How to Dance at a Club or Party: an Analytical Approach
So you may have heard that I’m teaching a new class at the Google Dance Studio – How to Dance at a Club or Party: An Analytical Approach. I think this is currently my favorite class, but it’s also my most challenging – there’s a lot of work involved in breaking down all those elements of movement that make someone look “natural”.
I’ve had so many friends ask me what the heck I’m teaching in that class, that I thought I’d put up a bit of my curriculum / a few of my review videos so you can share in the joy.
It’s a 7 week course, and here’s the overview of the curriculum:
- Parsing music: How to hear beat, rhythm, measures, upbeat vs. downbeat, melody and harmony
- Translating sound into movement: How to turn what you hear into dancing
- Overall Picture: Posture, Angles, Coordination, and Resistance
- Body Isolations: How to move individual parts of your body (ribs, hips, body rolls, etc)
- Male vs Female Movement, and a Brief top 10 of “Don’t”s
- How to Interact with Others
- How to Teach Yourself
I’m particularly proud of some of the segments (like how to tell the difference between “good” posture, “bad” posture, “dance” posture, and “hip hop” posture). I also get a total kick out of the powerpoint presentation and flow chart that go with the class series. Most importantly, I have seen a lot of improvement already in the 60-70 folks who are showing up for class each week (good job guys!)
I’ve been told that I ought to package the whole curriculum and sell it (in my copious amounts of spare time). I doubt I will have time, but I am considering it, and due to that I will not post all of my videos here (I am posting them internally at Google, check my internal account for all the videos and powerpoint notes).
None the less, here’s a few videos for fun:
Posture Basics:
Angles:
Coordination:
Resistance:
For the Googlers who are reading, there is only a few more weeks of class left, so come out on Wednesdays at 5:30 pm to the studio! This is a one time only class, so don’t miss it! Each class is it’s own unit, so feel free to come out even if you’ve missed prior classes.
See you soon,
Anna
Hip Hop at Google
Hey Dancers!
Sorry I’ve been so slow in making videos for our cardio hip hop class – the Google dance studio has eaten my life.
Just a brief update on hip hop at Google – we now have 5 hip hop classes per week (what???)
- Total beginners: How to dance at a Club or Party: An Analytical Approach (Wednesdays at 5:30 pm)
- Beginners: Club Zumba (Mondays at 4 pm, follow along dancing to pop / club / hip hop music, simple steps, great cardio)
- Beginning Intermediate: Cardio Hip Hop (Mondays and Wednesdays at 7 pm, lots of workout, some fun steps, short routine)
- Intermediate Advanced Hip Hop: with Arlene Lee (Thursdays at 4 pm, prepare to perform an awesome hip hop routine!)
All classes are in the new Google dance studio, except for the Cardio hip hop, which is still in B 40 as always.
I know this is *lots* of options – perhaps too many? Please tell your friends about all of the options – I think there are Googlers out there who don’t know that the right class exists for them. If everyone finds the class that is right for them, there will be enough dancers total to fill up all those classes. I hope that you will still come out and support the Cardio Hip Hop class in B 40 – I would hate to have to end the class due to lack of participation. We’ve been going strong for a year, and it would be great to keep going!
Anyways, here are the steps that we are doing right now if you want to review:
And here are the steps a little faster with the counts:
See you in class on Monday / Wednesday at 7 pm.
New Bollywood Dances
Hi guys!
Sorry I’ve been so slow with making videos – the Google dance studio has eaten my life. =)
We’ve done a few new Bollywood dances, first to Mast Kalandar from “Heyy Babyy”:
Here are the steps slowly:
and here it is with music:
The second dance we’ve done lately is Zoobie Doobie from 3 Idiots:
Here are the steps:
And here it is with the music:
Thanks for coming to class! It’s always great to see you… for those who haven’t been in awhile, the Oracle Bollywood class is on Fridays at 11 am. I have also been teaching these Bollywood routines in Around the World class at Google, Tuesday and Thursday at 4 pm. Finally, we do at least one Bollywood in Zumba class, Mondays at 8:20 am at Reach, or Thursdays at 10 am at 24 hr fitness.
See you soon!
Anna
Hip Hop Videos – Finally!!
It’s great to have my video camera back – it was being used for the Google dance program, and thus I haven’t been doing videos for ages. Actually, that’s really just an excuse for me being a very busy slacker!
Anyways, finally! A hip hop video! I know the steps have been pretty tricky, hopefully this will help all you new kids to enjoy class with us on Mondays and Wednesdays in the B 40 Gym. December classes are free – so bring a friend who’s been stalling, tell them this is the time to try it out.
