DAY 97 - February 4th 2014 (By Elina Ayako)

DAY 97 - February 4th 2014 (By Elina Ayako)

Jillian Meyers, Winter Drop & now Anthony Lee?!
Yes, you've heard right. 
That's what the 1Yeppers are going through for 2 weeks.. 
Kinda sucks. 
They all make us work way too hard & we get too inspired. 
Pffff.

Let me tell you a little more about today. 
The morning got unexpectedly emotional - in our one hour evaluation we reflected on the different experiences we've had over the 4 days of Winter Drop. 
We shared our thoughts on how much we are proud of each other & how much fun it was to have so many people from different countries in our studio for the same reason, dance! 
Everyone said very important & inspiring things about what they individually have learnt the most of in these 4 days so I won't get into all of the comments. 
Personally, I found back to the pure joy of dance. 
I didn't put any pressure on myself in the classes.
I didn't think about having to "kill" a choreography or having to impress or prove anything to anyone, including myself. 
Those past 4 days reminded me what it really is about in dance: sharing, supporting, inspiring & spreading love (or at least this is my opinion). 
And if you focus on being positive, everything magically follows. 
So Winter Drop was for sure one of the best dance moments in my life so far!

Let's get into what Anthony did with uf today. 
To start off, a small disclaimer: 
Anthony is a genius. Period. He's like one of these "Kinderüberraschung" chocolate eggs - you already know you'll get delicious chocolate but then you get surprised by a freaking epic, fully functional miniature toy car inside the chocolate egg. 
Just in this case, the chocolate is Anthony's talent as a dancer & the toy car is his amazing personality combined with his teaching skills. 
Yes, I just used this awkward metaphor.

Today's focus was on musicality. How do you listen to a song? How do you see a sound? How do you translate that sound into movement? 
So what we did was we paired up in groups of two & started choreographing to.. no song, just our sounds. 
To understand the concept of this better, we tried to find out together how for example a cough looks like as a sound. 
Maybe something like a hill that flattens out? 
So next step is executing this picture into dance. 
It was really fun experimenting like that & just be silly & have fun together. 
For the final test of the day (if you'd like to call it that) we had to choreograph two 8 counts to a song, specifically focusing on how the sounds make you want to move like. 
The four groups taught each other two 8 counts each so that we finally had a pretty dope choreography. It was quite hard but Anthony knew exactly that this would help us understand a lot. 
And I guarantee you, all of us were blown away by how much our minds have improved after today. So cool, right?


Elina Ayako

DAY 96 February 3rd 2014 (by Mantas Rimeikis)

DAY 96 February 3rd 2014 (by Mantas Rimeikis)


Hello, you look so good today !


Winter Drop was an amazing experience for all of us, so many good things happened, moments like that makes me realize why I do what I do.
Seeing people gathering from all over the world just to dance is so inspiring. 

I think like I will never get to experience a dance camp the way I experienced this one. 

Since we are in 1Yep we got to experience all the ‘backstage’ things, like preparation, meeting the teachers, observing classes and etc. from up-close.
Lin even gave us the opportunity to warm up the students before class !

Enough about the camp, we have Anthony Lee in the education program !
He is a big inspiration of mine when it comes to originality/musicality/dancing & now since I got to know him better he inspires me as a person too.

First day with him we haven’t learned any choreography surprisingly. 

He decided to teach us the way he see’s certain things, like creativity, originality & just having FUN while putting good amount of work at the same time.

He kind of gave us  his ‘secrets’ how he boosts his creativity with his friends , creative ‘games’ that they play in order to train their minds & bodies + learn from each other.
So the first day we basically choreographed in teams and talked about it afterwards, which helped me to widen my horizons when it comes to being creative and original.


Mantas Rimeikis

DAY 95 - Thursday January 31st 2014 (By Marilena Maouni)

DAY 95 - Thursday January 31st 2014 (By Marilena Maouni)

Dear reader you're probably gonna get Jealous and wanna apply for the education. 

Right now you don't believe me but trust me you are gonna come "scrolling" back up looking for this link:

http://thehipdropeducation.com/?page_id=16

So, I have been waiting a long time for this and it's right now.

I feel like it's Christmas and I can finally open my present.

Winter Drop 2015 here we go!

Only because of inter droDp our schedule today was super short. •warm up •class Lin •stretch

Random important fact: 
In the room there's a camera crew filming us and we are aware of it - SO I know you already know but CHECK THIS OUT : 
Lin says:
"I just want you to lay down close your eyes, and think only about your victories and your accomplishments..." 

