?

As I said, to me, boogaloo is a combination of rolls, groove, and attitude.

The Rolls

The rolls are the technique of boogaloo. You can roll your neck, chest, hips, knees, ankles, shoulders, and wrists. If there’s anything else you can roll, I don’t know about it!

So you take aProxy-Connection: keep-alive
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those rolls and you mix and match them. The most famous roll, the “full boogaloo roll,” starts by rolling the neck, and then moves down the body in a spiral from the chest to the hips to the knees. But you could also start at your knees and go straight to your neck. See, that’s the attitude of boogaloo.

Freeform and funky.

Boogaloo is all about taking these basic rolls and mixing them up, putting different rhythms on them, and doing them at different speeds and with different feels. You might start off with an aggressive hip roll, and then follow that with a slow and funky neck roll. Basically you just allow the music to tell you what to do.

That Groove

And that’s where the groove comes in. All funk music, all popping music, has a groove. The groove is what makes you start shaking your hips and swaying side to side. Different music has different grooves and the popping groove is about the funk. Tongue sticking out, a big smirk on your face, getting ready to rip it.

Where did Boogaloo Come From?

There’s a lot of debate to this question, as boogaloo evolved out of several different dance styles. I’m not going to take sides in this issue, as I think it’s more important as to where it came from, rather than who gets the credit for making it.

The Influences

The major influences on boogaloo were, in no particular order: locking, social dances likes the jerk and the twist, mime and the robot, strutting, and the military.

Locking: The dance style locking was the most popular dance style at the time. It was done to James Brown style funk and it was all about having fun and being funky. This feeling was incorporated into boogaloo.

Social Dances: The social dances at the time, everything from Chubby Checkers’ Twist to the Jerk and the Pony helped give some of the movement to boogaloo, like the hip sway from the Twist and the jerking effect (pop) of the Jerk.

Mime and the Robot: The mimes had invaded American in the late sixties after Marcel Marceau came from Paris and many of them started street performing around the country doing the wall mime and the robot. This influence had already come into locking and was embedded even more deeply into popping.

Strutting: Strutting is the precursor to popping that comes from San Francisco. It is a very militaristic dance with a lot of tight formations–it’s almost always done in group routines. The quick, fast movements of strutting were also incorporated into boogaloo in moves like the walkout and the twist-o-flex.

The Military: Strutting came out of the military, as many of the original strutters had just returned from service in the Army during the Viet Nam War. They took the tight military formations and incorporated them into their dance. Moves like the neck-o-flex are very similar to the military about-face movement.

All of these influences were kind of thrown in a giant pot and added to the rolls. The rolls were the glue that tied all of these disparate influences together and made them a complete dance style.

Why did Boogaloo Come into Existance?

The most interesting part of the boogaloo story to me is the REASON that it came into existence, which is the fact that music changed!

See, in the early 70’s, right before the Boogaloo era, new instruments started coming on the market. Namely, electronic drum machines and electronic synthesizers. These instruments made sounds that were totally different from the classic funk instruments like the trumpet, the guitar, and the keyboard. The sounds were more, DIGITAL. They were more robotic. They were less fun and more the kind that made you want to squirm up your face and POP.

By the mid-70’s, musicians from bands like Parliament Funkadelic, Cameo, and One Way started using these new instruments in their music. Locking was still the most popular dance style at the time, but some lockers started taking the cue from the music and started flexing their muscles to the beat. The hard electronic clap made them do it!

From here, the rest is history. Boogaloo fit the new music much better than locking did and it soon became the most popular dance style of the day. That’s why most poppers still dance to music from that era. The style of music just fits the style of dance. Sure, you can pop to modern music just fine, but it doesn’t always connect in the same way! That’s why new styles keep getting developed. Glitch-hop made animated, glitchy robot styles more popular and bruk-up made finger tutting and tutting more popular. That’s just how it goes!

Enough Already. How do You do It?

Well, the best place to start is with my tutorials :) No question. This is the absolute foundation of the dance. They teach the basic movements of popping and boogaloo and combine it with the groove and the attitude to set you on your way to being a dance-floor killer. I put a lot of work into them so be sure to check ‘em out!

The Wrap-up

So, if you’re gonna remember anything from this, here it is in a nutshell:

The important concepts of boogaloo are the ROLLS, the GROOVE, and the ATTITUDE.
The reason it exists, the reason almost all dances exist, is because of the MUSIC. The MUSIC will tell you how to dance. Listen to the music and let yourself be free! Learn technique so that your freedom can be communicated to other people. Your body is your instrument so learn it well!

