hey man, freestyle is all i do, even if you can't think of making a routine, just flow with the song. (ps - just remember every damn beat of the music)
@@SarthakMishraDance thanks man. I needed to hear that. I stopped dancing and it's been 2 years. I guess peer pressure got the best of me. Still struggling to bounce my way back.
Same here man I stopped dancing because I was afraid. But I recently started again and it's amazing. Don't forget that it's never to late to (re)start dancing
Mr Cosmos Sphere you should watch some Kevin paradox videos, he talks a lot about how to overcome those type of problems in dance such a repeating moves.
@@itsjustlisha Paradox talked about this in a certain episode of ask a paradox. He said that turn your weakness into your strength, in order to do that. We take the move that we do over and over again, and then make at least 5 variations of it. There are also other things that Paradox tackled in that video like how to practice properly.
I personally get scared because I feel like ppl judge me when I dance. I tend to freeze up inside and I move very stiff. I also have a tendency to do the same moves because I’m really terrible with switching to something new and then keep being consistent with it.
Maybe cause u don t feel the music enough for be confortable about what u do. If u feel the music, automatically, ur freestyle ll be dope. U don t need to be the best dancer but be the most enjoy dancer in the room. More u enjoy what u do, more the crowd ll. Be connect to u.
I started dancing by freestyling, and now I know why I struggle with remembering choreography in my team. I and my team are always frustrated about how I interpret a movement in my own way (I freestyle to popping and locking styles while I am in a K-Pop team now). I feel much better now that it's a common thing.
Ah indeed freestyle is completely different from group choreography. The hardest part is how everyone has to match their executions so it looks clean and in-sync. For Kpop I look at the dance practice very meticulously to find all the appropriate angles and positions for the body, and then look at how and when the dancers use energy.
I think learning freestyle helps a lot being a choreographer. Sometimes you can create unique moves or combos when you’re doing a freestyle session which you can later incorporate into your routines. Helps if you have “choreo block”.
Yuuuup. Half the time, my choreos start with freestyling to the song. I try to find the shapes and movements that fit the song, and see if anything fits so well I have to keep it.
I suck at choreo and I’ve been dancing for 11 years. Finally ready to start learning choreo tho. So it doesn’t matter which way you start. Perhaps the best advice would be to start with choreo and freestyle
@@Dark_Angel555 Freestylers will start with sucking at choreo, but their way less self conscious about trying Choreo. Whereas most people who start with Choreo wont Freestyle as they are too scared to or have too little confidence in themselves to try
@@Dark_Angel555 yes actually to a certain degree. I’ve seen so many freestylers do more decently learning choreo for the first time than choreographers learning how to freestyle.
When I see better people than me freestyle go first, I get so scared to go after them. The dance classes I go to sometimes breaks out in freestyles and there are always those people who are just BOMB.. I would go after them but why?! I really do feel that people would question why I went in. I love freestyling at home so I'll start with this and one day, I'll jump in that circle ;D
I'm the opposite, I freestyle constantly and have no problem dancing to whatever song is put on, but when I did try a basic dance class and they wanted us to follow a choreography I had such a hard time timing and doing the right moves, feeling like I had to do the same part 20x more than everybody else to get half as good. So this story was a real eye opener, thank you
Freestyling is the external expression of how we are responding to the music. There’s an internal listening and translating that goes on really rapidly. But… we are taught to stay focused on the external world, to follow the leader, and rarely encouraged to listen to our bodies (in general society - maybe less so in dance circles), so some of us have a harder time tuning in to the many ways our bodies want to move. I noticed this when I was teaching yoga - I did a section where I asked students to tune in to their bodies and do the poses their bodies wanted to do in that moment, and it was nearly impossible for most of them. I found this fascinating - they could not hear their own bodies desires. Anyway, I believe the more we can learn to lovingly tune in to how our bodies are responding to the music, the more internal our focus is, the easier freestyling becomes. I’ve been dancing for six decades, and I didn’t have a name for how I move until coming here. I’m freestyle all the way. Happy to learn new ways to move, but finding the greatest joy in making it up as I go. Dance on, all you beautiful souls.
Wow Jessie thanks for opening up and being so honest. Thanks for the reminder that all dancers at some point struggle with freestyling, or choreo, or for some of us, both lol
I started with choreography and did that for years. Just last year I started learning freestyle and now I prefer freestyle over choreography. Being comfortable with both definitely brings your dance game up!
