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  • House Dance – Tuesday Training (September 02, 2025) Recap and Reflection

    On making a choice and committing

    Tuesday training has been more or less running consistently every Tuesday for about 6 months now. Apart from the time period in which I was visiting the states, I’ve hosted this weekly session.

    And yesterday, I considered cancelling the session on the morning of, considered refunding everyone their 4.00 GBP because my right foot developed a blister that caused me to wince even when applying the slightest amount of pressure or weight.

    Although I have no doubts people would’ve totally understood and extended compassion had I cancelled the session, I feel a certain responsibility to keep the training running and at the same time, it’s a part of the day that I very much look forward to for multiple reasons.

    Trying to explore other options instead of cancelling, I momentarily considered designating someone else — perhaps Aubrey — could run the session. But in the end, I made the choice and committed and satisfied with the decision.

    Yesterday’s agenda

    • Warm up (shake it out) – a limbering exercise that I’ve come to love and I draw inspiration from Francesa Miles, who showed me this same exercise during our 1:1. Gives me the opportunity to, at least once a week, identify tension my body holds and to release it.
    • Foundation latter and repetition exercise – there’s 6 foundation steps/moves and we start with the first one, performing it for (2) 8 counts. At the end of that sequence, we tack on the second foundation for an additional (2) 8 counts, then “move back down the latter” and repeat the first foundation. We continue to stack additional moves at the end of every sequence and constantly move back up and down the latter.
    • A (light) circuit – jumping jacks, lunges (for them hip flexors), partner planks, skate jumps, burpees
    • Rhythm exercise #1 – we form a big large circle and each person takes a turn clapping a rhythm (for 8 counts, though we normally 4 counts) and then the rest of the crew dances and matches that rhythmic pattern
    • Rhythm exercise #2 – formed groups of 3 and each person would take a turn dancing an 8-count rhythm, repeated twice, and then the rest of the observers would guess the rhythm
    • Combo exercise – each person comes up with a (1) 8-count combo and then would freestyle in front of the group for about 40 seconds and during that time, inject their combo into their freestyle with objective to get other people to correctly guess their combo
    • Exchange in small groups – in spirit of increasing the amount of time for people to dance, instead of a single large cypher (sometimes we still do this, when the group is small enough like 4-5), we formed 3-4 circles with 3-4 people each

    On clapping for 8 counts instead of 4

    Intention setting

    At the beginning of every session, I ask every person attending what their intention is for joining, why they are here today, and what they might want to get out of the session. Like other previous sessions, there tends to me shared objectives and yesterday was no exception:

    • Simplicity
    • Turning inwards
    • Breaking out of default patterns
    • More expansive
    • Extension
    • Practice taking risks

    On breaking out of default patterns

    I no longer view the behavior of falling back to “default patterns” — movements that we often see people repeat in their freestyle dance — as something wrong or pathological. In my opinion, the repeated movement patterns form part of our identity. Secondarily, from a compassionate point of view, I think our patterns provide a safety mechanism, a sense of competency. Nothing wrong with that. At the same time, this implies that freeing ourselves from these default movements adds some discomfort. As such, for me, there’s a small desire to feel feelings of discomfort since that may serve as an indicator of growth.

    Evaluation of my own rounds

    I’m becoming less and less surprised with the fact that often, I’ll feel or think a round of mine isn’t “good” but when watching back, I’m quite pleased with what I see (of course, the inverse is true sometimes as well, where, in the moment I think it feels good yet when looking back, I cringe).

    Round 2

    It’s apparent to me that something is working or a combination of somethings are working: from a compositional perspective, elements of my composition have improved, most notably turns and (my desire) misdirection. These qualities are most evident in this round where, somewhat intentionally, I would deliberately disrupt the flow when performing a turn in order to redirect the turn in the opposite direction.

    When watching back the video, I giggled when others playfully laughed when I performed my combo (from the previous exercise) since I had more or less, very not subtly, cued everyone that my combo was about to be injected by me clapping.

  • House dance training log: reflection on the salsa step / hop

    Overview

    Decided to focus on Physical Qualities, expanding variety and vocabulary, by directing my attention to one move: salsa step. When I’m practicing, often so many thoughts tend to distract me and what I found particularly useful was leveraging the mirrors hanging up on the wall and with the erasable marker, writing down both

    1) what I want to work on and

    2) what I am actually working on.

    Although I sometimes stick to the former, I often will relegate control and follow what comes up organically.