Hip Hop steps:
Can you tell it was a little cold in the studio??
Hip Hop w Counts:
See you soon,
Anna
Oracle Diwali videos
Yeah! We finally have some videos of the Bollywood dance performances at the Oracle Diwali celebration.
Here’s the video from Desi Girl performance:
and Here’s the video from Marjaani performance:
All Oracle employees and family members are welcome to take Bollywood dance class at Oracle on Fridays at 3 pm, see you then!
Diwali at Oracle
Congratulations to all the dancers / musicians / actors who performed at the Oracle Diwali – what a show!
I was impressed by the content of the “skits” that the actors / singers performed in between the dance numbers. Usually I find skits to be tedious and just want to get on to the dancing. Although some of the skits were a little slow / long, I found the content to be interesting, especially in respect to Indian families and friends and work.
It was also really fun to see how interactive the Emcees were with the audience. The audience was willing to sing along in the microphone, answer questions, and even tell jokes on the fly! I thought the audience was much more willing to participate than audiences I have seen in the past.
I was very proud of my groups who performed the opening number to “Desi Girl” and the closing number to “Marjaani” – they did very well with their steps and looked great because they smiled and enjoyed themselves!
I don’t yet have photos / video from the show – I am sure I will get them soon. In the meantime, I was pretty happy with the new blue lengha that I had for that day. It served well at Oracle Diwali, and I wore it later that evening at Cheryl Burke Starlite to teach the beginner’s class (salsa, rumba, and waltz). It was fun to dance in, but I forgot that they would have a hard time seeing my footsteps in such a long skirt! Oh well, it was still fun to swirl around.
If you have videos or photos from the show, please comment and post them below – I would love to see them!
It’s really nice having my favorite photographer back in town – missed you bebe!
Latin Jazz Rumba Routine – Do you only want to dance
Hey Latin Jazz dancers,
Had a great time dancing with you all this past week, and I finally did videos!
Here’s the steps for our latest routine to Mya’s “Do you only want to dance” from the Dirty Dancing Havana soundtrack.
and here it is with the counts:
and here it is with music:
See you in class soon!
Oracle Diwali Performance
Hi all!
So I’m very excited that we are going to be participating in this year’s Diwali performance.
We will be practicing for on Sundays for the next few weeks, for Desi Girl at 1:30 pm, Marjaani at 3 pm.
Here are a few videos to get you started on the steps:
Desi Girl:
Group 1 Steps:
Group 1 with Music:
Group 2 Steps:
Marjaani Steps:
Marjaani More info on Steps:
Marjaani with Music:
The dance captain for Desi Girl is Vidya Tiru is for Marjaani is Cristal Tsang. They will be contacting you all soon to set up your rehearsals for during the week. I know that many of you are excited to dance in both numbers, but do be aware that there will be lots of rehearsals. If you think you will not be able to go to all the rehearsals, you might want to pick just one dance to perform.
Thank you all for your great energy and fun style, I will see you Friday at 3 pm for class, and review of the steps directly after.
GoogleMela Show at Google
So many of you may have been wondering what I’ve been up to for the past month…
There was a big International Cultural Festival celebration timed with India Independence Day this year at Google. I got involved as the performance coordinator / teacher / stage manager / Emcee… lots of hats = lots of fun but also = not doing much else besides the show!
It was great that my GFit Around the World and Zumba classes performed (a cha cha and cumbia, respectively). One of my favorite parts was the ending – we all danced Jai Ho together, and the audience totally got into it! I was so excited that the day had gone so well that I look a little spazzy in the video, but oh well!
I was really happy that my GFit Bollywood class got a chance to perform. I was not planning on dancing with them, but one of the dancers had a last minute emergency and had to fly out of town – so I’m in the mix! This is Love Mera Hit Hit from Billu Barber:
I was also super proud of my Bollywood Medley dancers who put together this crazy long routine in just a few weeks. Even more impressive is that they practiced for weeks with a 16′ by 16′ area in mind, and then had to change it day of to 12′ by 24′. I was so glad that no one fell off the stage!
We’ll be posting the professional videos soon, so check back in – more to come!
Partner Salsa dancing videos
Hey Salsa Dancers!
Hope you’ve been enjoying our classes so far – you guys have learned a ton in just two classes! We’ll do lots of review to make sure it all sticks. Here are some videos from the first class – hope they help with review. I’ll make sure we tape the other steps this week in class.
Here’s a walk through of the basic steps:
And here are the steps with some music:
See you Thursday at 8 pm for more salsa – and remember next month is tango, so sign up now to save your spot!