Omg I can relate so much. I’ve always danced in a group and learned choreography. Even though I’ve won so many championships with my dance crew, you would never see me anywhere freestyle😅
I really struggle with freestyling because I've always had to learn choreography for Chamorro dances/hula/Tahitian and ballet. When it comes to freestyling, I end up doing the same simple moves over and over to the beat.. or I try to make all the moves reflect the lyrics.
I LOVE THIS! WOW I can relate sis >_< I started dancing when I was 16 years old at this small place where we would learn latin style dance like Bachata, Cumbia, a little bit of Merengue. Everything was always choreographed and we would perform at quinceanera's or expo shows. I didn't realize dancing was something I really enjoyed and wanted to get better at until perhaps the year after, when my first dance teacher introduced us to a local hip-hop or "urban dance" youth team that was hosting auditions and workshop classes for new people. That's where I met my new dance teacher who honestly introduced me to this whole other side of the dance world I wasn't even aware existed. It was through there that I really started taking dancing so much more serious. When I first started there, I was horrible, and I low key felt embarrassed because I was 17 already and there were so many other kids in the team, much younger may I say, who were so much better. I struggled learning choreography, not to mention I didn't know how to breath, how to NOT go 150% the whole time, I had no textures, and I was always ahead of the music. The only thing I had was a little bit of rhythm and how to count music, at least at a basic level. As I realized there was so much more I had to learn, I was determined to do better and get better. Which I can now say I've decently gotten better, at least to like a nicely seasoned steak, not cooked yet. After a year there, I had always been interested in learning ballet and developing my flexibility and skills that they have in leaps and turns. Thankfully after our team transferred into a new, existing, studio space I began exploring their contemporary, jazz, lyrical, and technique classes. Again, another part of the dance word I had never experienced before but it was exactly what I had always naturally wanted to do. So, at 18 then I really took up on a lot of training to become better. Over the course of another year I joined their competition team, going to dance conventions in Dallas, TX and competing at regional dance competitions (not so much hip-hop competitions, they were more like the Radix type of competitions where styles are more contemporary, tap, jazz and lyrical routines). My teacher Rookie actually taught my solo for competitions which was a mix of I guess you could call "contemp-pop". I don't really like that word, it doesn't sound serious. I still did fifteens on the side, and actually began teaching technique classes here and there at our studio, and I had my first experience performing at a dance recital. Everything was so much fun and I learned a lot more about dancing with a partner, dancing as a group, I gained my right and slightly middles splits. My double turns got better and my leaps got pretty high considering flexibility restrictions. It was a whole new wave of transformation in my body as a dancer, you could say I was a steak steadily cooking on the grill now. However, as you can see, all of what I was doing is learning choreographies and learning how to express them through my body in the way that our teachers kind of envisioned it to look like. Throughout this whole time, I've always hated free styling. Whenever we would learn a combination in our weekly studio classes, they'd always throw in a free-styling section, whether it was in the beginning, a couple eight counts in the middle, or to finish it with some freestyle-ing, I couldn't, I hated it. I've just always felt like I didn't know how to. I still feel like I don't know how to. It's like yes I try to feel the rhythm, I try to listen to the beats, and the words in the song but my body just doesn't know how to translate moves into that just out of the blue, even worse to make them seem natural with the music. I always feel like I get stuck doing the same freaking move and then I find I'm not even following the music and then I start looking at myself too much and I start feeling ugly like nothing that I'm doing is making any sense and I just stop because I feel embarrassed. DON'T EVEN GET ME STARTED IN CHOREOGRAPHING! I find they're the exact same feeling and I hate it, I still don't feel comfortable choreographing, I find it extremely stressful. My teacher is always telling me I can do it, I should be able to do it at the place where I am in my dancing, and that I just need to be more confident with myself. And I understand where he's coming from because he's seen me freestyle successfully a few times and we've had choreography assignments here and there that don't look that bad. I just feel like, just similar to how being 20 can feel like, there's still a lot of disconnection in my dancing, kind of like a mental block, and so I just don't feel ready or comfortable yet. I do know that I can do it, I can do it sometimes, but I'm still not the best and as a dancer I know I still have a lot to learn. I'm not necessarily giving up on myself but I've been choosing not to force myself and if I start feeling anxious about it I stop, and I give myself a change in mentality, distract myself with something else for a little bit, maybe change the song. What I've been trying is to not let my mind create a toxic habit of making freestyling feel like a stressful task, I want my mind to remember that freestyling is meant to feel good. I haven't really done much of freestyling in front of people but thankfully I have a big mirror in my room and every now and then when I feel inspired by good music I'll let myself try to see what comes out naturally. Maybe with this quarantine break, once we go back to full dancing, my body may feel anew and perhaps "relearning" to dance may offer me a different pathway/point of view into the way I listen to my music and control my body. Keeping my hopes up, keeping my drive to learn going, and remembering why I like to dance. One step at a time.