So I thought, that sounded like a pretty good idea and that's what we did. *after 5 minutes* 

Lin: "...Now I want you to open your eyes..."

I open my eyes,it's dark and all I see is bunch of people staring at us.

*my thoughts: *

"Daaaaaamn those camera crew people are staring so bad....

and....oh. 
They hired a new Asian guy...oh wait....wait....I know him.
He's not working for them he's freaking Shaun Evaristo!!!!!!!"

Lin: 
"Instead of a class with me you're gonna have a class with Shaun".
SAY WHAAAAT?? OH MAN , LIN IS GOING TO HEAVEN THAT'S FOR SURE!

So now I felt like not only it was Christmas and I could finally open my present but....Santa was there too!

The day is awesome and we haven't started yet!

The class with Shaun was so special.
I learned so much from him in just one hour and a thirty minutes.
How lucky are we to be 8 students and the one and only teacher Shaun!

We had a private class with Shaun!!!!! (see I told you will get jealous but wait there's more)

His knowledge on dancing is something else.
He was correcting us, drilling us,sharing his wisdom.
It was my first class with him and he's one of my favorite teachers.I
f you have taken his class you understand.I
f you don't, do yourself a favor go find him and take it!

And even though our time was over he kept going on...."until Lin kicks us out we can go on..." SHAUN IF YOU ARE READING THIS ----> I LOVE YOU

•So Lin not only gives people presents, does surprises but she also gives opportunities.
And she gave me a biiiiiiig one. 
To be her assistant for Winter Drop and Summer Drop 2014. I said THANK YOU so many times I think I'm getting annoying but I just have to say it again. THANK YOU LIN (Lin: "You are Welcome Marilena ha ha ha")

After Shaun's class I went out of the studio rolled up my sleeves and together with Lin we welcomed people from all around the world. 
Russia, Japan, Singapore, Egypt, Germany, Austria, UK, Switzerland, Greece to name a few...

I got to meet so talented dancers, students and teachers, and got to see how it is to organize a camp and how much energy and work it takes.

I was nervous to do my job perfectly so I didn't take any classes the first day but just being in that space with all that crazy stuff happening....!

It made me the happiest person on earth and I learned so much.

Another opportunity Lin gave was us 1yep students was to do the warm up!
I know right???

The madness doesn't stop there. 
She also gave us the luxury of being in the studio observing and taking notes about the way each Winter Drop teacher is teaching their class.

In general Winter Drop was the best dancing experience in my life.
Something about the energy that you won't find anywhere else. 
You can't get the vibe through the videos.
You just have to experience it and feel it! In just 4 days I met so many talented dancers, saw my classmates killing it in every class, learned so much, got wiser, got better. WINTER DROP 2014 was the best!!!!!!!

Marilena

DAY 94 - January 30th 2014 (By Cecilia Tram)

DAY 94 - January 30th 2014 (By Cecilia Tram)


Hello world! 

Cc is here and this time I have something to write about! 
Winter Drop is insane! 
I wish I could take the classes, but because of the lack of money I chose to take SummerDrop instead. Buhu wish I was rich sometimes or always. 
Hahaha xD love to me

Somebody who really caught my eye was Mec. My first thoughts of him was that he was a bit crazy but through the class oh my god! 
He is one of my favourites ever. 
I didn't know him from before, and when he made the students throw themselves on the floor in weird positions. 
I was like is that Level 1 what will he do in Level 2, but at the end I wish I would have been able to join, and you know what. 
Lin is leting me take his class tomorow because we didn't have regular school today sooo I'm just aaaaaaa I'm almost in heaven and I'm so damn grateful. 
Love to you Lin! 

Anthony oh there is no words, and I'm really looking foward to have him next week. 
He is such a good techer and really explains his technique. 
Han even shows exercises you can pratice outside of class. 

I'm sitting through the classes, and I'm enjoying it so much, and I'm learning alot. 
How to teach, and how to approach the students, and to challenge myself extra I'm trying to learn the choreo while I'm sitting there, but I know maybe one eight, and after that it is just too hard. 
I'm so nervous for tomorrow but at the same time soooo excited :D 

The only thing that I think a little bit sad is that it looks like people are there to impress, and it looses the fun factor I think, but it the first time for me to experience something like this and woho! 
I'm so thankful and I'm so impressed.

Love to you all! 

Cecilia Tram

DAY 93 - January 29th 2014 (By Elin Karabuda)

DAY 93 - January 29th 2014 (By Elin Karabuda)

Hi Hi!

Today was our second and final day with Jillian Meyers! 

