Tried and tested street dance

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Tried and tested

adult street

dance

46

Chrissie Allen – Moore

CB Magazine 08/2012

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Fearing total humiliation and at least a twisted ankle (or two), Ella Walker braved a Cambridge adult street dance class and found it much more fun than anticipated

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urning up to the Colours of Dance studio on Histon Road I was all geared up for a room of tall, lithe, pony-tailed dancers with six-packs, who were StreetDance 3D extras in their spare time (yep, that’s my only frame of reference). Luckily, I was completely wrong. The light, airy studio was filled with mums and students looking to get fit; not über-limber athletes. And I wasn’t the only beginner either. Phew.

Amid a scramble for a spot at the back, away from the worst of the pesky mirrors on the walls, our chatty Cam Dance teacher Chrissie Allen-Moore bounded in gracefully, setting us all slightly more at ease before kicking off with a not too gruelling warm-up.

We started slow with ‘locking’, a move that is nowhere near as technical as it sounds. The idea is to push your hips backwards and forwards with bent knees, moving into a side step and then morphing into the grapevine (which always tangles me up). While we were getting our feet in order, Chrissie explained how the street dance and b-boying – otherwise known as break dancing – we’d be putting our bodies through had their roots in New Orleans’ urban dance culture. They put the emphasis on improvisation, personal style and dancing, literally, in the street.

Basic steps mastered, it was time for a routine: cue total panic.

None of us had really expected to be learning (and then performing? Oh no. . . ) a whole routine. But brushing our overreaction and stage fright aside, Chrissie launched into the dance one step at a time.

Thankfully her approach is to layer moves gradually so little by little your body gets the hang of it, without you getting left behind to flail about making steps up as you go along.

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CB Magazine 08/2012

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I did feel a bit silly and dizzy at times though. With moves like Scooby-do-ing (it’s a leg flick, jump type thing that you have to hunch over like an old man for), spins, jumps and corkscrews (more of which later) you’ve got to be prepared to laugh at yourself tripping about in front of the mirrors, turning in the wrong direction and hitting the wall by accident. Or was that just me?

Annoyingly, it’s always when you think you’ve nailed the routine that you end up forgetting a step, but unlike a lot of serious dance classes which speed along at a terrifying pace, Chrissie sticks with one routine over a number of weeks to make sure you know it instinctively. When you know it inside out, that’s when you can start developing your own street dancing style, which apparently all comes with confidence.

Something we definitely needed when it came to the b-boying half of the class…

Promising we wouldn’t be spinning on our heads (as if that would even be possible), Chrissie had us lunging forwards and back as if about to jump into the middle of a break dancing battle. Then she had us practising a ‘five-step’ move that had quick little jumps, twists and crouches, followed by the corkscrew (it involves a lot of leg crossing, twirling to the floor and ‘strategically’ falling). It’s all a bit of a whirl.

2, Dance at level The best thing about the class, other than the fact you Find Colours of ite Aldi), Cambridge. ad (oppos find yourself grinning inanely the whole time, is that 182 Histon Ro dance classes run from et re somehow you get hot and bothered without st t Adul and 7pm-8pm realising. You’re so busy trying to get your 9.30am-10.30am d cost £8 an s head around the moves that you’re on Thursday per session. working out without the mental struggle. You feel the ache in your e. are also availabl legs the next day instead.

Child sessions 778268 or ) By class two I was completely Call (01223 r sofdance.com fo won over. Light-hearted and visit www.colour n. io at rm fo more in pressure free, you don’t need a flat stomach or the ability to suspend yourself off the floor by just your forearms – street dancing is just a whole lot of giddy fun.

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CB Magazine 08/2012

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