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

DAY 90 – January 24th 2014 (by Anton Swerkström)

DAY 90 – January 24th 2014 (by Anton Swerkström)

Hur e läget, blogreaders!?

Its Friday already and this week has been both chill and intense at the same time somehow. 
Maybe because evening classes started this week so we have had a little more after school activities as well, including today, but more about that later.
After our regular warmup/workout program (starting to get into pretty good shape now) it was time for Elin to have her class with us. 
Elins style is so sick and unique and her musicality is amazing. 
She did really good, and I could tell how she has evolved both as a dancer and a teacher during this one hour. 
If you have not seen her stuff you should definitely check it out!

After lunch we had our first class meeting in a while. 
I am not gonna go too much into it, but we mostly talked about how we have to keep our focus and motivation up for these last 5 months. 
Not because we have been slacking but just to make everyone really take advantage of the time we have left. We have grown so close already, and it truly does feel like we are a family, I dont care how cliché that sounds. 
Together we will make this semester count!

Then it was back to reality and our last practice before our show tonight. 
This has been a stressful process since we only had a couple days to take one of Tony Tzars choreos that he created with us and adjust it to a stage performance. 
In the end I think we did a decent job though and we felt as ready as we could be when we left Malmö for Helsingborg.

Why Helsingborg? 
Tonight we went on a little fieldtrip to a HipHop Jam/1 on 1 Battle. 
It is so cool that these things are included in our education so that we get to see many sides of dancing. And this was a really cool and well organized event! 
Main focus was on a 1v1 battle tournament bracket with 8 invited freestylers, but there was also exhibition battles as well as constant cyphering in between.

And of course we also did our performance! 
It felt a little weird at first being a “choreo crew” coming into this freestyle event doing a performance but that soon passed. 
People seemed really impressed, and we got a lot of good feedback after wards. 
Everyone was just very open and focusing on just sharing dance in all its forms. 

None of us from the education have much of a freestyle background but I think we all got really inspired with this experience. We have already gotten a little sneak peak at next weeks schedule and there is a couple freestyle training sessions in there. 
Time to step up my freestyle game, I guess I know what I am doing this weekend :)

Anton Swerkström

DAY 89 - January 23rd 2014 (By Elina Ayako)

DAY 89 -  January 23rd 2014 (By Elina Ayako)

It's that time again guys - nice to talk to you again. 
Wow have you lost weight, maybe got a haircut? 
You look stunning!

Okay, let's talk about today.

As you might have heard from previous blog entries, this week is all about us teaching each other how to teach (sounds kinda ironic, right?) by preparing a "fake" intermediate class for our group & afterwards we all evaluate on the teacher. 
So today it was first Mister Swerkström's turn & he taught us some Shuffle, or how I like to call it "stamina workout with moving your feet a lot". 
But seriously, shuffling is a lot of fun - especially when you have such an amazing teacher like Anton. You could definitely tell that he is very experienced & I learned a lot by taking his class. *tapping on Anton's shoulder*

Then in the lunch break, we got some.. really big.. actually humongous.. super exciting.. news for a once-in-a-life-time project that will be starting on Monday & will go on for the rest of the education! I can't tell you more about it yet but let me tell you this: Keep your eyes & ears open!

So moving on to Cecilia in the afternoon. 
It went doooown in her class with some sexy bootyshaking in her dancehall inspired choreography. Her positive energy definitely shines through in her teaching & her gorgeous smile made all of us smile with her! 
Having a "try out" class within the education is such a good exercise. 
A lot of people forget how important it is to be a good teacher, which doesn't mean being able to teach a workshop class but actually knowing how to approach beginner or intermediate students. 
So this definitely helps us!

The last part of the day was the final rehearsal for the performance on Friday. 
Yes, we are a chaotic group & yes, it wasn't easy to put together a show in two rehearsals. 
But you know what, I feel pretty confident about our performance & as long as we incorporate a flirtatious smile every now & then, we'll be doing a good job on stage. 
So fingers crossed!

