Commonly Asked Dance Questions---Q&A by Shawn Phan

[TheObeserver]

One question here , is it dance/practice in front of mirror will be more effective on improve?

Freestyle Dancer , from Malaysia . Peace! =)

[SombraOokami89]

Tutting's my favorite style. I fell in love with it the first time I watched ABDC about...2-3 years ago. I just never really tried to learn it until now.

But I also like waves, glides, robotics and...para para (the one oddball out of the mix). But one at a time so I think I'll try to learn tutting first and work on that. ^^;

[xn3sx]

I have a question shawn

What determines the winner in a dance battle ?

I dance robotic . I m a huge fan of poreotics ; inspired much by dumbo.

[beastysmoKEy23]

u know how u said if u are robotic that u should start popping and stuff....im a major dougie and cat daddy addict so what should i start learning or doing because i feel like im stuck and dont know where to go from where i am plzz respond

[beastysmoKEy23]

ohh yeah and the reason i like douging is because first of all it looks tight and because therese so much u can add to it u can dougie and add the cat daddy and i guess i just like the movement and the rythm

[whatsup02]

Hello Shawn. Question please: I'm a beginner hip-hop dancer and I don't have a mirror I practice in front of. I just practice outdoors. Am I wasting my time by not using a mirror? Because I can't see what I look like unless I use a video camera to record myself

[beanardskinerd]

I love bboying. I started out just wanting to impress people, then I fell in love.

[ToBeBboy]

@beanardskinerd All the way amigo.

[benhype1]

These vids are awesome. You always seem to say something that is suuuuper helpful. Keep it up!

[ThePopRockz001]

I second that

[thelaggz]

I'm a mix of smooth waving gliding then I do popping and robotics and then I'm sorta a bboy. Is tht a good thing or bad thing????

[itsaleckblanger]

For me, I first got into dance with popping. From there I really focused my time on old school popping and then branched out to moves like the jbwkz did. At the time I didn't know any better, so my foundation was crap. After awhile went back to popping drilled the foundations into my cortex, then went to locking. After locking I tried breaking and then krump. NOt successful on krump, but little successful strides in breaking. Then I came across new style hiphop expressing the inexpressible=dance

[MichaelChromeTran]

At first I loved popping, and started to krump, but then after awhile I'm starting to do hip hop and it allows me to express who I am to the people around me.

[JokerFangJS]

I first really got in to the dance community when i started jerking i got all in to footwork worked on my dougie(still do by the way) Then I saw my best friend break dancing and I thought that was cool now I began to teach myself how to break dance(still learning and having a bit of trouble getting some moves down) I always loved to move and be up so really waving popping jerking breaking our my favorite dances because of that

[Ruslanbalvan]

House, because I found I good teacher : ). But it's just fun rocking beats with any dance tbh. You rock Shawn!

[MokonaSoccerPlayer22]

One question, is how can I look less awkward when dancing? I'm super tall (like, 6"6) and I end up looking stiff as hell.

[benthao92]

@MokonaSoccerPlayer22 Practice practice practice, all dancers are stiff when they first started. Just depends how much time and effort you put into ur dance.

[530loverboi]

shite man i cant still figure what dance style i like!!1..

[iJustKiddingg]

I have my own style and my style is what makes me, me. Check out my videos =]

[kevlegacy]

this is a great video.. it makes me want to put more videos up on youtube..

abd i do feel that im getting better from your tips..

[joshshing609]

Man a lot of that can apply to Boxing too.. Good advice bro!

[theivings]

tutting, cuz i broke my leg when i was inspired to dance

[FreestyleCrewz]

My favourite Dance style is slow choreography, when I dance following only the words of what the music say, something like love music, I feel like I'm creating a story of how I dance according to what music Idance to. I'm not much of a battler in the dance floor, because for me, I put my expression and feelings in my moves to create my story, , I follow what the lyrics say, and base my move off of it, forgive me if that is unusual but, I've always found that intresting since Istarted dancing :)

[TheWannaBAsianAmazin]

I'm a junior in highschool and was wondering, how can i make a living off of dance?

[CeAzAr7]

and for your question my fav dance style is a more usher/brian puspos/and beat killer type of style...because when I watch them or ppl like them dance I see the emotion, freedom and artistry in their dance

[CeAzAr7]

how do i get my dance out there?? im confident and at times perform in front of ppl a couple times at stage. but where do i start if I want a dance career?? Cuz trying to get views on youtube from a coupe friends and some random ppl on the web isn't rly gonna work out if I wanna keep dancing for a career...

