BEYOND THE MOVES
Developing Your Unique Advanced Hip Hop Style and Artistic Voice
You've mastered the foundational grooves. You can hit the beats with precision. Your isolations are clean, your power moves are explosive. You've studied the greats—from the smooth glides of Poppin' Pete to the raw energy of Les Twins. Your camera roll is a library of choreography tutorials and cypher videos.
But when the music drops, does it feel like you're speaking someone else's words? Are you assembling a puzzle with pieces that were made for someone else's picture?
It's time to stop copying and start creating. This is your guide to finding what makes your dance authentically, undeniably YOU.
The Mirror Lie
We've all been there. The mirror becomes our judge, jury, and executioner. We relentlessly compare our reflection to the dancers we idolize, trying to mold our bodies into their signature moves. This mimicry is a crucial part of the learning process—it's how we build vocabulary. But vocabulary alone doesn't make a poet.
The mirror lies because it only shows the surface. It doesn't show your why. It doesn't show the story only you can tell. True style isn't manufactured in the reflection of a studio; it's forged in the fires of your experiences, your emotions, and your unique perspective on the world.
Your Body is Your Instrument, Not Theirs
Your body has its own unique proportions, its own strengths, its own history. The way you move is filtered through your physicality. Maybe you don't have the hyper-flexibility of your favorite flexer, but you have a powerful groundedness that they lack. Perhaps your background in martial arts or gymnastics gives you a dynamic that is uniquely yours. Stop fighting your body and start listening to it. What feels good? What feels powerful? What feels like home?
The Blueprint to Your Voice
Finding your voice is an active process of excavation and experimentation. It's not about waiting for inspiration to strike; it's about digging for it. Follow this blueprint.
Audit Your Influences
Make a list of your top 5 dance inspirations. Now, for each one, write down three specific things you're drawn to: their musicality, their texture, their attitude. This isn't to copy them, but to understand what resonates with your soul. These are clues to your own aesthetic.
Identify Your "Root" Movement
Everyone has a default, a movement quality that feels most natural. Are you bouncy or smooth? Sharp and staccato or fluid and wave-like? Film yourself freestyling without thinking. Watch it back. What movement pattern do you keep returning to? That's your foundation. Amplify it.
Cross-Pollinate
Your style shouldn't just come from other hip-hop dancers. What other movement languages speak to you? The grace of a ballet port de bras? The sharp angles of voguing? The flow of a tai chi master? The swagger of a 70s soul singer? Steal from everywhere and filter it through a hip-hop lens.
Freestyle with Constraints
Instead of freestyling to everything, create limitations. Freestyle using only levels below your knees. Freestyle using only your upper body. Freestyle as if you're moving through water, then through fire. These constraints force innovation and reveal movement preferences you never knew you had.
Develop a Movement Mantra
Create a short phrase that is YOURS. It doesn't have to be complicated. It could be a simple step-touch with a specific arm gesture and head roll that just feels like you. Practice it until it's second nature. This is your signature, your anchor. Build outwards from there.
