How to top rock!

To start of, when ever you are practicing something like this you should always strech for about 5 mins. This mite seem like your over doing it but it all helps.

Okay in the first 17 seconds of the video I am doing the basic foot movements involved in a toprock, this includes putting your right out in front of your left and then returning to the position you started(feet side by side), after this you do the same with your other foot, then wash rinse and repeat.

The next 15 seconds show the arm movements involved with the basic foot work, when in the starting position your hands are together in front of your chest, as you put your foot out in front you, extend your arms out also (like your going to give someone a big hug!). Then finally as you bring your foot back into the starting position, you also bring your arms back in.

The rest of the video shows various ways of changing the basic top rock into something a little more interesting, eg putting hands in different places hoping back to the start positions and slowing down and speeding up to dance in time with the music.

This is my first "instructional video", I realize while this may be very brief and basic, it does nevertheless show progressively how to perform the move.

The song in the video is called Sweat the technique.

Things to come

While I may not have mastered the windmill as i had planned in my initial plan or proposal, I think it is somewhat irrelevant. Having progressed in my learning and understanding of Breaking, I think it would be more beneficial for me to make an instructional video detailing how a basic toprock (a break dancing move) can be performed, while this does not specifically tailor to my proposal, I think it would be in a way more appropriate, this way i can display my ability to instruct others on how to do things. The main reason i have chosen to do this is it for fills the other part of my proposal and this is the part that i feel is more important(in my opinion than simply "doing a dance"). Making this video shows that i am capable of teaching a skill, which in turn may help me to get a job!
I should hopefully have this posted before this Friday.

2 and a half rotations!!

For this session I was at a different location to the place where I normally go, the place I was now at was a proper dance studio with mirrors and all so that you could see how good or in my case bad you looked in the mirrors. While I was nervous about the new location, I had gotten to know some of the people that regularly attend these dance sessions and seeing that they were there made me feel more at ease. I started the session of like any other by stretching profusely, this was important for me because I can’t do the splits, and to do a proper god looking windmill you need to be able to do the splits or something close to it. Any way the session progressed like any other with me practicing a wide variety of things until I saw someone trying to do windmills, this inspired me try them once again. My friend who was watching me suggested that I plant my hand down, a seemingly innocuous comment but the next time I tried to windmill I did three complete rotations!!YYEAAAAAA after this I repeated the action again to confirm that it was not just a fluke. Later on I found a digital camera that I could film myself on, however at this time I was quite tired from dancing all night and could only manage 2 and a half rotations on my windmills. Just a side note this was not my third practice session this was my fifth, i had two practices between this and my last post however they were fairly uneventful and as such did not warrant me posting about them.

Below is the video that was taken of me.

Practice

The 1st of September was my second session of break dancing practice, and was far more productive. I went to the weekly session as normal, the difference this time was that i was accompanied by a large group of friends who were also just starting to learn to Break.
The session started of with me stretching but quickly moved to me practicing my windmills, unlike the first session i had little fear of being "judged" by the other more adanced people
(beacuse my friends were there). With help and instruction from my friends i wasable to master the first part of the windmill (the collapse). Learning this properlly is important because power moves require a lot of concentration and percision to perform.

The video below is of me trying to do windmills, while i may only do one rotation, the constant in both atempts is the collapse (the very first part where i am balancing on my hands and start to kick).

My first Jam!

On 28/08/08 I went to my first Jam session at a place called Youth town ( a recreational center in town, the specific place we were practicing was half of a basketball court). Being my first time at a place like this I was naturally nervous, seeing all the other people pulling of these amazing moves made me feel even worse. My friend and I found a place (in the corner) where i sat for most of the night! I stretched (not enough it would seem as later i would hurt myself) and tried a few things I saw others doing. After failing miserably at most of the things I attempted I would retreat back into my corner.

While my first Jam was relatively uneventful, I did learn a few important and useful things, I was introduced to most of the people who were there. Knowing these people will hopefully be very useful in the future, when I want to learn to do different types, and increasingly more difficult moves. I also learned that this was going to require a lot of physical fitness.

Bellow i have included some pictures of me trying to do moves (freezes specifically) that i saw other people doing at "My first Jam" ( the pictures were taken at home because I had no camera) at the Jam

My Plan/Proposal

The digital asset that I have chosen to develop will be a website (blog). The asset that I have chosen to develop will be my Break dancing skills. I will hopefully be contributing to the blog weekly updating my progress as I learn new things, the eventual aim for me will be to learn to do a set (break dance routine) and work towards learning a power move called a windmill (although I may not achieve this). Throughout my e-portfolio I will include pictures and video of the things I am learning and have learnt.

I have chosen to use blogger.com instead of Mahara to develop my e-portfolio, this is because I am using blogger.com for several other classes. I have already learnt to do a lot with blogger and think it would be a waste of my time to learn and become proficient at using both Mahara and blogger.com when one of them will suffice.

The target audience for my e-portfolio other than my assessors will be my friends, the main reason for this is that they are the people who will be teaching me and I think it will be good for them to see my progress. Also it may be used to get a part time job as a dance instructor using the way I learnt things as an example of how I would teach them (this is something that a few of my friends do) I could use my e-portfolio to help with that.