3 Minutes of Heat

After a hiphop class, a young lady went up to the Chereographer [CG] and asked her "Do you think I'm suitable for hiphop?" CG was quizzled momentarily and furrowed her eyebrows.

CG: "Why do you think you're not suitable for hiphop?"
Lady: "Because I can't seem to get the steps."

CG: "But you've only been trying out classes for about 3 months!"
Lady: "What kind of dance do you think I'm suitable for?"

CG: "......"
Lady: "How long do you think I need to learn hiphop before I can become a teacher?"

CG: "????......................"

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Me: "Hey, havent seen you around the studio for a while."
Duck: "Nah, not planning to go back."

Me: "?? What happened? Everything Ok?"
Duck: "Yeah, everything's fine. I just lost interest that's all."

Me: "Huh? But you've been with us for only about a year!"
Duck: "Aiyah... lazy to wake up on Sundays mah.."

Me: "....................."

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Hiphop is the current rave now that is true but with the massive marketing of something as a commercial product what you would get as response is a massive wave of 'short-term' interested learners who are more curious than genuinely interested.

However, commercially-interested people do not tend to have long-term interests in a commercial product. Take for example, music. Let's start with the basics. Oldies and classical music would have longer beats than pop or modern ballads. The beats have been compressed from 6 or even some with 8 beats to just 4 beats for almost every song now. The playtime of songs have also been reduced from 8-10 minutes to just 3-4 minutes. This subconciously constitutes a shorter attention span and thus when people grow up being infused continously with such culture their attention span does not remain constant for long before it starts to wander.

With a shorter attention span usually results in impatience, to what level it varies with a individual's character. Upbringing and family background does affect to some level and the character development through the personal encounters are paramount to the final outcome.

This means to say, if a child has been brought up with classical music and mind concentration games as childhood the possibility of the child cultivating a patient character is higher than in comparson to a child who has continously strived only for academic excellence while playing fast-paced sports, listening to techno soundtracks and being constantly on the move i.e. not having a fixed home to go to. Some children go to the grandmother's house every 1-2 days thus there is no fixed focus for the child on where to decide after they finish school.

Perhaps some would bring the classic example of PC games or gaming devices like X Box and PlayStation 2 [PS2] which declares,"My son played with his X Box for like 8 hours! Do you not call that concentration?" I would not deny that to play on a gaming console for 8 hours straight requires massive amounts of concentration but to be more precise I'm talking about character skills not gaming skills. That is addiction, obsession not patience. Take the X Box away and put the child under a puzzle game then monitor if he/she can show just as much focus on solving the puzzle than compared to playing X Box. Put the child sitting down waiting for a bus for 20 minutes and see if he/she does not grumble/complain and make hell of a fuss.

Over the past 19 months that I have trained with about 4 different studios for dance [mainly just hiphop and jazz] I have observed different groups of people come and go. In comparison, jazz still commands a more regular group than hiphop. The music that is played perhaps gave a certain level of influence as well. To dance Jazz well you must be flexible, for certain body movements requires display of strength with ease which must go hand-in-hand with flexible muscles. All the more important for Guy Jazz dancers as their movements must combine strength with grace.

Hiphop can be considered as 'short bursts of energy' and more on 'feel' therefore it does not place as heavy an emphasis on techniques as compared to ballet or jazz. However one fundamental principle stands - to dance well you must practise a lot. Dance like most sports is not really about talent but endless hours of hard work, sweat and practises. Talent only reduces the amount of effort you need to make it work well but it does not mean you can "dance well" in within a short period even with talent. When I'm talking about short period I'm talking about 1-2 years, I still do not consider myself a dancer despite the intensive training and practises I subject myself to because the fact is - I'm still not good enough.

I was appalled though when I heard the young lady conversing with CG, the stark immaturity of her thoughts only fuelled my conviction that there're probably thousands of people out there who "following the trend" wants to be "in with the crowd" but perhaps less than half of the people can appreciate the dance for what it really signifies. And I am not ashamed to say hiphop's history is just as significant in evolving the dance into what it today alongside with Tap, Lindy Hop, Salsa, Jazz and even Ballet.

To be able to freestyle to a complete music track would be something I achieve for someday, irregardless of whether it is hiphop or jazz. But as compared to my "seniors" who have been dancing for almost 10 years - I have a long way to go.

Meanwhile, to people who are interested to know about dance in general. It is perfectly normal to be interested due to curiosity. But have patience, for dance amongst other things, requires a huge amount of focus. Not to mention passion, before you can fully embark on a continous path of self-improvement.

"A Dance without attitude is a puppet without strings."

Do you have that 'attitude' of determination? Of passion? Of a need to establish your own style?