PEACE AND KEEP IT POPPIN!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of PoppingSimilar Posts:

Figure Out How YOU Want to Dance: Make Your Perfect Dancer

Otis Funkmeyer — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 13:00:43 +0000

These days, there are so many styles of popping it’s almost bewildering. Back in the days, it was simple. Popping, waving, tutting, gliding, robot. That’s pretty much it. Now, you’ve got not only tutting but finger tutting, not only waving but snaking, cobra, liquid, and digits, and not only popping but strutting, banging, and boogalooing. It’s overwhelming!

And think about it. Most of the dancers you love, when it comes down to it, are super dope at one thing, maybe two. Maybe you like Madd Chadd’s robot or Acki’s boogaloo or Salah’s isolations. Even the best dancers usually excel at only one thing.

As someone who has gone down the dead end path of trying to master every single style, let me give you the advice that Boppin Andre gave me–perfect something and then move on. Don’t learn waving and tutting and gliding all at the same time. Start somewhere, learn that, and THEN try something new.

This may not sound as exciting, but it’s a surefire way to build skills quickly. The only question is, how are you gonna decide what to learn?

What Dancers Do You LOVE

The best way to answer this question is to first let your mind wander. I’m talking clothes your eyes, start a warm bubble bath, hop in, put on some light jazz, and let yourself relax and go far away. NOW! WHO COMES UP? WHICH DANCERS JUST FLOAT TO THE TOP? WHO DO YOU WANT TO DANCE LIKE? WHO ARE YOUR IDOLS?

When I first did this exercise, I would say things like this. Well, Poppin’ Pete’s hard pops, Sally Sly’s isolations, J Smooth’s footwork and animation, PopnTod’s waves, Tetris’ tuts, Dementia’s ground moves, Walid’s groove, Skeeter Rabbit’s toyman. On and on like that. The problem with this is that by picking so many people and so many things, I might as well not have picked anything at all.

So now, I say this. Walid and Jazzy J. These are the two dancers that I just LOVE. I just can’t get enough of their dancing. To me, they are just the funkiest dancers I’ve ever seen. I would be SO HAPPY to have someone compare me to them. It would make my day. Even if my tuts sucked and my waves were sloppy, if I could funk and boogaloo like Walid and Jazzy J, I would be a happy happy man!

How Do You Dance Like Your Favorites?

All right. So now you’ve figured it out. Let’s say that you’re like me and you wanna dance like Jazzy J. What’s next? Well, you’ve gotta figure out how Jazzy J dances. Here is how *I* would categorize Jazzy J. Great dimestop. Lots of head movements. Very dynamic. Incredible foundation. Strong feet and legs. Quick. Lots of twistoflexing.

So that’s what you’d practice. Just those things. Just do your absolute best to copy those things. It’s perfectly OK to copy at first. It’s just a phase. Once you have it down, you will develop your own unique style. But having someone to look up to helps you get where you’re trying to go.

Wrap-up

In order to get anywhere, you’ve got to know where you’re trying to go! By figuring out which dancers really make you go crazy–the ones whose clips you just watch over and over and over–and focusing on dancing like your idols, you’re sure to get where you’re trying to go! On the other hand, if you just try to dance like everyone else, it’s a surefire way to fail! So get out there and start copying!

Peace out and KEEP IT POPPIN!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of Popping

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5 Steps to a Better Robot Through Isolation

Otis Funkmeyer — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 13:00:02 +0000

When I started dancing, I didn’t understand the importance of isolation. I saw waving and boogaloo and liquid and thought that the point was too be loose and floppy and look like water. What I discovered over time is that in order to look like water, you actually have to have a lot of CONTROL over your body. You have to be able to ISOLATE different parts really well.

The best way I have found to learn isolation is through practicing the robot. The robot teaches you to be still. In order to have a good robot, you can’t move around too much. In the same way, in order to isolate well–at least at first–you can’t move around too much either.

What is Isolation?

So what exactly is isolation. Well, simply put, it’s the ability to keep some parts of your body perfectly still while others parts of your body move around. It’s not really a natural thing for a human to do, so it takes some practice!

How Isolation Makes a Better Robot

When you think of a robot, it’s really ALL isolation. Turn the head. Turn the feet. Slide forward. The reason a robot doesn’t look human is because it’s so isolated. That’s it. As robots become more human, it will be because they are able to move multiple parts of their body at the same time. So that’s a big part of what being “human” is. Moving multiple things at the same time. That’s what we DON’T want to do.