Elina Ayako

DAY 88 - January 22nd 2014 (By Mantas Rimeikis)

DAY 88 - January 22nd 2014 (By Mantas Rimeikis)

Hello world !

This week we are mostly focusing on teaching, which is great since I want to get more into teaching after this year.
Today was Marilena’s turn and my oh my she’s great ! 

I look up to her as a teacher and hope that I will be as great as she is. But everything comes with experience. 

I like that we get to evaluate the person that taught the class so we can see the positives and common mistakes, which helps us grow way faster. I am so much more aware of different teaching aspects & details which went overlooked before.

Other thing is that Lin announced that we have a Performance on Friday ( in two days) and that we have to remember & prepare Tony Tzar’s choreography by ourselves. We don’t even know any details about the stage, place, lighting etc. . .
Super stressful and challenging, but I think we will manage to get this done.

That’s it from me for today ! 

Mantas Rimeikis

DAY 87 - January 21st 2014 (By Cecilia Tram)

DAY 87 - January 21st 2014 (By Cecilia Tram)

Hey there!

My name is Cecilia, and I don't like tuesdays. 
I like mondays because that is the day everything feels new, but it's something with tuesdays. 
Those days are my really bad days. 
My mind dosen't want to work with me and my body. 
Gah! 
But today wasn't such a bad day. 
We have started to teach each other , just practicing the teaching wich I find really really good practice. 
I don't know any other dance education that has it but there is education just for teaching but it's only in the area of ballet or something like that so this is really good but as you maybe already figure out. I'm the one who freaks out totally so these days before my lesson, I will have my head somewere else. 
I don"t want to be seen like the bad teacher. God no! 

I think Kallum, Mantas and Elina did a great job and I'm like holy macaroni! 
I have to step it up. 
I want to have a dancehall inspired choreo because I just want the class to be fun, and I have been thinking through what I thought was good from the other teachers, but it is still hard to teach something when you only have been dancing this kind of style for some months.

Today we started praticing popping technique with K. 
It was really hard, and in those times I wish I was a dude. 
Hahhahaa it is easier for them to do it but I really liked it. 
One of my goal or dreams or something like that, is to be able to dance a more male dominated style. 
I think it is so cool when girls can do something that you naturally think is for dudes only. 

So today we only did the basics. 
Learned how to pop chest, arms and back. 
Next lesson we are going to try a choreo. 
Woho super excited!. 

That's all from me! 
Love to you all! 

Cissi

DAY 86 - January 20th 2014 (By Marilena Maouni)

DAY 86 - January 20th 2014 (By Marilena Maouni)

Hello nice people! Before I tell you about my day as a 1yep´er I wanna...celebrate with you! TODAY WAS MY FIRST DAY AS A REGULAR TEACHER AT THE HIP DROP!!! 

How great is that?? I'm walking on sunshine, I'm so SO happy this is definitely a dream coming true! 

I'm so grateful for this opportunity, and I wanna say THANK YOU to Lin and K for trusting me, and to all the students that attended my class. 

A packed studio with happy faces and passionate people is all I ever wanted and I got it!

I read somewhere " it's amazing what you can accomplish if you actually try" and it definitely fits my case.

My day as a 1yeper was awesome as well! 

Today was a double day assignment: • we had to choose one choreo we did with S**t Kings , one with Andye J, one with David Moore and two with Lin and perform it today.

That was a tricky one since we learned them before Christmas so remembering was an issue! • Our weekly assignment is that each of us has to teach the rest of the Yep´ers a one hour intermediate class. I really like this assignment cause we get constructive feedback on our teaching plus we get to learn something from everybody else dancing-wise. 

Today was Mantas' and Kallum's turn, and I have to say they did a really good job! I highly recommend taking a class from those sexy boys , they're killing it!!!

That is all folks Good night.

Marilena Maouni