I attended Urban Movement Arts‘ first house dance battle with one hour’s worth of house experience. Here’s what it was like going through the entire dance battle series.
Day 1:
Began with us getting loose by ourselves and discussing Vince’s history with dance battles and what the scene itself entails. It was interesting to hear about the various things he liked and disliked about the competitive scene of dance. He brought up how he wanted a more concrete form of judging to give us actionable feedback. His criteria was foundation (how much of the style were you bringing) insert when I remember what the rest were. After this short explanation on what the competitive scene was like and how he intended to help us improve. He emphasized the importance of community and that we are all at difference stages in the journey. Afterwards he announced that we would be put into a bracket and do a tourney.
Other interesting things:
The topic of sets came up in class and if it was allowed within a freestyle battle. Vince responded by referencing other dancers that have repitition in various dance battles equated it to them having their own arsenals. These arsenals are how these bigger dancers utilize these tool with different transitionary moves/crowd pleasers that they have on lock to win. Another student brought up how much of different styles can you bring into a style specific dance battle. Vince’s response was that it would depend on the judges and to know that going off script could potentially affect how far you make it. The entire class was really welcoming and kind having a little freestyle warm up thing as they helped each other practice and learn new skills
As someone with no house experience I thought the first day discussing what the competitive culture was like and how it differs from the cyphering culture and then just doing it was something interesting and enjoyable
You can tell Vince really cares about his students and can hear the passion around the dance community.
Bro responded to my lack of experience in the nicest way by saying to own where your at.
Day 2
Today, it began with a discussion of how we are expressing ourselves. Dancing a specific style is putting ourselves through a funnel of the specific dance styles. Afterwards we started cyphering and Vince emphasized how this practice makes us less precious with our dancing. As it allows us to lab out more and try more things so we end up dancing more. He talked about how we have to leave it all on the floor when competing.
He discussed how we should be aware of repetition of moves when it comes to judging. However repeating the same moves is not necessarily repetition because we can change the aesthetic and feel to match any dance style more music. He also emphasized how in a battle that you will lose a battle if it doesn’t feel like the style of the battle.
He said learning more vocabulary while helpful in the short-term doesn’t prevent repetition and if you look at famous dancers it’s not about the amount of moves they know but how they do each move.
We split up into pairs and did a back to back battle thing where you immediately go after your partner stops. Afterwards we then went up to the mirror with a different partner and had to look at ourselves and swap out with our partner. Of course we ended the class with a series of battles to different genres.
Practices:
Paired up immediately go after the person stops
Battle in front of mirror with yourself
Dance Battles
Overall the class itself was very enlightening and very good to get me out of my head when dancing as it was just set to sort of go go go.
Day 3
This one was set in the 2100 Chestnut UMA location. It was lead by Ricky and he brought up how it’s important to save energy before the battle itself and to trust your preparation for the event. We did random battles and we received personalized feedback with a ruling based on initial feelings and then a more in depth consideration. This personalized advice was extremely helpful in what to do in response to things.
Day 4
We dedicated this day to reflecting on our journeys as dancers, and what we hoped to achieve in the series and the battle. We wrapped it up just as we started, with a dance battle.
Day of the Battle
The battle was held in Love Brewery at 1023 Hamilton street. The venue was amazing it looked fantastic. I was so nervous but everyone was so supportive and actively cheered and rooted for you. It warmed my heart throughout the entire event and and calmed my nerves a bit. I reached the second round but got knocked out afterwards. The layout of the battle was 1 minute rounds 1 per person except for the losers bracket and finals. In the losers bracket, competitors had a cypher session with the judges. They showed off their skills, and the judges danced with them and picked who got to move back into the winners bracket. The finalists had 2 one minute rounds each.
The taco truck outside was fantastic. The coffee ad was really entertaining. The vibes soared throughout the night as people cyphered, and battled. The judges really seemed to enjoy themselves as they danced and vibed along with everyone else. The most shocking thing of all was the event ran on time.
The Emails
After the first day, Vince sent us emails detailing what we went over and the overall themes of the class and provided us materials to help in our development. He provided additional materials to give me a baseline of what house really is. I found this to be extremely helpful in preparing for the battle and after the workshop and battle was done and dusted. He provided me additional resources to continue my house journey.
Conclusion
As someone who was completely new to house but has had previous dance battle experience. This dance battle series was an extremely amazing, education, and overall fantastic way to learn more about the house culture. Everyone in the class was so kind, welcoming, and helpful in my start to learning the world of house dance. The emails were extremely encouraging and personalized to me needs. I highly recommend this environment for your first dance battle experience and look forward to whenever the next one is after improving my house skills.