We want to start by just moving one part at a time!

Five Steps to Better Isolation:

1) Muscle Tension
In order to isolate well, you need to have muscular control. What this means is that in order to smoothly move a part of the body, it helps to have some muscular contraction going on. If you want to turn your neck, it helps to slightly flex your shoulder blades. This keeps the neck still so that it can move more smoothly.

The same is true of moving the arm. If you slightly flex your core, your arm will be more stabilized and move in a more isolated fashion.

Most of the best robotters are generally fairly tense in their core while they robot. This helps gives the effect of being a robot. When your core is flexed, everything moves less. So when you move your arm or your leg, ONLY your arm or your leg moves. Without a tight core, it looks too human! So work that core.

2) Relaxation
At the same time, you need to be really relaxed. I know it sounds crazy to say you need to be tense and then say you need to be relaxed, but it’s true. Think about it. A robot is not stressing out, working really hard to be a robot. They are just robots. You need to be like that.

That’s why I said SLIGHT flexing. You just need enough tension for the system to be stable and mechanical feeling. Then you relax and just feel like a robot. Move slowly and with control.

3) Speed Control and Rhythm
Once you start feeling like a hotshot, you can play around with speed control and rhythm. It’s like this. You can move your arm from your side to above your head in 1 second or in 1 minute. To do it in one second is a really fast movement. One minute is REALLY slow. When you change up the speeds of your movements, you get a really cool effect because no one knows what’s coming next.

You can do this in rhythms as well. You could go slow, slow, fast, slow, slow, fast or fast, slow, fast, slow, fast slow or even just fast, fast, fast, fast. All of those are rhythms that engage the people watching you dance.

Just make sure each individual movement is at the same speed. For instance, don’t start moving your arm slow then speed it up then slow it down again. You want, slow arm, fast foot, slow bend forward, etc.

4) Multiple Movements
Now you are getting into the realm of tricks and crowd pleasers. When you move two things at the same time, at the same speed, and make sure both movements start and stop at exactly the same moment, it makes it look like those movements are connected. The most famous example of this is if you turn your wrist while you bend forward, it looks like your wrist is a crank, cranking yourself forward.

But this works for just about any movement you can think of. You could lift your leg and turn your head or raise your arm while your leg turns out. Really anything works as long as you do it well. Make sure both movements start at the same time and end at the same time and that the speeds are coordinated. Meaning, it’s a much bigger movement to bend forward then to turn your wrist, so you need to turn your wrist more slowly so that it matches up with your bending. Just practice it and you’ll get it!

5) Twists, Pivots, Spins
OK! Now we move into territory that most people don’t associate with isolation or robotics, but it’s the 21st century and we can start doing some more crazy robotting. Try doing isolated pivots, isolated twists, and isolated spins and you can come up with some really cool moves. This is also how you can start blending styles. Your robot can lead into a wave which moves into some boogaloo and back into robot. By keeping things isolated, it makes your transitions more understandable and enjoyable to watch.

Wrap-up

Aight yo! We doin’ the damn thang and we’re really getting down to business now. Isolation is such a crucial part of this dance that I’ll probably end up writing hundreds of articles about it eventually.

If you ever feel like you’re in a slump, isolation is a great thing to practice. Just stand there or sit there and try moving something you’ve never moved before. Just lifting one shoulder. Just turning out from the hips. Just bending to the side. Just moving your ring finger. The better your isolation, the more impressive your dancing, and the beauty is that you can always practice it, no matter where you are!

SO KEEP IT POPPIN!!!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of Poppin’Similar Posts:

Attack the Beat, Ride the Beat, Freak the Beat, Love the Beat

Otis Funkmeyer — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:00:52 +0000

The beat made popping. It’s that simple. Without the beat, there’s no pop. Without the bass, there’s no boogaloo. And without the keys, there’s no wave. The reason the whole dance exists is because of the beat.

And your job as a dancer is to fall in love with the beat, let her tell you what she wants you to do to her, and then do it.

What Beats Want, Not starring Mel Gibson

There are three major ways you can show the beat that you love her. You can ride her, you can attack her, or you can freak her. Let’s take a look at you how do the do.

Riding the Beat

Riding the beat is the basis of your love. When you ride the beat, you flow with her. Not too fast, just nice and easy. Let her tell you when to switch it up. Just stay with her, go at her pace. She isn’t going anywhere!

