(bright upbeat music)
-: Hi, this is Anna Banana Freeze,
and I'm here to teach you beginning breaking classes.
Before we start, you might notice
that I'm in a cool looking studio,
I'm not coming from my home or my living room or anything.
So I have my dance shoes on.
If you're dancing or taking this lesson from home,
you might not be allowed to wear shoes inside your house.
I'm not allowed to wear shoes inside my house.
But when I dance, I usually wear shoes,
and since I'm in a studio,
I can wear shoes for this video.
When you are going to be doing breaking lessons,
I would like you to wear something comfortable.
I'm wearing my comfy pants that I can dance in,
like kind of loose shirt.
And I tied up my hair because otherwise,
it would be all over my face.
So, this is how I like to dance and dance comfortably.
But before we start dancing,
I just wanted to let you know
a little bit of what breaking is about
and where it came from.
So breaking is a dance,
you won't hear me saying break dance.
I'm gonna be call it breaking.
It's a dance, and it's from the hip hop culture,
and hip hop began in the Bronx in New York city
about early 1970s, around that time.
And so around that time in the United States,
because that's where New York City is,
around that time, there was a recession going
and the Bronx was one of the neighborhoods
that had a lot of people of color,
and a lot of the neighborhoods
were not taken care of very well by the government.
And so there was a lot of broke down buildings,
there weren't a lot of activities
for people to do for fun.
So what they did do for fun,
when they all had time was throw big parties.
And at these parties there was music playing
and when music plays, I don't know about you,
but when music plays, I have to move a little bit.
Maybe it's just like this, a little side to side,
maybe my feet start to tap,
maybe, maybe my body starts to move from one place.
And at this party it was no different.
At this party there was a bunch of people,
a bunch of folks and they would just be dancing.
They would be doing all sorts of different dancing
and most of these dances that they did, were standing up.
Were standing up just like how I'm standing up right now.
And one day, I don't know
if there was an exciting song playing
at one of these parties,
but one day someone went from dancing standing up,
and then they went down to the floor
and that's how breaking started.
I'm not sure what moves they want to go down,
but they went down to the floor
and started doing moves on the floor
and that changed everything, okay?
But we're not gonna start with moves on the floor,
we're gonna start with moves standing upright,
standing up just like this.
We're going to start with a move called Top Rock.
And Top Rock is when you stand up,
and you stay upright, use your arms, use your hands,
use your feet, but you don't really go down, okay.
So, Top Rocks are moves you do
when you're standing up from the floor.
And we're gonna do awesome basic Top Rock steps.
We're going to do three different steps,
and they're all two-steps.
They're all two-steps because they go like one, two,
they take two steps each as you might guess.
But I'm gonna stand like this, my feet are kind of open.
My feet are kind of open, but they're not super open
while I'm about to do the splits,
I don't wanna fall right now.
They're not super close together,
so my feet are touching there
a little open, about shoulder width,
they're under my shoulders right here, okay?
So this is our beginning position,
and then for the first part of Two-Step,
I'm gonna step to the front.
This is a front two-step,
and my footstep to the front, kind of in the middle.
Now I'm gonna step back, just like that.
So I'm gonna count that.
It's called a two-step because one, two.
It has two steps, just like that.
But now I'm going to use the other foot
to step to the front.
One, two, just like that.
But that's not it, I'm gonna keep going.
So going from one foot to the other taking turns like this,
one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two, one, two.
That was kind of boring, wasn't it?
You know what?
You could use your hands when you do Top Rocks.
You could kind of bounce when you do Top Rocks.
You could turn your head
or turn your face when you do Top Rocks.
It doesn't just have to be like this, watch.
One, two, one, two, one, two.
It can be, if you choose,
because I don't know if you know, but you're an artist,
especially now that you're dancing, you're a dancer.
So I'm standing up, feet open like this,
then I'm gonna step to the front with my feet
one, two, one, two,
one, two, just like this.
And I hope you're following along actually.
So if you're not, if you're not dancing it,
I invite you to start trying moves right now.
So I'm standing up feet open,
and then when I step to the front
my arms are gonna open, then close when I step back.
Open, close when I step back.
♪ One, two, ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ I hope you're joining me ♪
♪ And one, two ♪
♪ All together ♪
♪ One, two, ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ You can change your arms ♪
♪ One, two, ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ Or one, two ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ Or one, two, ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ Or one, two, ♪
♪ One, two ♪
Stop, okay?
So that's Front Two-Step,
I was stepping into the front
so that is a Front Two-Step.
I'm now gonna step to the side.
So this is the second, one-step, two-step, to Top Rocks.
And my feet are open.,
then I'm gonna step to the side
with my feet like this, feet open.
Actually you know what?
Let's close our feet a little bit.
So still not all the way close together,
but just a little close, okay?
Ready, set, step to the side.
♪ One, two ♪
♪ Join me when you're ready ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ I'm gonna to move my hands ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ One and stop ♪
Good.
Let's see...
Oh, there's one more Top Rock I wanna show you.
And it's another two-step and it's still very basic.
We're gonna step to the back
instead of the front or the sides.
So we're gonna step to the back
and it's still a two-step,
so I'm gonna say one, two, ready, go.
♪ One, two ♪
♪ Do it with me ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ Step to the back ♪
♪ And one, two ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ One and stop ♪
Perfect, great job.
Now, you know what,
let's do all three of those Top Rocks.
I'm gonna start with the front, go to the sides
and then go to the back, okay?
You don't have to do it the exact same time as me,
but guess what, you don't have to do it
the exact same way as me either.
If you're doing your Top Rock a little different, good.
We actually love that in hip hop and breaking,
we want you to look a little different.
You don't have to look like Anna Banana Freeze, okay.
So let's do it front step, side step and back step.