[Paulineback]

My favorite dance style is popping, not only because it's the style of dance I do, but because I've always found it so fascinating ever since I was little. When I was young, dance never meant anything to me except for this particular style. Then I saw Phillip Chbeeb on SYTCD and he gave me that extra boost to actually start dancing and that's another reason why I started popping. :)

[DesertKiwi22]

I love funk style. Every time that james brown or earth wind and fire comes on, or just something with that really oldschool slap bass, I can't help but move. I love funk cuz I'm sure I'm connected to the roots of hiphop, but I still move how I want and it influences my other styles. It just feels free and expressive.

[SIRbeats101]

hah play boy in da back:/



[dncinmachine24]

michael jackson inspired my style, and i'm trying to get into finger tutting, i used to have absolutely no rhythm when i was younger, but then i used that to my advantage.. and i've been trying digits because i watch your videos, thanks for that :)

[N8Pk888]

i originally started popping 4 years ago, and i learned the basics from your videos. and now, i've been bboying, and locking and mixing my my styles with eachother. thanks shawn!

[twinsince96]

i would like to battle but first in a small group, maybe at a school or something, but in my school, there is actually just one other guy who dances and he doesnt want to dance...

Is someone from switzerland and wants to battle me? :) Im not that good, but i wanna improve through battling

[argon32155]

@twinsince96 woah finally a popper in switzerland, I never saw someone pop when I was there, I thought no one really liked popping there good thing there are. So where in Switzerland are you from?

[dikkelol007]

Lockin is probably my favorite. I just love the funky, sorta laidback feel it had, but at the same time its all about fast handmovement and stuff. But to be honest: I love every style of dance, because every style has something that makes it special. I'm not a locker, I'm not a bboy, and I'm not a tutter. I'm a dancer!

[KStyIe]

TEACH HOW TO HIT LEGS! IM GOING NUTS

[SAVAGEsession]

@KStyIe Just pop your knees out fool lol and practice flexing your quads. you can do that sitting down 

[ByronKillsIT]

I've been watching your videos for about 3 years bro and watching them have really helped me improve into an actual DANCER. all of my dance videos got deleted last week so you cant see the history of my dance videos anymore to see how i've improved :( .. but trust me, i have come a LONG way. I re-uploaded a few of my recent dance videos on my channel if you would like to check em out. If you did that would mean so much to me. Thanks for all the "Droppin' Knowledge" over the years. they helped!

[LHYF]

I got a question. Do you have any tips on how to attack choreography? How do you create moves that do not look similar to someone's choreography in terms of style and etc.? One time I choreographed a routine and it was so similar to one of Hok's move that I got flamed really badly. How do you avoid that?

[benthao92]

@LHYF I would suggest not to watch a lot of youtube videos of your favorite dancers. Like they only post up videos to inspired others and show their craft. Many say watching too much youtube videos is a bad habit. Try to meet other dancers and Collab with them, you will learn and get better. Also like what Shawn say and every other dancers, foundations is key. So learn all the foundations from all of the other styles and put them together to create something.

[LHYF]

@benthao92 @benthao92 Ok I understand but I just so happened to have never watched that video by Hok and I thought that move was really original. My style is kind of more L.A. Hip Hop and Funk and my move was similar to a Tutting move Hok did. My main problem I feel is: that How do you create moves? Any tools to help someone make a choreography? I saw your videos. Maybe you can make some tutorials :)

[benthao92]

@LHYF Thanks man I'll try to make tutorials, but with work, school and dance is taking a toll on me. Sadly i hardly see my family because of work. It's okay though if you have never seen HoK tutt and its similar to it because to me that's ur style. And those haters saying you copying HoK are just ironic because the only dance they seen are on ABDC and knows nothing about dance. Just take classes on tutting or other styles, but take advantage of that.

[benthao92]

@LHYF Also to learn how to choreo, Just put in some lockin bboyin poppin or any other styles into one. When making a choreo listen to the beats of the music and lyrical. You have to know the song for your choreo off the back. Always record yourself freestyling to a song you want to choreo too. Then after your done re-watch yourself and if you like any part of the moves you did put it into the choreo and memorize it. And remember you will always have Haters!!! So do what you got to do =D.

[BLGspark]

and by the way nice video...

[BLGspark]

My favorite dance style is hardstyle shuffling because it feels great and very addicting

[DrDrolomehet]

I do like liquidstyle mixed with shuffling

it's fun as hell.

[RadioAurum]

tutting! cause I've got two left feet

[philipino23]

Oh Shawn, I try to Rock Beats but that will never end! No end to dance! :)

[philipino23]

1st? Oh well... Bro, my favorite dance style is probably a tie between Popping and Breaking... That's the two I've been practicing with! I wanna learn Locking though... :)