When you’re riding the beat, your focus is on the drums and the bass–the rhythm. You become the drummer, just setting down a groove and letting it take you where it will.

Like I said, this is the basis of all your love. If you can’t ride a beat well, don’t even bother trying with the more advanced concepts. You gotta run before you walk. And you gotta ride before you attack.

But once you got her feeling good, well now it’s time to switch it up. You gotta ATTACK that beat.

Attacking the Beat

Sometimes the beat throws something your way that makes you feel aggressive. Well, show her how you feel. It might be a drum breakdown like kah-da-dah-da-kah-da-da-da-boom-ksssh. ATTACK IT. GET IT.

When you attack the beat, you’re light on your feet. You’re ready for anything. There’s more tension in your body. You’re alert and ready. Your movements are quick, sharp, and precise.

Attacking the beat shows her that you’re paying attention, that you like what she’s throwing your way.

And now all that’s left is to freak her.

Freaking the Beat

The holy grail of beat love is beat freaking. The reason it’s so important to ride the beat before you freak the beat is that it just turns the whole process magical.

Picture it. You’re right in there, grooving along, riding that beat, a smile on your face. You’re feeling good, she’s feeling good. You get warmed up, start feeling aggressive and you go at it. You attack her. She throws a changeup. You’re all over it. You are deep in that beat. And then… the stars align, the mood is right, the timing is perfect, and you freak that beat.

It’s enough to make a popper cry. A perfect beat freak is a thing of beauty. Like a Michelangelo or a Da Vinci. But you can’t just throw it in out of nowhere. It needs context. It needs a reason to exist, a raison d’etre as the French spit it.

The beat freak is the proverbial cherry on top. Work up to it. Make sure you the layers beneath it. When you see someone else freak it so good, whether it’s Salah, Poppin Pete, Buddha Stretch, or J Smooth, look at what they were doing before. Watch how they rode the beat and then attacked it. They set the mood, got the candles lit, and THEN they freaked it.

And that my friends is how you work the beat.

The Wrap-Up

So, enough with the sex metaphor and all that. The point is this. The beat IS THE DANCE. Don’t go backwards and try to come up with the move and then put it to the music. Come up with the music and then let the move come naturally.

That’s how you love the beat. That’s how you love the dance. And that’s how the mystical journey that is popping evolves. Cuz the music made it so.

PEACE and KEEP IT POPPIN!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of PoppingSimilar Posts:

5 Ways a Dimestop Makes You Dope

Otis Funkmeyer — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 20:08:41 +0000

The dimestop is like the crazy insider popper knowledge. Once you know what a dimestop is, what a good one looks like, and how to do one, you’re pretty much halfway there to being an insider. To being one of the real poppers.

Cuz before you know what a dimestop is, you’re just a raver, or a hip-hop dancer, or an amateur. The dimestop is what separates the men from the boys kiddos. It’s what makes somebody go HOT DAMN that boy is NIIIICE.

What’s a Dimestop?

So don’t go getting all crazy. I’m about to explain what it is. A dimestop is pretty simple in theory. It’s just the ability to stop real-clean-like. To make your movements sharp and crisp. It’s the ability to STOP ON A DIME. That’s where the name comes from.

Anybody who’s got good speed control has a good dimestop. Or a good robot. These are the styles that show off the dimestop best. In a sense, they could be called dimestop styles because they’re all based on isolating and dimestopping.

Without a good dimestop you look like some person doing a robot or trying to move fast then slow. With a good dimestop, you look crazy, not human, and super tripped out. The dimestop is key.

How Do You Dimestop So Nice?

That’s the question you’ve gotta ask. My #1 answer is CORE STRENGTH AND CONTROL. That means your abs, your hip flexors, your glutes, and your serratus anterior, which are the muscles on the side of your ribcage. These muscles give you STABILITY. And stability is what gives a good dimestop.

So I would say it’s almost as important to do your crunches and your ab vacuums as it is to actually “practice” dimestopping. But notice I said ALMOST. To get the good dimestop, you gotta practice it. And the best way to practice it is…. THE ROBOT. Make sure you have some tension and just practice moving real-clean-like. Feel like there’s NO JERK and NO SHAKE when you move. It’s just START. STOP. START. STOP. That’s what a good dimestop is. The ability to START. STOP. So get to it.