    What got practiced

    • Direction changes with the salsa step, turning both left and right – reminded of Kev’s comment from last week, about working on one’s weaknesses
    • Double time of salsa step

    Observations

    • Looping double time transitioned me into a flow state, albeit how short
    • Established two “checkpoints” when performing the double time of the salsa step – on the “and” of the three, I initiate the salsa step on the opposite side (i.e. if started on the right, then we now step on the left) and on the “6” I begin terminating the sequence on the same side
    • Practicing the sequence (double time) at half-speed proved to be helpful – the memory of Rommel sharing (during the battling workshop that took place a couple weeks ago) that he regrets not spending more time practicing moves at half-speed lingered in my mind
    • Felt confident breaking away from prescriptions of how double time “should be” done – On the last count of an 8-count, I deliberately did not step on the “and” of “8” and instead ended on “8”
    • Maintaining a groove (hip swaying), while difficult, helped keep me on time when performing double time

    Summary

    Last night, I experienced (yet again) flow state: not too difficult, not too easy. Initially, double time for salsa step was frustrating, to the point of overwhelm. Aware of my tendencies to rush through this difficulty, I slowed down and was able to oscillate between a variety of speeds, slow and fast.

  • Soul Sync Workshop & Jam

    On Friday evening, August 22, I last minute minute to sign up for a workshop hosted by Alba and Princess, the workshop centered on freestyle dance: freestyle development, introspection, and connection. I was motivated to attend the workshop for a couple reasons. First, I simply wanted to dance, to move my body — not train — but just connect with myself. And having been to their previous workshop, felt the workshop’s environment would be a great atmosphere for turning inwards. Second, I consider myself an active member of the London freestyle house dance community and when I see other members of the community — Alba in this case — I want to show up and support them.

    Now, like any 3 hour workshop, there are a myriad of lessons we were taught and I want to enumerate a few exercises that resonated with me, ones that I’ll likely incorporate into my own dance practice

    A few exercises to takeaway

    • The eyes track what body part you are moving
    • Strike a pose and keep your arms in a fixed position while other parts of the body (e.g. torso, legs) move around those arms
    • Set intention with the eyes
    • During a round, breathe through the nose, then through the mouth, then hold the breathe

    Of the three, I would say that the most profound impact was the third exercise: setting intention with the eyes. Presently, I’m recognizing (and I’ve also been told in my feedback) that when dancing, often I am concentrating so intently that I end up (not intentionally, but as a byproduct of focus) hold tension in my upper body and my neck. And while I am lately directly releasing tension by actively relaxing, by adding a bounce, I also noticed that by simply intentionally directing my gaze on some part of the room (e.g. ceiling light, door knob, hinge on the door) that when I end up performing a turn, there’s much less tension being held in my body, including my neck.

    Coming in a close second is the strike a pose and maintaining a fixed point with the arms. This was the first time I’ve both heard of this exercise and attempted it and believe that I can probably apply this concept into my own freestyle rounds and as a constraint, the exercise can actually help unlock some creativity as well.

    Finally, Alba had shared an exercise less focused on composition and more on increasing one’s awareness of their breathe. During this particular exercise, we were prompted to dance and then she would cue us to either 1) breathe only through our nose 2) inhale through nose but exhale via the mouth 3) hold the breathe. I noticed in both my movement and noticed while observing others that, when we start off breathing through the nose and transition to exhaling through the mouth, the movements become more elongated. And another observation is that I likely sometimes hold my breathe because it became obvious that when holding tension, the quality of the movements become more staccato, more jerky.

    Summary

    The overarching theme of the workshop was what I would consider the double “C”: choice and commitment. For all the exercises (ones listed above and even the ones I didn’t share) revolve around these concepts. The two are essential ingredients, in my opinion. Sometimes, I myself make a move in my freestyle dance but it’s often not conscious choice. And as far as commitment of that choice, I think it influences perceived conviction — confidence — communicating that although you may not know where the movement choice may lead you, you’re confident enough to commit.

  • On taking ownership of dance and “chunking” during practice session

    Last night, I practiced at home for about 45-50 minutes, from the comfort of my own living room. I approached the solo practice session with some grace, my body still sore from the Tuesday’s Training session as well as the hip-hop class (my second one, from John Graham). Despite the muscle soreness, I was able to move my body and the intentions I set out last night were to practice the following:

