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New Freestyle: May 2012

Posted on May 15, 2012 by TRT in TheRussianTiger Blog | Updated Weekly

I was due for a new freestyle this month so I decided to enter the KIA Motors Dubstep Contest. Dancers from around the world are asked to use DJ Flux Pavilion’s “I Can’t Stop” and also to use a soccer/football in a short dance video. There were over 250 entries, top 8 get a free trip to Poland for the EURO 2012 soccer tournament and the grand prize is a new car. Pretty sweet deal. I thought it would be a great creative challenge so I invested in a $20 soccer ball and this is what I came up with. Enjoy!

Why are there so few female poppers?

Posted on May 01, 2012 by TRT in TheRussianTiger Blog | Updated Weekly

If you have ever watched popping videos on YouTube or have been to an event, you have certainly noticed that 95% of the people competing are guys. YouTube analytics say the viewership of my popping videos is about 75% male. However, I have taken popping classes at studios such as Broadway Dance Center in New York City and the beginner classes are probably 75% female! I think the last example is simply that many females take Ballet, Jazz and Hip hop classes at a studio, and then decide to try popping for fun. There are definitely amazingly talented female poppers out there: Pandora, Miss Funk, and Pringlz…

Popping, Fitness, and Muscle Size.

Posted on April 16, 2012 by TRT in TheRussianTiger Blog | Updated Weekly

People often email me questions related to fitness and popping, specifically if a large person can be good at it. The answer is yes. Popping is not a dance that requires you to be in top physical shape. The dance is more focused on precision and dope poppers come all different shapes and sizes. There are dozens of very talented and very well known poppers who are on the bigger side. When I get these questions I usually point to Slick Dogg who is a well respected popper and one of the best wavers out there – he is also big guy (I say this in the best of ways). There are also thin guys who are extremely talented such as Kite. The level of fitness doesn’t limit you in popping…

How Old Do I Need To Be, To Start Popping?

Posted on April 09, 2012 by TRT in TheRussianTiger Blog | Updated Weekly

People always ask if it is too late to start popping. Some of these emails I get are from people that at 15 years old or 12 years old. The answer is no! Those ages are perfect and actually give you a head start! Popping is not one of the dance styles parents sign their kids up for when they are 5 years old and take them to classes every week. That is extremely rare and almost unheard of. Most people start in the range of 15-21 years but the spread is huge. I personally started popping when I was 17 years old, although closer to 18. If you start younger you have a definite advantage. There are many old school poppers that pop well into their 40s that can still kill it on the dance floor but the flexibility and agility is often not the same as the younger dancers…

How long will it take me to be “good?”

Posted on April 01, 2012 by TRT in TheRussianTiger Blog | Updated Weekly

The most common question I receive about popping is how long it takes to be “good” at it. The problem is that “good” means something different to everyone. For most beginners, “good” means popping at a dance party to impress your friends and the people surrounding the circle. For others, good means battling other poppers and being respected by them. These two definitions of “good” are on completely different levels. Now the shocker: Your definition of “good” gets higher as you improve so you never really reach it! Here are my two best tips for achieving your quest to be good: Enjoying the journey of improvement, and focus on practice time….

How to Practice Popping Efficiently

Posted on March 25, 2012 by TRT in TheRussianTiger Blog | Updated Weekly

You can classify most types of freestyle popping practice into three categories: Technique improvement, Freestyle improvement, and sessions with other dancers. When most beginners practice, they just put on their Ipod and… dance! This is more commonly called “getting down” and it’s very useful for working on musicality, freestyle concepts, linking moves together, and simply having fun, but if you only do this your technique will improve very slowly. The best kind of practice for beginners is technical practice. This is when you are focusing on a specific more or style, look in the mirror, and practice isolations step-by-step, noticing your mistakes and correcting them. This way you are improving the actual moves. If you only do freestyle practice, you risk ingraining your bad habits and incorrect techniques and make them hard to correct. Technical practice is not as fun and can be very frustrating, but it is important for establishing good foundations. For example, if you wanted to improve your tutting don’t just start throwing tuts while freestyling; it will be very sloppy. You need to slow down and work on angles one at a time in a repetitive manner (technical practice). For beginners, the majority of what you do should be technical practice….

Which Popping Style Should You Learn First?

Posted on March 18, 2012 by TRT in TheRussianTiger Blog | Updated Weekly

There are two different ways you can approach this. I like to call these the strict method and fun method. First, let us imagine a beginner popping class at a dance studio that uses the strict method. The instructor would start by explaining all of the different muscles groups for hitting, demonstrate, then most of the class would be spent drilling different hits. The second class in the strict method would focus on boogaloo, one of the most important, but hardest styles within popping. Hitting and boogaloo are no doubt key component of popping, but if this is someone’s first ever popping lesson, drilling hitting right off the bat could have them running for the exit and never returning….

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