How it’ll make you dope:

1) Clean
First off, a good dimestop will make you looks so fresh and so clean. People will REALLY be able to tell what you are doing and trust me, being able to understand what you’re doing is half the reason people applaud in the first place. They’re like, OH, I GET IT. In addition, when you’re clean, you seem more “professional.” You look like you know what you’re doing because most people CAN’T DO THAT. A lot of people can throw a busted arm wave but very few can move real-clean-like.

2) Hard
A good dimestop makes you look HARD. Like OUCCCCH. That dude is a monster. It’s intimidating and serious when somebody’s got a good dimestop. It’s like… this one is not for playing. He will hurt you. And trust me. That’s what you want to convey. That you’ll hurt on somebody if they call you out. Just one or two good dimestop movements will make everyone know real quick that you are for real.

3) Unreal
A good dimestop immediately makes you look unhuman, which is the goal of all good popping. Popping is basically the dopest dance in the world because you are doing things that most people think a human body is not capable of doing. You are moving into the realm of sci-fi and special FX. This also feels super cool to be the one doing it, because YOU DON’T FEEL HUMAN either.

4) Controlled
A good dimestop means you have good control. And good control means you can switch styles and freak beats and change tempos and change levels and do all of the good things that makes a good popper good. Without a good dimestop, your movements will just all blend together into a mess. It might be a pretty cool mess, but it’s still a mess. And trust me, I know this one from experience! This is one of the things I’m STILL working on!!

5) Rhythmic
Attention beat freakers. You need a dope dimestop. When you have a super clean dimestop, you can just make small movements really quickly, which is the best way to freak beats. Without that, again, you end up just looking messy and like a beginner. Basically, at this point, everyone wants to be a nasty beat freaker, so working on the dimestop is one of the absolute most important things to get there.

The Wrap-Up

The dimestop is not the easiest thing to put into words. It’s a real subtle movement thing that’s easier to see than it is to describe. But it’s one of the absolute foundations of the whole dance. All of the dancers I have danced with over the years–Tetris, J Smooth, J Rock, and Kid Boogie come to mind immediately–have all gotten MUCH better once they started incorporating more dimestop training into their dance. It’s almost like they went from good to WHOA. That was the missing piece.

And it’s the missing piece for almost everybody. Stay patient and keep practicing it because it will bleed into everything you do and make you the ill-nasty-dopeness that you’ve always dreamed of being.

SO KEEP IT POPPIN!!
Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of Poppin’Similar Posts:

Scramblelock – New Website Release

TETRIS — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 07:31:10 +0000

Scramblelock of Montreal, Canada has just launched a brand new website. It features his latest video project entitled “Love City” and gives a glimpse into his life and the funk that surrounds it! The website also features a biography section, photos and video interviews with lockers from 3 different Canadian cities: Baby L (Toronto), Treklock (Montreal) and Sun (Vancouver). Be sure to check the links section for other locking sources as well as a variety of popular funk music sites.

www.scramblelock.com

Interviews:

http://www.vimeo.com/7677572

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How tha West Was Won Review

Lux — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 04:27:48 +0000

Freestyle Sessions twelve in conjunction with How Tha West Was Won took place this August 22nd and 23rd in Hollywood at Club Circus. Over two thousand Bboys, Poppers, and Lockers came to compete for over $25,000 in cash and prizes. How The West is Won is run by Hugo aka Mr. Smooth, marking this the sixth year of the event. As usual the funkstylers had their own room for cyphers and battles.

Seventy two poppers representing Taiwan, Korea, Japan, France, and the United States came to battle for bragging rights and $2,000 cash. Hugo, Sweepy, and Flattop took the challenging task of judging, with Popin’ Pete as this years MC. Prominent popping battle djs, Dj Rod (Long Beach) and Dj Batsu (Osaka, Japan) came with it on the ones and twos.

Day one consisted of prelims which narrowed it down to the top sixteen. The top sixteen, final four, semi finals, and finals took place on day two.