    • Alternate rhythm for pas de bourree – over the past (3) private dance lessons I’ve taken with Francesa, we’ve been practicing switching between the kick and snare. One way to transition is by applying a “1+2+3” rhythmic pattern. So on top of throwing this (pas de bourree) rhythmic pattern in my round, I also wanted to incorporate an additional pattern “1+2+3+4”, followed by a drag and sweep movement. I would say that for these three “chunks”, I’m now in the skill execution phase and would like to practice deliberately injecting them into my freestyle rounds
    • Double time rhythm (on beat) transition to “On Time” – I’ve struggled with dancing double time because I had found it challenging to maintaining a bounce, my internal metronome. But it appears that the act of practicing (despite not immediately getting the movement) has someone reduced the difficulty of the exercise
    • The train movement – I really love the aesthetic (and sort of the sensation/feeling in my body) when executed by others and only up until recently do I feel my body (more specifically: my hips) can handle the load and so now I am practicing injecting the train into my freestyle rounds

    In addition to practicing each of the individual tasks above, I am taking Jo-L’s advice and attempting to “chunk” them together. That is, when I’m able to (without errors) consistently perform the “chunk”, I then try execute a subsequent chunk and build a string of chunks together. In addition to stitching chunks together, he had also suggested that when errors or faults show up, to pause in the moment, instead of continuing executing the move. The reason being that we may unintentionally repeating those faults.

  • House Dance Analysis Homework

    Was given a task to analyze some of my favorite dancers and attempt to articulate what specifically it is about their dance that inspires me. Although there are two more dancers I’d like to analyze, I’ll start with one of my favorites: Yugson. Over next few days, will update this page with some others.

    Yugson

    One of my favorite rounds that I used to watch on repeat

    Without music

    • Explosiveness – from soft toe taps to big movement
    • Arms seems quite relaxed and not flailing around but with some intention and direction
    • Moves the groove from footwork to upper body and back down
    • Again, small subtle movements to big explosive movements in chest
    • Seems very grounded and “heavy” in the feet
    • With the footwork able to do “double time” and then transition in and out of that rhythm
    • Controlled turns
    • Can see texture changes from hard and sharp to “flowy”

    With music

    • He’s able to accent the “clack”
    • Wow, at the end of the round, the musicality of taking the heavy bass rhythmic pattern
    • On his loose legs, its even more obvious with music that he’s accenting certain parts of the song and not just doing the standard loose legs
    • Even more obvious now he’s able to take the “1 and” sound

    Traits to take away

    • Turning
    • Use of hands in the farmer
    • Grounded
    • Footwork

    Criticisms

    • Lack of using space

  • 1:1 Dance questionnaire

    Below are some questions (along with my answers) asked by Francesa in preparation for our upcoming 1:1 dance private scheduled this Friday. Also included a couple of my favorite dance clips that inspire me.

    • What are 3 house steps that you are comfortable with and use frequently?
      • Pas de bourree
      • Loose Leg / Chase
      • Cross Step
      • Shuffle
    • ⁠What are 3 house steps that you struggle with or tend to avoid?
      • Farmer
      • Skate
      • Train
      • Sidewalk, Salsa (and others that I’ve practiced that sometimes don’t make appearances during rounds/sessions etc)
    • Can you identify what in particular you struggle with for those steps?
      • Falling off beat (exclusively with the farmer)
      • Not quite aesthetically where I want it to be (Skate / Train)
      • Inability (or have not yet attempted really) to convey different rhythms beyond the foundational, syncopated rhythmic pattern
      • Develop a groove (where I doing more dancing than steps) that I can dance and intertwine these steps with
      • Often forget that I’ve even trained these steps and thus rarely come out
    • ⁠Who are 3 house dancers who inspire you or whose style you enjoy?

      So difficult to name just three so going to toss out a few more at the risk of violating the constraint in the question 😊
      • Brian Green
      • Kwame
      • Yugson
      • Rick Indigo
      • Shan S
      • J Soul Zuberi
      • Rachad
    • ⁠Can you identify what is about those dancers that you appreciate?
      • One common theme is the beautiful simplicity in their movements
      • Ability to dance both masculine and feminine energy
      • Laid back while also energetic and crisp and clear
      • Versatility and their ability to adapt to different types of (house) music
      • While the steps are “beautiful”, the ability to gracefully move other parts of the torso
    • Is there anything in particular you’re really keen to get out of this initial session?
      • Curious to hear your observations from the past 3 weeks of Kev’s Kitchen
      • Incorporating double time without looking or feeling so robotic
      • Turns and space without looking robotic / stiff in the torso
      • From the wide array of “elements” (e.g. levels, space, rhythm, musical, isolation, footwork) how to manage training routine and practice and develop them over both the short and long term

  • Dance, discomfort and making mistakes

    Lots of dance activities going on lately and wanted to take a moment to reflect on the journey.