I’m a freestyler who struggles with choreography. I’m self-taught and I basically do everything by myself. All I do is freestyle. It’s all that I am. Choreography super uncomfortable for me. I feels like I’m being restricted and controlled. I know that isn’t what’s happening, but I’m so used to only freestyling that’s what it feels like to me. I wish you luck on your journey!
For me actually the opposite sooo... need a tip for doing choreography and it's actually so hard to make one i always make a reason for me to not make or learn choreography srsly.. to be honest i to learn from your app but it's buggy in my country
My "ah hah" moment for learning choreography, was learning moves as if I was learning the words to a song or studying the elements of a piece of music the choreographer uses. The more you're exposed to choreography the more your body and mind will remember how to do it... Like, "okay I've done that move before" or "okay I've seen that before, and now I understand how to make it look". ALSO, ask questions if you don't understand how to transition from one element to another. A good choreographer will be HAPPY to break it down for you.
I suck at freestyling but Ive seen some of my Friends freestyle to the song they want to choreograf to and filming it so that they can watch it back and pick out moves they like for the choreo
Don’t be too hard on yourself:)) im still an amateur dancer that does freestyles but it is common to feel insecure. But just keep on freestyling. just feel yourself and let your body move and flow through the music. Get some headphones and burst ure ears with the music🤣 u can even close ure eyes to feel like you’re in your own world. Don’t be afraid to freestyle you will get better. And watch a lot of choreos and learn choreos aswell to gain more knowledge and to marinate the dances in your body. There will come a time when it will just be natural like nothing. U don’t have to think through every step like how you do when you choreograph just feel the music first:)))
I can freestyle in my head and its amazing, but when I actually try those dance moves that I just created in my head. I can’t do it....... I’m pretty sure it’s not just me....
yep, exactly. Bout now I see how to overcome: whenever I watch a dope move I try it on my own. Sometimes it sucks but sometimes, after long, long way of sucking it starts to work and look coo. After that I can add it to my own "vocabulary" and use it in freestyling. It takes time, a lot of time and practice, but really all those steezy classes I took helped me out a lot
Well for me, I'm currently going through freestyle in my own time, and I feel like I am slowly improving as I do it more. Although when someone says "go pop some moves for us" or "go dance for us" I get super shy, like stage fright, but the weird thing is that when I get into a certain vibe with everyone else dancing, whether if its freestyle or choreographed, I get into more of a dance vibe easier. I'm currently trying to get more comfortable with trying freestyle infront of other people who might not dance as much.
Yeahhhhhh. Exactly the same! I hate when people asked me... Please go and show some moves.... Then I get paralyze..but after a while when nobody ask and I feel everyone is in the same mood.. there I go!
Thank you! This made me feel so much better. Not being a strong free-styler has made me feel like 'less of a dancer', if you will. Yet, I've been told all my life what a great dancer I am. You've given me courage, THANKS AGAIN!!!
I started dance, mostly freestyle, in my basement during the first lockdown. I'm definitely not fully comfortable with a lot of things, but I think the comfort of my own home, with just myself and my camera (I even make sure people are asleep or not home when I dance), it's given me the space to mess up. And I can watch my videos back, see what I liked and what I didn't, and work on it. I'm excited for when in person events start up again, but I'm glad I started doing freestyle at home. I've never felt comfortable with dance, maybe because I wasn't allowed to as a kid, but I enjoy it and hope that confidence starts to come.
I went to the freestyle path and it helped me so much. I remember making a choreography for my friend’s cotillion and i always do it in a last minute. It was hard to make a dance move that everyone can easily do, especially the ones that doesn’t know how to dance.
I started dancing ballet at a young age and I'm so used to dance everything choreographed. Now I'm trying to yk expand my horizons a little bit on different dance styles, including freestyling but damn I feel like I'm learning how to move again,, it's like my whole life was choreographed !
Free-styling is my ACHILLES HEEL at auditions! Exactly like you, I'm great at picking up choreography, and have danced with some of the best in the industry, but even my freestyles have to be choreographed because most of the time, I freeze up 😑
I was the opposite. Was always a freestyler, and when I started taking choreo classes it took me like 6 months to be able to remember choreo. Drove me nuts.
