Clown walk
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The Clown Walk (also known as the C-Walk) refers to a modern dance style, usually done to hip hop music. It is a variation of the Crip walk, a gang related dance. Clown Walking, however, was created to distance the relationship between the dance style and the Crips gang. Another variation of Clown Walking is Crown walking, which focuses mostly on flow rather than speed and flash.
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[edit] Cwalk Styles
[edit] Crip Style
The Crip Style focuses on a clean walk, defined moves and a slower walk. Crip style is the original or is similar to the original style. Though this is the Crip Style, not the actual Crip Walk. There are no gang signs, but the moves are very similar. Some say the Crip Style does not have Heel-toes, because then it would be the Clown Walk or Crown Walk. The style is popular among more veteran Cwalkers. Mr Criminal, Snoop Dogg, Mr. Shadow and other underground artists create good Crip Walk songs, but truly good songs are hard to come by because the beat needs to be slower.
[edit] Clown Style
The Clown style is a fast moving, flashy style that many walkers in the cwalk community prefer. Though it does not focus on precision or a clean walk, it does impress with its speed and flash. This style allows for people to create any moves they wish and incorporate it into their walk, hence why it is so popular. Popular and underground artists like Swollen Members, Cormega, Busta Rhymes, Coolio and more make excellent Clown Walk songs.
[edit] Crown Style
The Crown style is a paced style that focuses on variations, style and flow. Though many do not recognize this as a real style, it is still considered a style. The Crown style has all of the moves of the Clown style, however, the style is about more "circular" movements, moving in ways that increases the flow of the walk. Eazy-E, Ice Cube, D-Pryde and Snoop Dogg create good Crown Walk songs.
[edit] Moves
The basic, most well known moves of the cwalk are the following:
- V Variations
- Shuffle
- Heeltoe
- Hops
- Floor Taps / Swipes
From these 5 you can expand the list, V Variations include the stepback, the V and many variations of the V.
The Shuffle includes the Shuffle kick, Shuffle, Shuffle spin and more.
The heeltoe can become the Snake heeltoe, the heeltoe spin and the regular heeltoe.
The Hops can include X-Hops, Side-side hops and variations of such.
Floor taps and swipes are just that, they incorporate upper body into their walk.
Many moves come from other hip-hop dances as well. Many walkers like to slide, glide, moonwalk and add kneedrops and such to their walk, which is why a "Complete" move list is not available. There are indeed over 100 different variations and moves to the cwalk and each day there are more made as people strive to be unique and achieve Special Memberships on Cwalk forums. The examples above are simply common moves and their common variations.
[edit] Cwalker Exposure
Many Cwalkers are well known throughout the cwalk community, whether they were the best, the most well known, provided the best tutorials or even just properly promoted themselves, these people have been widely recognized by the cwalk communities and regarded as rolemodel cwalkers that got other started with the dance. Other Cwalkers have contributed as well, by providing great tutorials, music packs or just spreading their knowledge locally to their community. Many Cwalkers have made the Cwalk as popular as it is today.
Many of the famous Cwalkers have a website they represent, which grows the website considerably. Most cwalk websites include a forum for tutorials, music, cwalk discussion or just hanging around. These forums with the famous members have grown considerably and have become portals to the cwalk world which has led many people to create their own Cwalk Forums and has begun site battles to decide which site has the best members or even just to promote friendly competition while growing both sites.
Cwalker exposure is essential in getting well known, the well known Cwalkers may not always be the best, but they are the most well known and admired for attracting people to the cwalk community and providing tutorials for new Cwalkers.
[edit] Mixtapes and Videos
Many Cwalkers participate in Mixtapes in order to promote themselves and the websites they go to. Mixtapes are a mix of Cwalkers on a website and are used mainly to promote and also to boost website morale. Mixtapes may be made for anniversaries, special events, holidays or even to promote Crews. Cwalk websites usually have frequent Mixtapes to keep the community interest.
Cwalkers also submit their own private videos to get criticism on their cwalk, to dedicate to their loved ones or just to promote themselves or their website. Some Cwalkers have submitted many while others only have a few. Submitting too many videos will make viewers bored of your style, while submitting too few videos will make viewers lose interest altogether. Submitting a video monthly or bi-monthly is the recommended dosage of cwalk you should give your audience.
[edit] Learning the Cwalk and Practicing It
The cwalk can be a difficult dance to learn if a person is not dedicated to it. Learning the cwalk can take anywhere from a month to several months, however, mastering the cwalk can take months to even years. Since the cwalk takes endurance and agility, many cwalkers who are larger or heavier may have a harder time performing the dance than those who are smaller and shorter. This leads to differences in styles and may make it harder to master for those who are disadvantaged. However, each person is able to be a good Cwalker with the right amount of practice and discipline.
You can learn the Cwalk from people you know that may know the cwalk, but most people new to the cwalk learn it online via Youtube or other such video submission websites where they can view tutorials and learn the dance through other experienced users. Since there are thousands of tutorials out there for the cwalk, it is very easy to find a good starting point.
Practice is essential to keeping you skills intact. Many cwalkers practice daily, however due to work or school, many are not able to dedicate time out of their day to practice.
[edit] Cwalk Communities
There are already many cwalk websites around the internet. Many websites have recently sprung up and are now competing for members. Many websites are country based, such as America, Netherland, Poland, Germany and there are even continent cwalk sites such as China and Australia. Many of the sites that are specialized have only one language which means they appeal to a smaller audience, but they capture most of the audience in their zone.
Cwalk websites can be found by "Googling" Cwalk and searching through the search pages. The most popular are listed at the top and the newer websites are listed on further pages. A person should not feel restricted to join a larger website as smaller websites may offer opportunities such as Staff and Special Ranks or other positions that the larger websites may have more restrictive requirements on. The best way to decide which community to join is to do your research and find one that you can most relate to.