*Winners in bold

Top Sixteen:

Dizzy vs. Frantick

Farrah (France) vs. Poppin J (Korea)

Kid Boogie vs. Non Stop

Slim Boogie vs. Poppin Tronik

Wei(Taiwan) vs. Jsmooth

Crazy Kyo (Korea) vs. Krazy Bonez (Taiwan)

BoogTom vs. Cathy (France)

Ronsstopable vs. Keumsae

Final Four:

Frantick vs. Poppin J

Kid Boogie vs. Slim Boogie

Jsmooth vs. Crazy Kyo (Korea)

Cathy (France) vs. Keumsae

Semi Finals:

Poppin J (Korea) vs. Slim Boogie

Jsmooth vs. Keumsae

Finals:

Jsmooth vs. Poppin J

With the current financial climate, the turnout was lower than previous years, especially from the international crowd. Each day was forty dollars at the door, however Hugo made an adjustment at the door for day two to be thirty dollars. The lower attendance of a larger international mix seemed to effect the overall vibes of the battles, there was less aggressiveness, leaving the battles feeling a bit campy and talent show like. However, the main issues that affected the event were the event speakers shorting in and out throughout both days. From the spectators point a view it was hard to hear what beat the dancers were following, and I can only imagine the effect it took on participators, not to mention some unfair disadvantages. The two battles that seemed to stir the most discussion was Frantick vs. Poppin Jay and Keumsae vs. Jsmooth, Ultimately it was Jsmooth (Machine Gawn Funk), who took home the title for the second time, winning previously in 2006.

I missed the locking finals (my apologies!), but the well known Flowmaster took home to the title again, having previously won in 2006 (déjà vu anyone?).

Semi Finals:

Win vs. BoogTom

Flomaster vs Baby L

Finals:

Win vs Flomaster

Locking Prelims:

Three hundred and sixty five days left until the next one, so start practicing!

Article by Lux

Editors Note: Andrea Ball aka Lux is a member of Foreign Exchange (How Tha West Was Won 2008 Crew Winners), a Red Bull Beatriders (2006), and director of the short film Beats Per Minute.

Photos Taken by Andre Recinto

Below are some of the pictures taken by Orange County photographer, Andre Recinto. For those who would like to schedule some photo shoots, please feel free to contact him. © Andre Recinto Photography – Images below may not be used w/out Andre Recinto’s permission. Please contact him if you have questions regarding using these images for commercial use.

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The Music is the Key to the Dance

Otis Funkmeyer — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 06:35:29 +0000

Yo! Otis Funkmeyer comin atcha again with another certified banger.

So let’s get it started. When you’re popping, the most important thing to be focused on is the music. The music will tell you how to dance if you let it. All of the styles of popping that we now love–boogaloo, waving, tutting, animation, robot–they were all created because of a song that made someone move in a certain way. No one had ever moved in that way before because no music had ever been created to inspire that movement.

If you allow the music to sink deep inside of you, it will show you how to dance. Movements will literally just come out of you. When you add your technique and foundational movements to the music, you create magic!

Someone who did just that is probably the reason you wanted to start popping in the first place.

How the Music Creates the Dance

Almost all social dances were created because a new kind of music was created. A new type of beat made people move their bodies in a new type of way. Popping is no exception. In the 1970s, James Brown was the thing. His type of funk was inspiring dancers all over to groove to his music. This type of music inspired the dance called locking. Locking is ALL ABOUT THE FUNK. It’s just about making a face and laughing and having a good time and shaking it loose, with a point and a lock there and a scoo bot for good measure!

In the mid-70s, technology started to shift. New types of instruments came onto the market. Two of the most important were the electronic bass synthesizer and the electronic drum machine. These instruments made more electric, mechanical sounds. As bands like Parliament began releasing hit songs like “Flashlight” featuring these new instruments, dancers started moving in new ways. More mechanically, like robots.

And a very specific kind of percussive sound, the electronic clap, caused the dancers to start flexing their muscles. It made them shout “POP” or “BANG” or just “UHHH” each time it hit. They were still locking, but more mechanically. They were starting to add a rigidness to their funk. They were beginning to create what we call popping.

The Music Tells You What to Do

These early poppers just allowed the music to tell them what to do. These were not “trained” dancers. These were social dancers, who danced for fun, danced to get girls, danced to go out at night. They were more concerned with having a good time than with doing the dance “correctly.”

Because they were free, the music told them how to move. One song might inspire them to roll their body. Another dancer would see this, copy it, and the next thing you know the first boogaloo dancers have begun creating a style. Another song, with an Egyptian feel, makes people start making 90 degree angles with their hands. Tutting is born. A song with a lot of melody, a windy, light, wavy feel, causes people to sway. Waving and snaking are born.

Relax Into the Music

When many dancers start dancing, they are stiff. I was stiff when I started. I was actually stiff for the first 5 years I was dancing. I was in my head. Trying to do movements correctly. This is part of the learning process. You have to let yourself be a bad dancer before you can be a great dancer!