It worked!!! I used to get stuck whenever I had to freestyle, but after trying these tips from @STEEZY, I loosened up and even got accepted to follow dance major on the school I always wanted! Thank you so so much STEEZY! love you guys
Thank jessie and steezy! Ahm... sometimes theres something in me that i think i will not be a dancer. But steezy make me realize that dancing is not to impress others but dancing is for yourself, and how can you show your feeling with dancing
For my as a freastyler I struggle to remember a choreography so much. I got recently to the point im ok with some choreo styles, and I pick them quickly but when it comes the time where in the class the teacher split the class in groups..... and above all when they record the official videos.... I get panic attacks and then I forget the whole choreo. I get paralize... Hhhahahaha im trying to get better but its taking me a lot of courage and focus. Im getting better and im happy. Small steps are huge changes! Now i am studying to become a dance therapist as I want to help people to unblock their bodies and feel them along with music : its the best feeling I ever have!
I have this issue.. I am so scared of free styling especially when theirs a cypher lol but I'm really grt at choreography I pick really fast and make choreographies and the reasons you gave are exactly same with mine😩.. I'm scared being judged, I always wanna deliver and I started learning and making choreos first as a dancer. I'm so happy I ain't alone on this and I'm super grateful to you Jessie for bringing this to light and giving tips to help overcome this problem. God bless you. Thank you steezy🙏💗
I found choreographers can transition well to freestyling since the only thing they need is to loosen up a bit. On the contrary, freestylers have a hard time ( double ) adjusting to choreography. If they go all out on their own moves and feelings, it is difficult to adjust to planned, disciplined flows.
I’ve danced choreography my whole life, I’m currently 20 years old, this video REALLY got to me. I’m considered a talented dancer (I think) and often gets chosen in class. I also feel pretty good when I take classes and do choreography, I also make my own. ALTHOUGH, freestyle is something I’ve started with recently and it makes me question myself so much. How can I call myself a dancer when I freestyle this bad?The emotion and feeling is there, but I don’t feel like I know any steps all of a sudden? I look lost and my arms are usually very uncomfortable, cuz I can’t come up with ANYTHING. I know that you should practice freestyle to any song, even better if you’ve never heard it, but my question is: Would it be okay to make a playlist of songs I know well and practice freestyle to them? Or how should I practice? I’m good at grooves and hiphop but how do I get CLEAR basic foundamental steps into my freestyle without having to think? Where do people learn foundamentals outside of class? RU-vid? What do I search? On Instagram? Mimicking other freestylers?
I have done a lot of different dance styles... I'm not super good at choreo but I pick up movements pretty well. Normally anytime there is music or people I love to test myself and dance and see how the crowd reacts. That has been my way of getting very good at freestyling .
Ohhhh my godd😱 both the things that you just said are soooooo true in my case 😂😂kindly make a video on how to improve at it...how to overcome this fear
I find that just shuffling through my playlist and dancing to whatever song comes on helps with being more comfortable dancing outside of choreographed pieces
This video is major facts, I’m lucky cause my first style of dance was breaking so freestyle was I was exposed to and just started learning moves in my basement. I took a 3 week battle class and joined my provinces biggest freestyle battle.... yep. But the studio I go to now is mainly choreography so I get the best of both world. Never was afraid of people judging my freestyle but when it came to showing choreo oh HELL nah, I was so scared. But now that I’m using STEEZY studio, Im getting better everyday. Thanks STEEZY🙌
I relate so much! I started dancing 8 years ago but my studio only ever offered choreography classes. I love doing choreography and I'm actually pretty decent at it (I guess lol) but I rarely ever tell people that I've been dancing for such a long time because I still often feel like I'm not very good, since I lack in freestyle and I feel like people automatically expect me to be over the top amazing because of my long training period. Thankfully I was able to meet some teachers who are very involved in the freestyle/battle scene where I live and although I still lack a lot, I'm not as afraid anymore of trying and they really shifted my perspective on freestyle. thank you for this video, it was very comforting ❤️
thank you for sharing this with us. I like to freestyle in front of my friends when they're practicing a song and I don't know the choreo, but if someone asks me to do it in a party I would deff deny bc I know I suck at dancing. But this video helped me and know I will practice my moves and record myself so I can be more conscious about how I move so I enjoy more dancing.
