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Jasmine Dinkins
Professor Mendoza
DANC 185
October 8, 2014
Hip-Hop Dance Observation:
When I first walked to sit in on the hip-hop dance class I had all different types of things come to mind while approaching the scene. I was wondering how the class would be run and what kind of things would be done in this particular dance class. Being a fan of hip-hop and dancing made this observation very interesting to me. Watching this class dance to similar music I listen to while dancing made me even want to maybe think about taking the class for fun. This type of dance and movement makes it easy to have a good exercise without making it seem like hard labor. Hip-hop dance is very popular in society today through the television, Internet, and almost any social media network.
In the beginning of the class the dancers come in and socialized on the floor waiting for everyone to arrive. While the teacher prepares herself for class many of the students are up and reviewing parts of dances from previous classes. Just watching this little bit at the beginning made me even more eager to see what was about to happen next. While observing the first little bits of the class I notice that the atmosphere was very laid back and comfortable. Everyone appeared with relaxed clothes fit to their specific styles, not one wearing the same thing. There was a lot of diversity in the room, making the class more anticipating. The instructor was also dressed very relaxed but yet some what

Dinkins 2 stylish. I definitely expected nothing but cool things out of this observation simply by the atmosphere of the setting I was sitting in.
When the time comes to start the class the teacher begins to tell the observers that something different than usual was going on in the class that day. The students were assigned a homework assignment to come to class with. The assignment was to pick a novelty dance to demonstrate and teach to the rest of the class. Before all of the fun starts the teacher turns the music up loud and stands in the front center of the class to start the first instruction. Everyone begins a workout in sync while stretching in the process. The teacher leads the demonstration and the class follows suit right behind her. Warming up to hip-hop music gives the students a rhythm to follow and a chance to create one that works best for them in the particular stretches performed. The main focus of this seemed to be getting the body lose to dance and to move around making stressed muscles more relaxed during movement. All parts of the body are used during this exercise, using mostly the legs and hips followed by the arms and even head movements.
After the warm up was complete the teacher goes on to explain to us more about the assignment and what was expected of the performers. In order the students come to the front center of the floor while the teacher steps back in line with everyone else, explaining their novelty choices. The student goes further on to tell the history and a little background about the dance. Following the explanation they begin to show and teach the class the dance of choice. Once the students feel like they have the moves down they put the music with it and perform the dance. The teacher is still participating as if she was taking the class too. She is just as interested as everyone else to see and learn how to do
Dinkins 3 the dances. Seeing that she is a very exciting teacher made the class run smoothly making everyone feel comfortable to try something new. Knowing that I am a hands-on type of learner made me relate to the students in the class. Watching this hip-hop class made me realize that it was very modern and up to date with the era we are in