popping dance academy is hosted by Tommy Hypno Chan.
Popping Dance is one of the most complex dance style , from just the idea of isolating our body we are able to transform our ideas into movement. This can take more then a life time to master but with hard work there are no level that we can't reach . The main goal of our school is to teach popping dance and give our student an opportunity to perform what they learn and use them in a creative way. Beside training our student to be the best that they can be, our goal is to build a future for our student and beyond. It is one of my life goal to see our future generations to have an opportunity to choose popping dance as a career with a define path. Too many talented popper get lost in our society without the mean to make a living with their craft. I hope this school will be a way to build a system where student can come in and learn then use their skill to teach or perform with our company or use our training to create their own business. It is very important for popping dance style to be able to showcase itself as a true art form that can provide a career for anyone that choose it. The Old School generation have given us this great dance style and its time for us to step up and build something great for the next generation and beyond.
Tommy Hypno Chan started dancing in 1996 and have tour all over the world teaching and performing the art of popping dance.
Here are a list of some highlights of his career
Started dancing around 1996 in Brooklyn, NY.
Learned the dance the old way with crew and street battles.
Started one of the 1st popping crew in rave call “ Vibe Elements “
One of the older cat from the 90's Raves and earlier liquid and digits dancer.
Dancer at club Roxy , Limelights and The tunnel .
Show case at “ pseudo “ ( one of the 1st internet live DJ website. )
Started Union Sq Friday get down - return of popping and bboying at the park
From 4 guys to over 200 plus coming to watch us dance every Friday. ( 3 Great years )
Did over 100 plus underground NYC stage shows
Travel all the world teaching popping ( 1 years )
US embassy sponsor artist
Tour with U.S National Swing dance events ( 3 years )
Tour with U.S National country line dancing events ( 3 years )
Worked with Hop Swing and Jump - World and U.S swing champ group ( 2 years )
One Man Show at New York City Downtown Urban Theater Festival
Started Boogie Nation popping event in NYC, Philly and Boston.
Started NYC Popping Dance Academy later call Popping Dance Academy
Started NYC Popping week , free dance classes for everyone .
Cast of “ Dance Fever “ on ABC Family
National tv commercial with the arthritis foundation ( Popping Dance in the park )
In Store commercial with Walmart. ( July 4 promote )
Created Urban Expression Project media
Created over 50 DVDs training product on sale on Amazon, Capezio and local stores.
best awards Popping dance dvds on BBOYDVD
Performed at Madison Square Garden ,Lincoln center and the Kennedy center
Core 4 Basic What is core 4 technique ?
Popping is made up by isolation of joints and muscles. With this in mind then you must try to breakdown what it is and what to work on. Isolation , angle and mind / music , each one of these ideas makes up our core foundation of teaching. The isolation will give you the hits and waves , Angles / Tutting will give you a good building ideas for dance and the mind is the ability to put everything together with the music as a guild.
Popping / Hitting Popping is a technique that uses the idea of muscle contracting to produce a pop, hitting effect. By working on relaxing and contracting isolated muscle group, in time it builds a snapping effect that can look like a pop. This technique is the foundation of popping dance and it mostly use to keep up with the rhythm of a song. This technique can also be use to control a robotic looking movement.
Joint Iso / Wave Waving is a technique using the ideas of bending the joins one at a time to form a wave movement. The basic foundation of the arm wave is knowing the 1st 3 join to bend. Wrist, elbow and shoulder is the 3 connecting join that form the 1st foundation of arm wave. By bending the 3 joints in a rolling motion , it will from a basic arm waves. Know the basic of the clicks technique will greatly help in performing a clean hard wave.
Tutting / Angle Tutting is technique that is base from sets of foundational moves and rule of angles. It start with working on keep a clean 90 degree angle with your elbow. Some of the foundation are Boxes, Out side tutting , inside tutting and transformer. This technique is all about getting use to your comfort zone and then expand to more of a free style mind set.
Mind Set / Music The last core technique is using your mind to move with the technique. This will be the answer for your " why " question. Music also will help you understand what level you are as far as using technique to express music . The mind is what make you who you are!
Philosophy We believe in teaching you're the tool for the building blocks. The building blocks are the core 4 techniques and using that we will teach you how to create your own identity. Dance can be the end result of mastering the technique but it don't have to be. If you want to treat the technique as a self training then that is what you want. The dance part only comes when you want to apply it in a dance format. We do not teach you style of dance like Hip hop, electric boogaloo .. Ect . There are other master teachers that can better teach you the style they created. We can teach you ideas on how you would use your technique but in no way we are here to teach you dance steps or moves. This is not what this academy is about. Our philosophy is always base on the core and using the strong foundation then nothing is impossible. What is stopping you are your own limitation of creatively . After mastering the 5 level of training . Student then can go on to create they own self or study under another master on the style they wish to learn.