    Choreography volunteer as a dancer for video shoot promotion

    Last week, Francesa messaged me over Instagram, re-sharing an Instagram story, where Vi (an elite dancer from Japan currently located in London, teaching House and Locking and Hip-Hop) requested volunteers for dancers to come learn his choreography that would be filmed as a promotional video for his upcoming class:

    I received this message late on June 7th, the night before the shoot itself. First, I really appreciated Francesa sharing this with me and the fact that I was even on her radar. Second, I experienced mixed emotions, excitement, joy, anxiety. Excitement that I could be involved in something as cool as this, given that I just entered the dance scene about two years ago. Young Matt would’ve been so elated (I myself now, at 37, am elated). And as far as anxiety, I had thoughts like:

    “I’ve choked before during choreography, what if it happens again?”

    “I’ve never taken a class for Vi … what if his choreography is beyond my level?”

    “Should I just hide in the back? But what if only a couple people show up and there’s nowhere to run?”

    Despite having these thoughts, I not only signed up, but forwarded the screenshot to a couple friends, one of which (Aubrey) enlisted herself as well. Part of the reason (a big one), right around the same time of seeing Vi’s announcement, I had read a series of Jo-L’s stories on Instagram. In a nutshell, he basically stated that while we all know that discomfort and mistakes are part and parcel of growth, despite recognizing that reality cognitively, we tend to make decisions (unknowingly) that keep us in a state of comfort. Though I do believe that I am growing and putting myself out there, I definitely knew that signing up for Vi’s choreography was putting myself in discomfort.

    Not only that, but I had somewhat other anxiety reducing thoughts such as:

    • Even if I choke, so what? You are still whole
    • Everyone messes up sometimes
    • The pros (challenge, learning, growth) outweigh the cons (embarrassment)

    In the end, I did it and thrived and nailed the choreography. Not only that, instead of lurking in the back, I positioned myself up front, no where to hide. Finally, even if I did flop, I would’ve been proud of myself either way.

    Some takeaways

    • Starting the loose legs on on the “2” (instead of the “1”) – Almost always, I start the loose legs at the start of a bar. It’s quite common for us (house) dancers to begin our movement on the first downbeat. However, Vi started the choreography with performing a little hop on the “1” and the on the “2”, starting the loose legs. This change of timing is something I’ll take away as a learned lesson
    • Tilting torso to the left while hopping on the right before the shuffle – this was an unusual move for me, one that I’ve yet to perform before. When he demonstrated the move initially, I could not at first identify what I was doing different when comparing my figure in the mirror to his. Eventually, I paused and watched carefully and noticed that he was not rotating his trunk and instead, facing forwards and only ever so slightly stretching the top left of his body
    • Applying a different variation to the tic tac toe movement – I took away a new rhythm and a variation that I like and will drill and incorporate into my freestyle (I did already actually, during Kev’s Kitchen a couple days ago, which I’ll blog about shortly)

    Challenges during choreography

    • Salsa step and then hop
    • Additional “stutter” steps between pas de bourree transition into the salsa step

  • London House Dance Workshop Summary

    I attended a house dance workshop lead by Samantha Mavinga. The workshop took place in London last Sunday on May 25th and ran for 3 hours and though I’ve attended other workshops in the past, this one felt particularly special:

    • Trained with Mavinga previously in 1:1 and so I’m familiar with her work
    • I DJ’d for the self-exporation and cypher portion of the workshop
    • I created a recap video using my DSLR

    Exercises revolving around the “Shuffle” movement

    We started the workshop with a breathing exercise, and was asked to envision (while our eyes were closed) of our safe space. Following this tapping in exercise, she revealed that we’d be focusing on a single move throughout the entire workshop: the shuffle.

    I love the fact that we focused on a single foundation move because she’s providing us with a template that can be further applied to other foundational moves. It’s like teaching us how to fish.

    1. Controlling and strengthening feet required – an exercise she had taught me during our 1:1 privates. Good refresher and reminder.
    2. Rhythm patterns – simple, syncopated, double time, 1/16th notes. I was familiar with this and actually had practiced this rhythmic pattern not only with other foundation moves (e.g. pas de bourree, cross step) but also had practiced it a bit with shuffle as well
    3. Repeating the movement on the same side (instead of switching from left to right or vice versa) – I really like this technique
    4. Combining shuffle with roger rabbit – though she combined the shuffle with roger rabbit, taking components from each one, I imagine so many opportunities where I can combine shuffle with other moves like pas de bourree and cross step
    5. Leveraging control and strengthening to stretch out and slow down the shuffle
    6. Moving up and down across the four levels – I really struggle with transitioning from level 3 (the penultimate level) and level 4, on the ground.
    7. Taking up space by traveling with the movement – I got some nice feedback from her that I was prematurely kicking out (i.e. initiating the shuffle) the non jumping leg
    8. Transition between Peter Paul on left side to right side – lovely move and transition and feels unnatural to me and will require lots of practice in a slower tempo

  • Half term Highlights – Part 1

    Elliott is still asleep in the bedroom and I’m afforded the quiet morning to read, reflect, write. In a couple hours (hopefully), she’ll slowly rise and then shortly after I’ll drop her back off at her mom’s house. So, here are some morning musings.

