Taking into account what activities are necessary in order to develop quality dancers and artists, we envisioned the VADA Academy to be realized in two phases:
PHASE 1: Phase 1 is intended to include a long-lasting structured approach that would circle around technical training of dancers. This phase will be executed within a five-month period of work during which each month will cover the study of one dance style. We have created a curriculum incorporating five styles: old school hip-hop dance, popping, new school hip-hop dance, house dance and dancehall. Each month there will be three practical classes and one theory class, incorporation Q&A and other tasks, as well as materials for dancers. The program is scheduled to be implemented from February to the end of June. The classes will be held by renowned dancers from the USA.
The students will be divided in two groups. One of which is the group of participants from Skopje who will work together in the space of Youth Cultural Center, following Corona-pandemics protocols, whereas the second group will be consisting of participants from other cities who will join the classes online.
PHASE 2: Given the Corona pandemics situation, we are hoping to be able to realize phase two in August, thereby providing an opportunity for the dancers to learn in person with the teachers from the USA. Within a two-weeks period of work, the dancers will be given an opportunity to work on performance creation, using the acquired knowledge from before and delving even deeper into the material of urban dance styles. The dancers will receive an opportunity to take part into a deeper and more complex structure of work and their performances will be presented in Skopje in front of a larger audience.
February
OLD SCHOOL
Hip-hop dance is a broad category that includes a variety of styles. The older dance styles that were created in the 1970s include uprock, breaking, and the funk styles. Breaking was created in The Bronx, New York in the early 1970s.In its earliest form, it began as elaborations on James Brown’s “Good Foot” dance which debuted in 1972Breaking at this period was not primarily floor-oriented as seen today; it started out as toprock which dancers perform while standing up. Old school today refers to using vocabulary of classical old moves and use of the groove as the base for movement. What distinguishes hip-hop from other forms of dance is that it is often “freestyle” (improvisational) in nature and hip-hop dance crews often engage in freestyle dance competitions—colloquially referred to as “battles”.
March
POPPING & ELECTRIC BOOGIE
Popping was derived from the earlier Boogaloo street dance movement taking place in Oakland, California during the late 1960s, the Boogaloo dance form incorporated techniques of soulful footwork steps, arm movements, stop-motion animation, the robot, & posing hard – which contracted muscles during robotic poses to the music of FunkIt is based on the technique of quickly contracting and relaxing muscles to cause a jerk in a dancer’s body, referred to as a pop or a hit.
April
NEW SCHOOL
The dance industry responded to hip-hop dance by creating a commercial version of it. This urban choreography or studio hip-hop, sometimes called “new style”, is the kind of hip-hop dance seen in rap, R&B, and pop music videos and concerts. It is still controversial weather new style should be seen as hip-hop, since it includes a variety of techniques: contemporary, jazz, etc.
May
HOUSE DANCE
House dance is a freestyle street dance and social dance that has roots in the underground house music scene of Chicago and New York.It is typically danced to loud and bass-heavy electronic dance music provided by DJs in nightclubs or at raves.
June
DANCEHALL
Dancehall is a genre of Jamaican popular music that originated in the late 1970s.[4] Initially, dancehall was a more sparse version of reggae than the roots style, which had dominated much of the 1970s.[5][6] In the mid-1980s, digital instrumentation became more prevalent, changing the sound considerably, with digital dancehall (or “ragga”) becoming increasingly characterized by faster rhythms.
The popularity of dancehall has spawned dance moves that help to make parties and stage performances more energetic. Dancing is an integral part of bass culture genres. As people felt the music in the crowded dancehall venues, they would do a variety of dances. Eventually, dancehall artists started to create songs that either invented new dances or formalized some moves done by dancehall goers. Many dance moves seen in hip hop videos are actually variations of dancehall dances.
