Thread: Where did pops & locks originate?

I really like legato, staccato and tremolo for my own purposes.

For teaching.. hmm, my student are already having to learn some French ballet terms and some words of Arabic, I'm not sure adding Italian is going to clarify things for them.

I usually say 'sharp' and 'smooth' or 'percussive' and 'flowing' and that works fine.

Originally Posted by midnight_star56

I think students can grasp learning movements better when they are described as "pop, lock". Staccato and legatto in my mind are musical terms that dont really apply to body movement.
Staccto- short, separated. Legato- tied together.

In my mind, musical terms are better because we are responding physically to the music. MEDance starts and ends with the music, imho.

You can "pop" the hip drop, you can "lock" the hip drop, or you can simply do staccato hip drops in the sharp accents of the music. There are 3 different textures of movement possible here. (Actually 4 if you want to count those soft hip drop "falls." Saidi of Argentina does beautiful hip "falls," almost as if the hip is a softly beating heart.) All of it -- what texture you make the movement -- depends on what the music is doing.


For the record, Sadie (on her dvd) defines "pops" as the sharp accent and then release. Like a sharp chest lift followed by the release down to the neutral chest position. A "Lock" is the sharp accent, but it's HELD in the accented position -- locked in place. So a chest lock would be a sharp chest lift that is held in the lifted position for a second before relaxing back to neutral.

In funk, there's a similar definition, but you can also break up one ordinarily fluid movement into a series of tiny locks or accents, kind of like the way some people do snake arms with "stops" at each section instead of doing them fluidly. I think in some vocabularies, this is called "ticking" - ?

Mona Said did pelvic "pops" -- the sharp drop, followed by the natural relaxing back to neutral position.

Sohair Zaki did hip locks down all the time. What makes "Sohair Zaki hips" so cute is that delay, that hold, on the hip stretch down.

Dina did all kinds of locks on her Miami Little Egypt performance videos. Chest and Hip.


Pops and locks have been around forever, but the difference is that Mona and Sohair would only acknowledge certain (and few) accents in the music with pops and locks. NOW some dancers are choosing to accent everything in the music with pops and locks. Or they're choosing music that has been specially composed for popping and locking and ticking and breaking.

Originally Posted by midnight_star56

"I think that it is important to keep the distinction of the difference between staccato/legato and pop'n lock"

I think students can grasp learning movements better when they are described as "pop, lock". Staccato and legatto in my mind are musical terms that dont really apply to body movement.
Staccto- short, separated. Legato- tied together.

I cant speak for others, but I've very successfully been able to implement the terminology in my classes, workshops, publications and seminars.

I guess it depends on what focus you have. If you think of dance as reflecting music through visual aid, then musical terminology has its place in the dance. If you think of dance as movement only, then you can call things whatever you want without the need of distinction in one way or the other.

I humbly believe that it also depends on what level of dance you teach. I expect dancers with a focus on professional quality, skill and presentation to have at least somewhat experience and understanding of staccato, legato, maqam, lezma, lawazem, rhythms and their names, arabic names of movements and concepts etc. I wouldnt hold a hobbyist to the same requirements.

Aziyade, great post!

Originally Posted by aziyade

In my mind, musical terms are better because we are responding physically to the music. MEDance starts and ends with the music, imho.

You can "pop" the hip drop, you can "lock" the hip drop, or you can simply do staccato hip drops in the sharp accents of the music. There are 3 different textures of movement possible here. (Actually 4 if you want to count those soft hip drop "falls." Saidi of Argentina does beautiful hip "falls," almost as if the hip is a softly beating heart.) All of it -- what texture you make the movement -- depends on what the music is doing.


For the record, Sadie (on her dvd) defines "pops" as the sharp accent and then release. Like a sharp chest lift followed by the release down to the neutral chest position. A "Lock" is the sharp accent, but it's HELD in the accented position -- locked in place. So a chest lock would be a sharp chest lift that is held in the lifted position for a second before relaxing back to neutral.

In funk, there's a similar definition, but you can also break up one ordinarily fluid movement into a series of tiny locks or accents, kind of like the way some people do snake arms with "stops" at each section instead of doing them fluidly. I think in some vocabularies, this is called "ticking" - ?

Mona Said did pelvic "pops" -- the sharp drop, followed by the natural relaxing back to neutral position.

Sohair Zaki did hip locks down all the time. What makes "Sohair Zaki hips" so cute is that delay, that hold, on the hip stretch down.

Dina did all kinds of locks on her Miami Little Egypt performance videos. Chest and Hip.


Pops and locks have been around forever, but the difference is that Mona and Sohair would only acknowledge certain (and few) accents in the music with pops and locks. NOW some dancers are choosing to accent everything in the music with pops and locks. Or they're choosing music that has been specially composed for popping and locking and ticking and breaking.

I've heard teachers call them hits, accents, taks.

Someone mentioned the music. I've heard teachers talk about the change in music influencing the dance, especially the role of the tabla. The more of a lead it has the more taks you hear the more opportunity for hitting those taks. Of course going for every one might make you look like you're having a fit..c::

Interesting discussion.