Bhangra basics?

[paobhangre]

Hi!


Im trying to make a routine and was wondering what are some bhangra basic steps I should do and how to do them?


How do I keep my hands from looking flimsy?

 

[nishan]

You should YouTube some old Khalsa Junction videos. They kept their moves simple and clean.

 

[mithu]

Here are some vid:

http://www.youtube.com/user/ESPNbhangra?feature=watch


Annotated Bhangra Steps in a Live Routine - Virse De Waris at DDA 13


This stuff really helped me.

 

[Vijay]

http://www.youtube.com/user/KakaZaildar/videos


http://www.youtube.com/user/XtremeBhangra/videos

 

[mafzal]

How do I keep my hands from looking flimsy?

flex them. be aware of every muscle in your body while ur dancing, from your fingers to your feet. do moves slowly and concentrate and controlling and flexing and stiffening your body, soon it'll come naturally even when you dance at normal pace. myabe practice moves slowly with arms only, then add legs

 

[campy614]

How do I keep my hands from looking flimsy?

flex them. be aware of every muscle in your body while ur dancing, from your fingers to your feet. do moves slowly and concentrate and controlling and flexing and stiffening your body, soon it'll come naturally even when you dance at normal pace. myabe practice moves slowly with arms only, then add legs

This.

The thing about bhangra is that it's supposed to be natural-and likewise learning with a natural progression.

The way I did it (Note-different people do different paths. Mine worked for me, but it may not work for others) was to tighten my arms from my shoulders all the way down to my finger tips. This taught me where my arms SHOULD be, and to show strength in the movement of my arms.

Eventually when I could do this without thinking, I loosened my arms and-more importantly-my shoulders. While your arms are in the air (strongly-coming from the step above this), your shoulders should be bouncing. As a pure example, loosen and drop your arms completely and do lifts/taps/jugni/anything, you'll notice your shoulders bouncing naturally. That's how they're supposed to move even when your arms are up (strongly). They should be bouncing naturally as your feet hit the ground and in between.

 

[voxanimus]

one thing i can say about learning steps is that it helps a lot if you try to dissect the step into its individual components, learn each one one at a time, and then try to put it all together.


for example, each step has (among other components) footwork, hand movements, head movements, and shoulder movements. each can be learned independently, after which you can stack them all together.


another thing that helps A LOT is to just watch as many videos as you possibly can. but try to watch intelligently; follow along mentally, and perhaps even physically, with the dancers on screen. try to identify what they're doing, and try to teach yourself the moves. after doing this for a few weeks, you'll find that you understand the moves so much better without having practiced a ton.

 

[paobhangre]

THANK YOU SO MUCH EVERYONE!!!

 

[mithu]

How do I keep my hands from looking flimsy?

flex them. be aware of every muscle in your body while ur dancing, from your fingers to your feet. do moves slowly and concentrate and controlling and flexing and stiffening your body, soon it'll come naturally even when you dance at normal pace. myabe practice moves slowly with arms only, then add legs

This.

The thing about bhangra is that it's supposed to be natural-and likewise learning with a natural progression.

The way I did it (Note-different people do different paths. Mine worked for me, but it may not work for others) was to tighten my arms from my shoulders all the way down to my finger tips. This taught me where my arms SHOULD be, and to show strength in the movement of my arms.

Eventually when I could do this without thinking, I loosened my arms and-more importantly-my shoulders. While your arms are in the air (strongly-coming from the step above this), your shoulders should be bouncing. As a pure example, loosen and drop your arms completely and do lifts/taps/jugni/anything, you'll notice your shoulders bouncing naturally. That's how they're supposed to move even when your arms are up (strongly). They should be bouncing naturally as your feet hit the ground and in between.

Hardest thing for people that never have done bhangra is when to keep arms loose or tighten then while keeping the naturally bounce. That is the hardest thing to teach also lol.

 

[campy614]

How do I keep my hands from looking flimsy?

flex them. be aware of every muscle in your body while ur dancing, from your fingers to your feet. do moves slowly and concentrate and controlling and flexing and stiffening your body, soon it'll come naturally even when you dance at normal pace. myabe practice moves slowly with arms only, then add legs

This.

The thing about bhangra is that it's supposed to be natural-and likewise learning with a natural progression.

The way I did it (Note-different people do different paths. Mine worked for me, but it may not work for others) was to tighten my arms from my shoulders all the way down to my finger tips. This taught me where my arms SHOULD be, and to show strength in the movement of my arms.

Eventually when I could do this without thinking, I loosened my arms and-more importantly-my shoulders. While your arms are in the air (strongly-coming from the step above this), your shoulders should be bouncing. As a pure example, loosen and drop your arms completely and do lifts/taps/jugni/anything, you'll notice your shoulders bouncing naturally. That's how they're supposed to move even when your arms are up (strongly). They should be bouncing naturally as your feet hit the ground and in between.

Hardest thing for people that never have done bhangra is when to keep arms loose or tighten then while keeping the naturally bounce. That is the hardest thing to teach also lol.

HA you're preaching to the choir.

In all seriousness though, the more you dance and the more you practice-the more things come "naturally." I no longer have to tighten my arms to keep them firm, because it's muscle memory. I can keep my arms and shoulders loose, and still bounce my shoulders naturally without my arms flimsy.

But this came with A LOT of practice. And teaching this is like mission impossible... but eventually it'll click.