Liquid dancing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Liquid dancing (or liquiding) is a form of gestural, interpretive dance that sometimes involves pantomime. The term invokes the word liquid to describe the fluid-like motion of the dancer's body and appendages. It is primarily the dancer's arms and hands which are the focus, though more advanced dancers work in a full range of body movements. Liquid dancing has many moves in common with popping, born out of 80s b-boy and funk style dance movements.
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[edit] Origins
The root origin of liquiding is a point of contention between those who practice liquid dancing. Some argue that it is a unique dance indigenous to rave culture and started in the early 1990s in conjunction with the rave movement. While rave later stagnated, liquid dancing has become a standing part of club- and street dancing.
B-boys and funk stylists generally contend that liquid dancing is a development of waving, a technique in popping. Liquid dancing covers many of the same fundamentals as popping and it is fully possible (and common) for dancers to combine the styles, further blurring the distinction between the two. The defining difference is liquid dancing concentrating on smooth movements while popping is characterized by pops (hits) and contractions. The dancer known as Tiny Love specializes in this form of dance.
[edit] Techniques and styles
[edit] Hand flow
This style is identifiable by long flowing abstract movements and intricate patterns.
[edit] Rails
See also: Tutting
This style is characterized by the geometric, straight, predefined paths of the hands and the sharp 90 degree turns of the paths (usually to floor).
[edit] Waves
Waves are an attempt to maintain the illusion that a wave is passing through one's body by the isolation and alternating tensing and relaxing of one part of the body at a time at a steady speed in a constant direction.
[edit] Traces
Traces are a technique where one's hand follows the path of a wave going through one's body. The hand moves at the same speed and in the same direction as the wave. The history of waves from my research go back to the Bay area and Oakland with a move called the TIDAL WAVE, which was also a popular dance as seen in the Michael Jackson "Beat It" video. There have been similar moves done in MIME as well as in dance style from the East. Which brings us to an important Pioneer from the early Cotton Club era. Earl Tucker ("Snake Hips") was a performer at the Cotton Club during the days of Duke Ellington. His style of dance is definitely related that of waving that you see young Hip Hop dancers still doing today. (read more about Snake Hips.) The ARM WAVE is just one aspect of waving, And while it is difficult to teach this move without visuals, I will explain a technique I used as a kid to get a good wave.
1- Sit by a flat table like surface. 2- place your arm from pit to fingertips flat on the table. 3- now starting with the finger tips, bend your first finger digits (while the rest of your arm is completely flat) 4- now bend your hand at the knuckles (straightening your fingers at the same time) 5- now bend at the wrist (the whole point of this exercise is to always keep all other arm joints flat as can be on the table) 6- now bend at the elbow (strengthening your wrist) 7- now touch your chin with your shoulder, and completely straighten your arm out. 8- now reverse this whole exercise back to the finger tips.
[edit] Threads
This style maintains the illusion that one is pulling parts of their body through holes created by the positioning of ones arms. An example of this would be holding one's shoulder to create a closed loop which the other arm goes through. These are performed at the same speed as the flow of the liquid and waves to maintain an illusion of continuity.
[edit] Contours
This technique entails the hands following exactly the outline of an object, real or imaginary. Most commonly the hands follow the outline of one's own body.
[edit] Splits
This technique is characterized by the hands moving independently of each other while maintaining the illusion of a fluid relationship between each other. One way of achieving this illusion is by having one hand in front of the other and each hand reflecting the motion of the other.
[edit] Builds
Builds identified by the manipulation of imaginary objects in a manner similar to pantomiming. The movements are carried out at the same speed as the flow of the liquid to maintain an illusion of continuity. These moves can be combined with video editing to show the imaginary object being manipulated as the person dances.
[edit] Gear
Some liquid practitioners commonly accentuate their dance with light emitting gear. Typically the gear will consist of either glowsticks or very bright LED keychain lights called photons. When a dancer specializes in glowsticks, the dance often ceases to resemble liquid and is then referred to as glowsticking.
[edit] External links
- Reflective - Liquid Dance Community Forums
[edit] Video clips
- Liquid Pop Collective Eric's arcade clip (YouTube Macromedia Flash)
- Phedhex Virtual Boxes video (YouTube Macromedia Flash)
[edit] See also
| Street dance |
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| Breakdancing - Hip hop dance - Krumping - Liquid dancing - Locking - Popping - Robot - Tutting - Uprock |
