Hip Hop Program
Nicholas Gates Hip Hop Program
Philosophy: Nicholas Gates goal is to help spread a greater understanding of the hip hop culture throughout the St. Louis area. He teaches with such enthusiasm and passion that the students cannot help but get caught up, soak in, and immerse themselves in steps and art of hip hop. Extremely important and central to Nick's program is his devotion to teaching the "4 elements of Hip Hop": Deejaying, Breaking, Emceeing, and Graffiti Art. To get a chance to experience all four elements take this opportunity to sign up for his Hip Hop Intensive Camp: Elemental Roots. (see summer schedule)
·        Deejaying: Hip Hop deejaying, or turntablism, is a comlex art. It consists of turntables, audio mixers, and original recordings. With these, the deejay performs techniques such as mixing, scratching, cutting and sampling to create an entirely new piece of music.Â
·        Breaking: The breakbeats of hip hop deejaying also gave birth to the dance form known as 'breaking' or 'B-boying'.  It's a high-energy combination of complex footwork, spins, kicks and 'freezes'. The heart of breaking is the battle, where individuals or crews compete for dance supremacy.   The character of breaking is sharp and short movements with flowing and wave-like motion, along with difficult floor acrobatics structured on balance techniques, and spinning on body parts such as the head, shoulders, and stomach.
·        Emceeing: It's the Emcee's job to entertain and keep the crowd going. Many people associate emceeing with rapping, but rapping is only one Emcee technique, others are 'beatbox' and 'call and response'. The poetry of hip hop is 'rap'. (lyrics)
·        Graffiti Art: This art exploded around 1971 when an article was written about a young 17 yrd old who tagged his way around the New York subways.  The 'tag' is the writers signature. There are 3 main types of graffiti art: the tag, the throw up (more evolved tag- colors and style), and then a 'piece' (a full masterpiece of art- and must consist of 3 colors). Graffiti Art is a public art form, often incorporating political and religious themes.
Throughout Year:Â Nick's Hip Hop Dance Classes
Hip Hop Beginner-Intermedate: Nick's dance classes focus on Breaking and Hip Hop Choreography. His classes are age-based, and then skill level. It is not uncommon to take an age-based class at any particular level for 1-3yrs. As Coordinator of the program, Nick approves the graduation of each student into the next level. These are hip hop technique classes and cover many facets such as; poppin', lockin', gliding, coordinating steps into combinations, study of musicality, and more. These classes are the building blocks to culminate in annual recital routines, and prepare students for the opportunity to audition for his Dance Crews. An advanced course will be introduced when we feel enough students are ready to move on.
Breakdance-Floorwork: This course is open to all ages. (7yrs+) It is highly recommended to take with the dance courses. This class focuses on strength training, upper body conditioning, and breaking techniques. Breakdance, breaking, b-boying or b-girling is a street dance style that evolved as part of the hip hop movement. There are four basic elements that form the foundation of breakdance. These are toprock, downrock (also known as footwork), power moves, and freezes. Toprock refers to any string of steps performed from a standing position, relying upon a mixture of coordination, flexibility, style, and rhythm. Downrock includes all footwork performed on the floor (like 6-step). Power moves are actions that require momentum and physical power to execute. In power moves, the breakdancer relies more on upper body strength to dance, using his or her hands to do moves. Power moves include the windmill, swipe, and flare. Breakdance sets usually end with freezes that halt all motion in a stylish pose.
Dance Crews: (Junior and Senior) A crew is a group of two or more b-boys or b-girls who choose to dance together.  Wildwood Dance and Arts now supports two hip hop dance crews: Junior (7-12yrs), and Senior (13yrs+). These crews are developed to perform at local venues, perfect their art of breaking, and compete ("battle") against other dance crews nationwide. Â
Weekly Classes ~ Sept 02-June 09
Class Title                Day    Time
| Senior Dance Crew (Team) |
Tues   6:30pm-8:30pm |
Beginner (7-12yrs)
|
Tues   5:20pm-6:20pm |
| Beginner (7-12yrs) |
Thurs  4:10pm-5:10pm |
Beginner Teens (13yrs+)
|
Thurs  5:15pm-6:15pm |
| Junior Dance Crew (Team) |
Thurs  6:30pm-8:00pm |
Intermediate (7-12yrs)
|
Sun    12:00pm-1:00pm |
| Breakdance-Floorwork |
Sun     1:10pm-2:10pm |
| Intermediate (13yrs+) |
Sun     2:20pm-3:20pm |
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