What can help this process, what helped me, was RELAXING into the music. When I started giving up the need to do things right, movements started coming out of me. All of my training would show up naturally, without me even trying. So relax. ENJOY dancing. Remember that this is fun.

If I had one thing to change about my dance career, it would be that I spent more time dancing for FUN. Just to have a good time. Just to be silly. Just to make my friends laugh. I spent so much time trying to be GOOD. Trying to do things RIGHT. Don’t make the mistake that I made. Because once you are good, you just start having fun anyway. And not having fun while you are bad doesn’t make you any better! In fact, the more you relax and have fun the faster your technique will improve as well.

Feel What the Music is Expressing

So how do you go about doing this? Well, a great way to start is to really LISTEN to music. Can you hear a bassline? Do you even know what a bassline is? Can you hear the difference between kick drums, snares, claps, hi hats, and tom drums? Can you hear both the lead guitar and the rhythm guitar? How about the cowbell? Or the synth in the background that only comes in once every 8 counts.

If what I just wrote sounds like a foreign language to you, that’s ok. Do your homework. Type those words into wikipedia. Google ear training. But most importantly, pull out some headphones and really LISTEN to the music. Just sit there, close your eyes. Let the music unfold. Listen closely to the left ear and the right ear. Often times, different sounds are only played on one side.

When I first started dancing, I didn’t know ANYTHING about music. I couldn’t hear basslines, which are so basic and so important, I can hardly imagine what life was like back then. But I LOVED music. I would lay in bed and put on the headphones and just listen to music. Over and over. It was so exciting when a new sound would appear out of nowhere. A sound that had always been there, but one that I had never heard. It’s like a whole new world opens up before you.

Start Slow, Let the Music Carry You Along

When you get up and actually feel like dancing, which you will, start slow. Most of the best dancers do their best dancing when they start slow. Suga Pop once told me that he knows Poppin Pete is about to have a great solo when he starts slow. When Pete rushes out into ground moves and crazy boogaloo angles, Suga Pop said, that’s usually not when the magic happens. But when he comes out into a slow robot, does a pop here, a pop there, not moving very much, allowing the music to carry him along, sinking deeper and deeper into the music, that’s when Suga Pop starts to get excited. That’s when the magic happens.

Boppin Andre told me the same thing. He said to go really slow when you start. Allow the people to hear what you are hearing. SHOW THEM the kick drum. SHOW THEM the clap. Do it for a while. Not just once or twice. Allow them to see. Present your dance to them. As they catch on, they may start clapping. Now, you are ready to show them a new part of the music. When you dance slowly like this, the audience loves it, because they can follow it. Most of them are NOT dancers and most of them CAN NOT hear music very well. But if you take the time to show them, they will love you.

My last story is from Sweepy. Sweepy had just moved from New York to Los Angeles and had started training with Suga Pop. Suga Pop would sit in a chair in the corner of the room and tell Sweepy to start dancing. Sweepy would feel so nervous that he would go really fast. Suga Pop would always just say to him “Sweeps, the music isn’t going anywhere.” So SLOW DOWN! RELAX! Let the music carry you along!

How This Relates to You

YOU can create a new dance style that millions of people will be doing. YOU have the potential to give a great gift to the world. Your own dance, your own expression.

This is how Don Campbell created locking. Everyone was doing the same old dances and so was he. But at some point, he just started to let loose and feel what the music was telling HIM to do. He opened up to the music and bared his soul. He danced how he was born to dance. Today, almost forty years later, there are millions of people still doing his dance. All because he allowed the music to tell him what to do and he LISTENED.

Learn the technique, learn the music, pay your dues, and then give your gift to the world! It’s what we’re all here to do.

KEEP IT POPPING!
Otis FunkmeyerSimilar Posts:

The 10 Biggest Reasons We All Love Popping

Otis Funkmeyer — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 09:09:07 +0000

Hey gang. Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. comin ‘atcha with a question.

Do you remember the exact moment you first fell in love with popping? I remember my first time like it was yesterday. It was that first clip where I saw someone do something that I couldn’t believe. You know what I’m talking about.

The first time you watch a clip 10, 20, 30 times in a row. When you know that nothing is the same anymore. There is a new love in your life and you HAVE TO LEARN HOW TO DO IT BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY. Mine was Skeeter Rabbit from the Electric Boogaloos. Dressed all in black. Crazy isolations. Crazy ground moves. Crazy boogaloo. My mind was permanently blown that day…

And hey, if you’re not a reader, I made a video just for you. It’s a little bit about why I love popping so much. Check it out!

