Hey, everyone. Today, I have the pleasure of introducing you to Bea Lesaca, a b-girl and hip hop dancer who writes for HardKnockRadio. Her guest post is about how salsa made her appreciate her own dance style more. Here’s Bea:
How Salsa Made me Appreciate Hip Hop More
Having been break dancing for a good chunk of my adult life, I couldn’t help but actually take it for granted. It was probably due to years of doing the same thing over and over again, making it as routine as going grocery shopping. I know I’m the only one to blame but going through a rut like that; I would like to think, is a necessary part of a dancer’s growth.
See, aside from bgirling, I never tried other types of dance, even the ones under Hip Hop. Honestly, I was a little too scared to venture off into unchartered territory when I already found a niche that I fit right in. I used to think that it was understandable because why bother learning new tricks when the ones I already got has given me enough props I thought I needed (which is wrong btw).
So years passed (with my mentality like that) until I met a DJ friend that went Salsa dancing. We always saw each other at jams and clubs where she spinned and every time we bumped into one another, she would invite me to hit up a salsa class with her. I always said I would think about it, but in the back of my mind I knew it was a resounding hell no! Aside from thinking how salsa was ballroom, I also couldn’t fathom a break dancer like myself getting jiggy with the old folks.
But after consistent prodding from my friend, I ended up going and actually having a great time. It turned out that the misconceptions I had about salsa were just that, misconceptions. I arrived at the place where the classes were held and saw people with ages that ranged from early 20’s to late 40’s of different nationalities just groovin’ to the music. I didn’t know that salsa appealed to that many people! Salsa classes became part of my weekly ritual and it was great. Not only did salsa boost my confidence but it also allowed me to experiment more with the genre I was already active in: Hip Hop.
Every time I feel like there’s a new kind of Hip Hop dance I want to learn, I now think to myself that if I could pull salsa off, what more with this? The expansion to my dance environment wouldn’t have happened if it weren’t for salsa. I learned how to appreciate more the genre I belonged to, making me aware of the different dimensions I am capable of.
Bea spends her free time thinking of freestyle rap lyrics. Check out her latest post on the top 100 rap songs at HardKnockRadio.com.
I love salsa and growing up, being Puerto Rican and Dominican, in my house we had a party every weekend. Since it was already in my blood, it was very easy picking up Top rock/Up rock styles which is the original hip hop dance.
This original dance style is now making a big come back worldwide and salsa had a big influence on the original hip hop dance form which people know as Break dancing. It consists of Top rocking and floor rocking spins like back spins, head spins, windmills, knee spins, air moves and freezes.
These dance forms started in the mid 70’s in New york city. The three dance styles, Up Rocking, Top Rocking and Bboy/Bgirl(Break dancing) have a huge impact on the new generation hip hop dance style. Two other dance forms from the West coast, Northern California and Southern California, are Locking and Popping.
Living on the east coast, we watched these dance forms on Soul train and we did our own version and these dance forms were also incorporated into hip hop. Dancers also started touring bringing it to other countries around the world.
The funny thing is that on the west coast it was never hip hop to them until hip hop took off in the mainstream and they watched us in the east coast do it to hip hop music. They originally danced to funk music. In the 80’s hip hop music exploded onto the scene and funk records became less popular. Hip hop was the new thing to pop and lock to with the music chopped up and sampled from the classic soul and funk records.