Ready, set, go.
♪ One, two ♪
♪ Step to the front ♪
♪ And actually, you know what ♪
♪ I'm going to stop saying one, two ♪
♪ Because when you're dancing, ♪
♪ You don't really count ♪
♪ You just feel and you move okay ♪
♪ And now I'm gonna go to the side ♪
♪ One, two ♪
♪ Or not go ♪
♪ Step to the back ♪
♪ Back, ♪
♪ Back ♪
And stop, (sighs) okay.
I'm not sure how much physical activity
you've been getting, while you haven't been in school.
But if that was your first time in a long time moving
and getting off your couch, congratulations.
I'm a little winded
'cause I haven't been dancing that much either.
So this is practice for me too.
Now, let's do that again one more time,
except this time I'm just gonna say go.
I'm just gonna say go,
if you want to do a different Top Rock,
maybe you have an idea
of a move you want to do that standing up.
You could totally do that right now, okay?
I'm just gonna do some Top Rocks too.
But I'm still gonna say go, okay?
So get ready, (inhales and exhales) ready, set, go
You got step to the front still, step to the back.
You could take turns with your feet
or maybe one foot.
Is really excited to dance
and you could step multiple ways,
lots of different ways with one foot
and the other foot could stay down on the floor.
Maybe you could keep going back and forth.
Maybe you wanna jump around and hop.
Or like this and hop.
Maybe you wanna turn,
maybe you wanna jump.
Any Top Rocks you wanna do.
And three, two, one, and stop (sighs)
That made me a little sweaty.
If you need to pause this video
and take a little water break, you can do that.
Okay, I'm back.
I don't think I need some water right now.
So I'm gonna keep going.
Those were our Top Rocks,
those were the moves that we do
when we're standing up and we're breaking.
But now, you know what?
I think I'm ready to go down to the floor.
When you go down to the floor, in breaking,
it's called a Drop or a Get Down.
And drops are my favorite move,
my favorite moves to do, right now.
I love finding different ways to get down to the floor.
And we're going to do a really,
really, really simple way of getting down right now.
First, feet open, and let's pretend,
actually you know what?
Let's do a few Top Rocks first.
So ready, set, Top Rock.
♪ Ready, set and stop ♪
So when I stop, my feet ended up a little open like this.
So if you didn't, if your feet didn't end up open like this,
go ahead and have your feet open right now.
And then for the Drop, we're gonna step back first.
Ready, set, step back (stamps).
Did you hear that?
I kind of stomped, I kind of stomped.
It's kind of like a, it's a very sassy step-back.
So I'm gonna step again.
Ready, set, step back (stamps).
That was a little loud.
If there's someone taking a nap downstairs,
so you have to be quiet.
You don't have to stomp very loud, okay.
I'm gonna do that again, one more time.
Ready, set, step back, (stamps) okay?
After I step back, the knee or the foot that step back,
that knee is gonna go down.
So go down, and oh,
did you notice my other knee is in front like this?
Maybe yours is too.
So since it's here,
I wanna rest a little bit like this, rest, okay?
And when you're resting, when you're stopping movement
and breaking it's called a Freeze.
So this is actually a Drop or a Freeze.
So let's try that again.
So we went down, ready, set, freeze.
Hold it, okay (sighs) okay.
Let's try a different one.
Do a different pose than you did from the last one.
Ready, set, freeze.
So my knees still down and this knee is still in front too,
but I chose a different position to freeze at.
We're gonna do one more different one.
Ready, set, freeze.
So that was another freeze.
But you know what?
I totally just realized that we didn't practice
the actual going down part of that move.
So let's do that two times, ready?
Feet open, ready?
Set step back, ready?
Set, go down and freeze.
Did you notice I freezed right away
once I went down to the floor, I'm gonna do that again.
Stand up, feet open.
And this time when you step back though,
do something cool with your arms, okay?
Could be like this, could be like this, could be like this.
Ready, set and freeze.
That wasn't a Freeze.
Actually that was a Freeze and a step back.
Let's do that again, I'm gonna say ready, set, step back.
Ready, set, step back.
And then we do Freeze for a moment,
then we go down and freeze right away, nice job.
And you could find different ways of a freezing.
Down like this, you could freeze like this.
Or maybe one hand could be up.
Maybe, I don't know you end up doing something else.
But we went down and we went to our knee
and this is our Freeze on the floor.
You know what? My memory is not very good.
So, oh, oh!
I think I wanna review the moves so I can remember them.
A lot of times when I learn moves,
I learn everything and it's really fun.
But then at the end, I forget all the moves I learned.
So I want to make sure you don't forget too.
Stand up and we're gonna review the Top Rocks.
We did three Top Rocks today, front two-step,
side two-step and back two-step.
Try it with me, okay?
Ready, set, and you can move your arms however you want.
Ready, set, go.
This is front two-step.
I'm not gonna to count it.
I don't think you need me to count anymore,
but if it's helpful, you can count for yourself
and say one, two, one, two.
Now I'm gonna go to the side,
and then changing my arms.
Sometimes I like to roll my hands
when I'm stepping to the side, then go back, back,
like this, back, back, ready, stop (sighs).
Now that we did our Top Rocks,
let's review the one Drop that we learned today.
It starts with our feet open.
Ready, set, step back.
(Stamps)
Ready, set, go down and Freeze, okay.
You hold still, freeze,
whatever position you want,
my knee in front is up and my knee,
or my leg, that I stepped back with,
my knee ended up going down, alright.
So, that's all for the lesson today,
the next video we're actually gonna have some music playing
and we're going to do some reviews,
but also learn a new Drop
and maybe start doing some moves on the floor.
I'm Anna Banana Freeze, thanks for watching.
(bright upbeat music)