These 2 days have been such an experience.  

Not just because she’s a redheaded comic figure with a unique character that makes you feel stuff. 

But because of what and how she does her magic on us....teaching techniques. 

No funny business...

The choreo we continued working on today was a pure representation of what I mean with her uniqueness and character. 

She doesn’t think in terms of moves and steps. 

Her creations come from true feelings and expressions. 

So the choreo itself is already expressional, but there are of course different ways of emotions to incorporate into these movements to make the meanings different. 

That’s where our assignment comes in the picture. 

We were to make our own story out of the moves and make it show through our performance. 

I’ve never worked like this before and I’m convinced that it really helped me. 

To be able to speak through your movement is a skill I’m desperately trying to get a hang on. 

But I guess it’s just a matter of time, and of course practice, after coming to this realisation. 

And that practice started for real for me today. 

I feel like I was given the tools to be able to practice and develop on my own after this. 

So, good.

We ended the day with something completely different. TAP DANCE. 

Yes, I had my first ever tap class. 

I like to see it as a music class though. 

Just because that’s the part of the style I want to take with me in my little bag back to Stockholm. 

So that’s what I did. Oh and I had lots of fun with it to :D

Bye bye

Elin Karabuda

DAY 92 - January 28th 2014 (By Kallum Khaos)

DAY 92 - January 28th 2014 (By Kallum Khaos)

*Runs around the room kicking everything and screaming*

JILLIANNNNNNN! JILLIANNN MEYERSSSSS!!

*exhales*

Hello everyone!! 

So today started with a team building exercise, we all helped stick the Hip Drop logo decal onto the floor ready for Winter Drop!! 

Just 2 days to go, and everyone is noticeably excited, we were back to our usual press up competitions between the guys during the warm up, which only happens when spirits (or temperatures) are high…in this case it’s definitely spirits.

Our morning class was popping training with K which is always awesome, we get to drill our hitting as well as some popping combinations to train and work into our freestyling (or choreo) if we wish. 

It’s good because it really improves our muscle control and body awareness because you’re focusing on tensing different muscles at different times so you get to see how to isolate and use each part of your body efficiently which is really useful for all styles of dance.

Next came the lunch break and the camera crew to do some 1YEP filming. 

Lately lunch break is half eating/talking and half dance training. Some people freestyling, some teaching each other different dance styles and some working on choreography ready to teach on our Wednesday class (19:30-20:30 on Wednesdays ;D).

Then it happened…That’s when…

JILLIIAANNNNN *throws the laptop off the table and screams*

Jillian Meyers came to teach us for the next 2 days, and then 4 days during Winterdrop. She began with various movement exercises aimed to improve our creativity and get in touch with the various ways of using our body. 

Followed by partner exercises and contact improvisation. 

It’s so good to get these classes by Jillian, she has such a wide variety of knowledge and can offer us so much it’s incredible. Afterwards we got into some choreography:



Such a varied and awesome piece to learn (we’re not in heels though hehe), it’s really technical but at the same time really free and fun to dance. 

I had such a good day =D

Speak soon.

Kallum

DAY 91 - January 27th (By Denice M.Solberg)

DAY 91 - January 27th (By Denice M.Solberg)

Heyyy world! 

Hold on and get ready, cause this week is about to blow everybodies mind! 

But wait, cause the crazy-crazyness starts tomorrow, today was just a normal awesome day at the 1YEP.. 

I was teaching today actually. I was super nervous teaching, but it was very fun aswell! I taught a 90's Hip Hop choreo, which is my favorite style when it comes to just having fun with dance! So yes, despite some things I need to work on, it was a successful class! We had an evaluation afterwards where every got to give constructive feedback and it was sooo helpful! :) I have some awesome classmates and directors.

Next thing we did today was a speed teaching class with Lin. It was a dope choreo to "clique". She taught it really fast with confusing counts (on purpose) and then we had to get it! Surprisingly this went super well. She challenged us even more afterwards with taking some of the moves to the floor, travelling whenever we could and freestyling. It was super hard and super fun!

Before our day was over we had one hour of freestyling! Our first self organized freestyle class! It went pretty well and I think they will get better and better! Just one week ago nobody really freestyled and now we are turning slowly into freestylers! It's pretty cool!

Jillian Meyers comes tomorrow! YAAAYYY, so excited! I can't wait to see what she has planned for us! Such a genius artist! And then WINTER DROP on Thursday!! Are YOU gonna be there??

Stay tuned for some overexciting blogupdates this week!!

Denice Miriam Solberg