Hip Hop & Breakdance

Hip Hop & Breakdance is a dance class for kids ages 7 to 14 emphasizing hip hop technique, dynamic movement, rhythm, and coordination. Prior dance experience is not required. In this class, I teach students how to understand musical tempo and how to translate that understanding into movement patterning in various hip hop aesthetics.

Experience Level: Prior dance training is helpful but not at all a requirement given this class's unique emphasis on the individual's own creative interests in dance and movement.

Pre-requisite: None (just a strong interest in creativity and movement expression!)

Class Structure & Approach

Class begins with a warm-up emphasizing rhythmic body coordination and fundamental movement patterns across various hip hop dance styles. After the warm-up, we move into into technique training which focuses on footwork, rhythm, and stylistic features of hip hop.

Learn Skills in a Variety of Hip Hop Dance Styles

"Hip hop dance" is an umbrella term that encompasses a diverse array of dance styles based in Black and Africanist aesthetics. A variety of hip hop dance styles are surveyed, including popping, tutting, and breaking, among others, to provide students with a broad understanding of the diverse movement forms that fall under the hip hop umbrella.

Who Is Hip Hop & Breakdance Designed for?

Ages: 6 to 10 years.

Experience Level: Prior dance training is helpful but not at all a requirement given this class's unique emphasis on the individual's own creative interests in dance and movement.

Pre-requisite: None.

Class Length, Location, & Schedule

This class meets once weekly for one hour on Saturdays from noon to 1:00 p.m. in the dance studio located on the second floor of the Robert Crown Community Center in Evanston, Illinois.

Class Attire

Clothing should be comfortable, non-obstructive, and support dynamic movement in all spatial planes.

Shoes

Footwear requirement: comfortable, non-marking sneakers. Low-grip or shallow-tread, soft-soled shoes are ideal for hip hop and breakdance, which involves a lot of turning, pivoting, and articulation through the ball and ankle joints of the feet. Boots, dress shoes, and other hard-soled shoes or shoes that restrict the motion of the ankle joints are not suitable in this context.

Bring a Water Bottle

Please bring a water bottle to class. There is a filtered water fountain just down the hallway for students to use which is equipped with a fill spout.

Accessibility & Inclusivity

I am deeply committed to creating a learning environment that is accessible and inclusive, which includes a number of routine considerations around space and stimuli management, movement modifications, language access, lesson planning, and differences in learning styles and the use of diverse visual, auditory, and kinesthetic instructional techniques. Accessibility and inclusion are core commitments at the Robert Crown Community Center and are also part of the City of Evanston's accessibility and inclusivity statement, which reads:

City of Evanston Accessibility Statement

The City of Evanston is committed to promoting a city-wide culture of accessibility and inclusivity. To request an accomodation for a program, service, or activity, please call 847-866-2919 to make an ADA service request or fill out a request form online at evanstonil.qscend.com/311.