ATTITUDE IN URBAN DANCE
Attitude is a big part of urban dance. As each style of urban dance has its own attitude you need to get the right one for whatever you do.
Sometimes the feel of the dance is so different from other styles, that you need to study and understand what you are doing first before you can do it properly.
You need to do this with whatever dance style you are learning. For example krumping is an aggressive form of dance and this aggressive attitude suits the movements well. However if you take that aggressiveness into tutting or another style it may not work as well.
Every dance has its own feel to it. Some call for attitude, others call for something else. Whatever it is you need to find out what it is.
If for example you are in a bboy battle it is not about being nice to the opponents you are up against, you want to outdo them in the battle.
Whereas in some hip hop choroegraphies there may be no battles and it may be about comaraderie amongst the team members of a crew.
Also know that the attitude can change. You can go from being aggressive to being more laid back if the music changes to something a bit more chilled.
The music you are dancing to also plays a role in the attitude you portray.
There may also be small differences between styles. Some people would say clowning and krumping are fairly similar dance styles, however clowning is nowhere near as agressive - a totally different attitude is required.
Be aware of even these small differences between the dance styles. If you are doing a fusion style of urban dance you will have to decide for yourself that attitude you want to show, or you may want to change it as you go from one style to the other.
You may find it hard to get this attitude to come out when you try dancing. Imagine you are in a battle or performance and how you would do it then! In battle I'm sure you will find the emotions coming out!
If you're having trouble figuring out what type of attitude you need to have you may find it helpful to actually watch videos or go to dance battles in the style of dance you do.
Here you will see people who have been doing it for a long time and then you can see how you can do it in a similar way but different.
Reading up and learning about the history of the dance style can also help you to better understand where the dance came from, and thus why a particular attitude or emotion is present in that style of dancing.