Tried and tested street dance

CB Magazine 08/2012

46

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Tried and tested

adult streetdance

Chrissie Allen – Moore

CCBCCB3007_046.eps;Format:(210.00 x 190.00 mm)

CB Magazine 08/2012

47Turning up to the Colours of Dance studio on Histon Road I was allgeared 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, airystudio was filled with mums and students looking to get fit; not über-limberathletes. And I wasn’t the only beginner either. Phew.Amid a scramble for a spot at the back, away from the worst of the peskymirrors on the walls, our chatty Cam Dance teacher Chrissie Allen-Moorebounded in gracefully, setting us all slightly more at ease before kicking offwith a not too gruelling warm-up.We started slow with ‘locking’, a move that is nowhere near as technical asit sounds. The idea is to push your hips backwards and forwards with bentknees, moving into a side step and then morphing into the grapevine (whichalways tangles me up). While we were getting our feet in order, Chrissieexplained how the street dance and b-boying – otherwise known as breakdancing – we’d be putting our bodies through had their roots in NewOrleans’ 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? Ohno. . . ) a whole routine. But brushing our overreaction and stage frightaside, Chrissie launched into the dance one step at a time.Thankfully her approach is to layer moves gradually so little by little yourbody gets the hang of it, without you getting left behind to flail about makingsteps up as you go along.

Fearing total humiliationand at least a twisted

ankle (or two),Ella Walker braved a

Cambridge adult streetdance class and found

it much more funthan anticipated



CB Magazine 08/2012


48

I did feel a bit silly and dizzy at times though. With moves likeScooby-do-ing (it’s a leg flick, jump type thing that you have

to hunch over like an old man for), spins, jumps andcorkscrews (more of which later) you’ve got to

be prepared to laugh at yourself trippingabout in front of the mirrors, turning in

the wrong direction and hitting the wallby accident. Or was that just me?Annoyingly, it’s always when youthink you’ve nailed the routine thatyou end up forgetting a step, butunlike a lot of serious dance classeswhich speed along at a terrifying pace,Chrissie sticks with one routine over anumber of weeks to make sure you knowit instinctively. When you know it inside out,that’s when you can start developing your

own street dancing style, which apparently allcomes with confidence.

Something we definitely needed when it cameto 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 jumpinto the middle of a break dancing battle. Then

she had us practising a ‘five-step’ move that hadquick little jumps, twists and crouches, followed by the

corkscrew (it involves a lot of leg crossing, twirling to thefloor and ‘strategically’ falling). It’s all a bit of a whirl.The best thing about the class, other than the fact youfind yourself grinning inanely the whole time, is thatsomehow you get hot and bothered withoutrealising. You’re so busy trying to get yourhead around the moves that you’reworking out without the mentalstruggle. You feel the ache in yourlegs the next day instead.By class two I was completelywon over. Light-hearted andpressure free, you don’t need a flatstomach or the ability to suspendyourself off the floor by just yourforearms – street dancing is just a wholelot of giddy fun.

Find Colours of Dance at level 2,

182 Histon Road (opposite Aldi), Cambridge.

Adult street dance classes run from

9.30am-10.30am and 7pm-8pm

on Thursdays and cost £8

per session.

Child sessions are also available.

Call (01223) 778268 or

visit www.coloursofdance.com for

more information.


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Tried and tested street dance