As someone long intrigued by the distinctive music, fashion, and culture of the growing phenomenon that is street dance, Freeflow’s intro dance workshop was as eye-opening as it was challenging. The club, established at the University last spring, held its first general interest meeting of the semester two weeks ago as a beginner’s workshop open to all students in the Leibner-Cooper room.
The workshop, which boasted about 30 in attendance, began with a dynamic stretching session, followed by some cardio. Led by Freeflow eboard members and juniors China Huang and Emma Wang, the group was split into four staggered rows with every other person in front of the wall-length mirrors. After doing a brief look around the room between warrior poses, it was clear that people had come dressed for the occasion. I’m talking oversized cargo pants, slouchy hoodies, black caps, slick white kicks, cut-out jeans — even this year’s highlighter-yellow Feel the Sting shirt made a stylish appearance, cropped for an off-shoulder look (quite impressive to pull it off, I must say, coming from someone who rarely dons school merch).
As we switched to splits (read: pain) with me gawking over the sheer flexibility and athleticism in the room, the enthusiasm was undeniably palpable. The rawness of the energy hung in the air, bringing back something akin to feeling at home in a world I never encountered yet somehow understood. I had been in the “mirror-room” a hundred times, but between the rhythmic movements and pulsing hip-hop music reverberating through my bones, it was clear that Freeflow managed to transform the space into an in-house street dance facility.
Freeflow was born out of a niche for freestyle, for experimentation. Back home in Singapore, dance captain and junior Lucy Ming said, the street dance scene is robust.
“We have what we call, like, ‘OGs,’ the originals, the founders, you can say,” Ming said of local mentors and dance teachers at open studios around her who inspired her to dive into the art. Although street dance is growing rapidly internationally, the street dance scene in Rochester is relatively sparse. Last year, Ming participated in a cipher — a dance circle where participants take turns solo-freestyling in the center — as part of the UR-hosted inspireJAM, a seven-day festival started in 2011 by Arielle Friedlander ’11 in collaboration with the University’s Program of Dance and Movement. Freeflow also held two smaller cipher events last semester as a tester and plan to host some later this year.
“Freestyling is quite a scary concept, like going into this movement without actually knowing what’s gonna happen, without knowing what kind of music’s gonna play, what you’re gonna do,” Ming said. “It has to first start from this trust in your body [… Sometimes] you are afraid to explore things that might look ugly, that might look ‘bad.’ The fear of exploration is the biggest inhibitor, and so it’s first getting over that fear of so-called ‘ugliness.’”
The remaining hour of the workshop was dedicated to nailing down the choreography to the 2021 R&B track “I Like Dat” by Kehlani and T-Pain, led by Ming. The workshop, advertised as beginner-friendly, stuck pretty true to its word. Ming first walked us through a couple of classic moves in street style — my favorite was the reverse running man, where you alternate between hopping and sliding your feet which has you running backward in a cartoon-like fashion. What do you do with your hands? Do what feels comfortable, what feels natural, Ming said. After drilling a couple of tricky moves, we started learning the choreography at around half-speed. The session felt engaging and quick-paced — albeit slightly overwhelming because dance is quite foreign to me — but manageable, and only once did I find myself checking the clock for the next water break. Once they dialed up the speed, though, all bets were off, and I’m sad to say I may have completely forgotten everything. The workshop ended with filming progress videos and a group picture to celebrate the GIM’s success.
Going forward, Freeflow plans to host a variety of events, including continuing their workshops, which are open to all students, and planning ciphers and dance battles for the future.
Want a taste of the hip-hop scene on campus? Follow Freeflow at their Instagram @freeflow.ur and join their CCC here.
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