    On trying Onion Rings

    I offered Elliott an onion ring to try out and she smiled and said “Sure, I’ll try one.” She proceeded to reach into the freshly opened bag, grabbed one onion ring, and ever so slightly stuck out the tip of her tongue and tasted it and immediately said “I don’t even need to eat it because I HATE IT already.” I couldn’t help but burst out in laughter. Her honesty— kids in general — is so raw, so beautiful. I’m not offended in the slightest bit and understand (especially within British culture) how that response from her would’ve been labeled or interpreted as rude but to me, absolutely hilarious.

    Video recap of Monday

    Been practicing taking footage on my DSLR and practicing improving my editing skills (thanks again Wei for suggesting I start off with experimenting with shadow, temperature and highlights).

    On being kind to oneself, others and communicating boundaries

    Elliott knocked over the container of beads, about a hundred of them flying all of the kitchen floor. The spill happened just before we were heading to bed and I had let out a big sigh of frustration. And then proceeded to say “These things happen Elliott. Could happen to anyone.” The way I speak to her is no different than the way I’ve learn to talk to myself: with kindness and self-compassion. In addition to being kind with her — with words — I showed functional validation and dropped to the floor to help pick up the sea of beads. Initially, she said “How about you pick up the beads and I’ll continue playing.” In response I said, “Elliott, I’m here to help you however it is also part of your responsibility to clean up after yourself as well.” She initially resisted, and proceeding to assemble a new pattern when I then placed a boundary: “Elliott, please come down here and help me pick up the beads. Otherwise, after I pick them up, I will throw them away.” In general, I try to start with positive encouragement and more often than not, she (more so lately) is more than willing to help however in some scenarios, I find it appropriate to clearly (to the best of my ability) communicate consequences: not empty threats. Often I’m reminded of Dr. Becky’s definition of boundaries, which is (paraphrasing here): in order for a boundary to take effect, the OTHER person does not need to DO ANYTHING. In that way, boundaries differ to requests. With a boundary, for it be enforced, I take action.

    Drinking Sparkling Mango while taking a bath

    Elliott typically does not like sparkling drinks but after she tried out this mango flavored sparkling drink from M&S, she loved it, so much so that while giving her a bath last night, she asked if I could pour her a cup of the drink and if she could drink while bathing. Why not?

  • Week 07 – Pistol Squat / Single legged squat progression

    I consider my lower body to be particularly weak mainly due to neglect from all these years. During my teenage years (about 16 years old), I started weight lifting and NEVER — and I mean NEVER — worked out my legs, only focusing on building mass in my upper body. Back then, I was focused on my aesthetics, wanting to sculpt myself into someone with a chiseled arms and popping chest: my then definition of masculinity. Fast forward 20 years later, my definition of attention has shifted towards function (i.e. “can I perform this movement without pain and incorporate it into my movement practice”) and longevity.

    In any case, turning my attention towards my lower body, I made the decision to start training pistol squats about 7 weeks ago, my initial draw towards it was that the move “looks cool.” On top of that motivation, I’m finding that attempting this movement serves as a diagnostic tool:

    • Is your quad weak?
    • Are you cramping in the rectus femoris?
    • Are you able to bend your knee over your ankle?
    • Can you feel tension in your hamstring while its working?

    With that in mind, I am training my single leg squat by following this progression from the lovely folks over at Stretch Therapy:

    Progress

    May 23, 2025 (Week 07)

    No victory too small. Yesterday, I was able to perform one entire pistol squat. Albeit, I was holding a 4 KG kettle bell to assist with balance however this just goes to show in just a couple months, my legs are gaining strength. Above all else, I am NOT (unlike many other areas of my life) obsessing over the movement. I am once a week, hitting the gym for about 45 minutes, going through the sequence and then moving on. Non-obsession, it has it’s place …

    April 21, 2025 (Week 04)

    Just a few weeks ago, you can see how shaky my base leg is, even at the very beginning of the movement, when I am upright.

    March 28, 2025 (week 02)

    March 21, 2025 (Week 01)