I begun to lean Hip Hop just about 3 years ago, and got hooked immediately. I wanted to know so bad How Hip Hop Dance is being done so I started at a dance school and practiced under different teachers five times a week. In half a year I evolve some good skills, the problem was that because of the enormously amount of training I had no time to use my new learned moves and develop my own style. I became a copycat.
I will warn you about this, if you want to learn how hip hop dance is being done don’t just take class after class all the time. My tips is to practice at least as much on your own or at a club as you do in a dance studio following a teacher.
This may seem hard in the start but I permit you, it will give some mad results. Try to challenge yourself by turning on your favorite Hip hop song and freestyle until the end. Play with the dynamics and accent different sounds in the beat. Practicing hip hop this way will make you to a much better dancer in a shorter time.
I see two big risks with taking too many classes each week. The first one is to get stuck in the dance studio in front of the mirror not being able to use your maximum energy and feeling insecure when dancing without a mirror. The second risk is to become a “copy cat” or biter as it’s called in the dance world. This is a really bad thing and will lower your respect amongst other dancers.
Imagine yourself going out to a club at Friday night dancing and having fun with your friends. When you’re dancing there you see this guy and your friends say something like “Hey he looks exactly like you”. That’s not the point of dancing, you should be dancing because you like it not to show off yourself. And that’s exactly what many of the “biters” are doing, trying to look good by copying someone else’s moves and groove. The best dancers always try to flip and add their own touch to the new moves they learn. It’s also about giving something back to the Hip Hop culture, creating new steps or flipping old ones into something new.