I guess I'm freestyle dancer because first I struggle to catch choreo and second don't know how some my own steps start including in the other choreos...
i also grew up in choreography and I have this classmate rn that is VERY good in freestyling and I was really insecure. He's been doing sessions and battles while I mostly dance in church, school and home (which made me very flexible in different style of dancing and genres). I tried freestyling, alone obviously, and I SUCK. I'd say I'm pretty good with choreograph and I suck at freestyle. I really thought I'm a bad dancer but watching this, it kind of made me feel better a bit
For freestyling, you can freestyle set moves as well, Mr. Wiggles used to freestyle between set moves so that he got out his big moves, but without compromising his impactful moves, so even within freestyle there are different approaches. His approach was like an intermediate between choreo and freestyle.
I always have a giant insecurity towards freestyle since i was a kpop cover for 5 years. But i'm takin a freestyle class now, making a effort to overcome my fear of freestyling. Though i tottaly screw up the 1st day at the class but this video gave me more motivation to keep on working on to get rid of my fear :'( Thank you so much steezy
Thank you for sharing it,Jessie!This is relatable in so many ways. I LOVE LOVE dancing and especially freestyling only ALONE tho. I love just enjoying the music and suddenly dancing because my body just feels like it LMAO. Everyone has their own insecurities and stories and we are all different.
I can relate to EVERY SINGLE WORD........ not kiding honestly..... I m so happy to find out it is normal to feel insecure about freestyling Thank you Steezy will try to work on it more now....
I use to freestyle confidently years ago. Then the culture of dance changed and I heard people judging and mocking me. Now I'm scared of freestyling because I'm not yet versed in current dance culture. I am a Steezy member and am learning new moves but I still only freestyle behind closed doors. I'm still not great because I don't naturally choose the new moves.
My biggest challenge is balancing the feel and vocabulary. To overcome this I have evening training sessions where I do one technique per week. Master two or three move and end of month combine them in a freestyle
"Scared of people judging me" is true with me though because I have been dancing for years and my insecurities come from the fact that sooo many dance teachers always told me that I am bad at dancing. I am not a natural dancer and I know that but tbh I guess I would finally start to make better progress when I wouldn't be paralyzed every time I am supposed to dance in front of someone 🙈 I won't stop working on myself no matter what they say and I am starting to finally get better (or at least I hope so) and start to care less about what other people think but the hurt lies deep when people you admire tell you you suck again and again.
girl same... my hiphop teacher really loves making us suffer (do freestyle) every class, and every time i feel like ppl are looking at me and thinking wow she's so bad. idk why but i thought the better u dance the better your freestyle is but apparently not ... for now im just able to do it alone in front of my mirror lmao
This is so on point. I also started dancing by learning choreography and grew up, still learning choreography. I really hate it when someone would put me on the spot and I feel like I would be such a laughing stock when I do freestyling. I sucks too, as well in making choreography. Hopefully I would overcome this
Thank you! Now I know why I dont like choreography classes that much and have hard time following them :D But I take them anyway, only I do not take the whole choreo - only choose the moves that feel right to me and incorporate them in my fav songs. I only wish there were more features to STEEZY app, like adding your own notes to classes or "cut" and loop or save only one small part of the class. I do things like these using other tools (google docs, google sheets with screenshots) so that I build my own "library" of moves that suit me and help me develop my own style. Maybe this is an idea of a feature to add...? Anyone else feels this way?
One day we did a freestyling lesson and I never freestyled in front of other or even on my own before. So I didn't move and just stood there doing nothing. I was so afraid so I immediately left the group and never came back again😔. But two years later I'm starting to improve and now I'm more able to freestyle on my own and move a bit in front of others. I'm a really really shy and closed person when it comes to dancing. So if I'm even able to do it so can you. Whoever reads this I believe in you though it's hard! But you get there.
yassssss me who really want to freestyle searched this on steezy immediately ..... and agree with jessie sooo much cause i started of with choreographies too and freestyling or like when people ask me to dance i kinda like plan what moves to do , if i dont have them i am realllly scared
I decided to formally join a dance class (I was self taught prior) last year and about 1/4 of each session was free styling. My teacher told me I won’t be able to do it because I don’t have good training like these other girls and not enough moves to make it happen. I Quit.
Yes I think you should try again by your self or at a new studio! The teacher has no right to say that when they have mandatory freestyle sessions, they should encourage all students. Look for a more friendly/inclusive studio or some friends to dance with?
Used to be more comfortable with choreography due to the anxiety of freestyle infront of others but now I much prefer just FEELING it and freestyling. I'm teaching myself to hold eyecontact with the camera and using my face! And pretend that noone else is there... 😊