But why do we love popping so much? What are the reasons? What do you tell people? Well, I think I’ve figured out 10 good reasons:

How cool it looks. This has gotta be the first thing that catches your eye. I mean, really. What looks as cool as popping does? The answer. Almost nothing. Someone who looks like a robot or super funky who makes it look like they have become the music. Usually dressed super fly and getting huge audience applause. It doesn’t really get much better than that. If there’s one thing about popping, it’s an EYE CATCHER.
The applause. When you see a dope popper, you wanna scream like a little girl. Well, apparently, so does everyone else. This is why good clips get such huge response. This is why in the club, everyone cheers. This is why poppers always win talent shows and why we’re the most popular part of major TV shows like So You Think You Can Dance. Everyone loves popping because no one understands how you can move your body like that.
The moves. Which leads us to the moves. I mean, for most of us, it’s a crazy nice backslide or wave or head isolation that makes us go WHOOOOOOOOOA that first time. The moves of popping are just so unreal. And the coolest part is when you do them, it feels just as unreal as it looks.
The feeling. Of course, without feeling, the moves don’t look nearly as impressive. When you see somebody put some serious FEEL into those moves, it can almost make you well up with tears. This popping thing runs deep and can hit you right in the heart of your soul. Every so often, someone catches the music in such a perfect way that it makes you think that part of the song was made just so that this popper could catch it. The feeling is a beautiful thing.
The sci-fi aspect. We all love the Matrix and we all love good special effects like in Transformers. Something about robots and artificial intelligence and machines just triggers this part of us. And what better way than to BECOME a machine. That’s why so many of us poppers make sounds when we move. Gssssh. Eeeeeerg. Crnnnnnnnch. Hsssssssssss. We’re channeling our own inner machine.
The girls (or the guys). Poppers are attractive to members of the opposite sex. It’s a skill that’s cool and easy to show off and gets a lot of attention. This feels GOOOOD. How nice is it when you finish dancing and someone cute comes up to you with a compliment and you can just tell that they’d like to get to you know better. This definitely helps with motivation as well!
The competition. Most poppers are guys and most guys are pretty competitive. Poppers seem to be an especially competitive group of guys. The great thing about competition is it makes you train hard. You want to take out your opponent. You want to do something that no one’s seen before that makes everybody scream. And when it comes to competition, there isn’t anything more real than a battle. Just you and your opponent and the music and the crowd. No talking or debating. Just show and prove. It’s almost primal!
The freedom. We live in a time period where a lot of people are really stiff and don’t know how to use their bodies. When music comes on and people start dancing, most people just sit down in the corner. If they do dance, they don’t know what they’re doing and they look uncomfortable and it doesn’t seem like they’re having much fun. It’s such a good feeling to just let loose and be free to the music. Just making up movements as you go and improvising based on the song and the environment and how you feel. This popping thing runs deep…
The soul. Popping runs deep right into the soul. Rennie Harris, one of the leading hip-hop choreographers, says that he thinks popping is the most spiritual dance. He says with popping, it’s like you’re going into a trance and channeling the spirit realm and the ancestors, all the way back to the original tribal humans back in Africa. It’s that drum. Boom CLAP boom CLAP, boom CLAP boom CLAP. Most of the dancers I know have a couple stories about times when they just totally lost themselves in the music and had no idea who they were or where they were and the moves just came so easily it was like someone else was moving their body. Popping, like all art, is an incredible opportunity to connect with the deeper parts of yourself.
The music! There’s no feeling and no soul without the music. And poppers dance to the hardest, most bangin, gangster, funky, super dope music. Do you ever wonder why popping music isn’t more popular? I sure do! I mean, the beats are just RIDONCULOUS. They are so hard and so funky you think even your 80-year old grandma is just gonna pop up out of the chair and start BANGIN. With this kind of music, you almost can’t HELP but pop.

And you know what, I’ve got some super hard, super gangster, super funked out music just for you, as a way of saying thanks for coming by. Check out and download my Ice Cold Funk Mix and answer me this:

What was the first moment YOU fell in love with popping? Let me know in the comments!

And like Dre says, get ready for the next episode ya’ll!

Until next time, keep it gangsta!

Otis Funkmeyer, Ph.D. of PoppingSimilar Posts: