Breakdance or also known as breakin' is star genre in street dancing.
I originally entered dance community with break dancing as well.
I started off admiring windmill, thomas, and headspin.
Breakdance move is flashy and cool. Because of that fanciness, it requires extended training just to master one piece.
It looks easy at first, but at the beginning, it does not move according to the image, even the basic footwork such as six steps, your body feels heavy and tough. After all, training to dance is about being able to control your body according to your image. The beginning always feels like you are moving awkwardly.
Because you hold the position with raw power, trying out chair freeze will quickly turn your face red.
It is not only the amount of training that matters. It has to happen repeatedly. If you do not practice even a day, you will forget the feeling the next day, get bruised always, scrape out the side of your sneakers, suffer from the muscle pain, etc. That is all the fun part of breakdancing.
There are various styles of dance, but there are no more stoic genres than breakdancing that requires intense body training to be successful.
Popping is also known as low key painful training. But from the perspective of injury or body overuse, break dancing will be likely more stoic overall (it is not about which genre is better than the other).
In fact, I remember my high school forbidding break dancing for a potential issue with the insurance coverage, while floor dance like hiphop was considered healthy. Looking back, now I think teachers simply got scared of a bunch of kids spinning in their heads.
Person who grows at Breakin quits the lessons or goes self-taught
When you start learning dance, you usually start off going to a studio or school, don't you?
Break dancing is no exception.
But the difference is that people who become good at breakin stop going to the classes.
They usually decide to stop coming at all on one day. Or even the ones who never made it to the lesson at all can be really good.
On the contrary, there is also a phenomenon where people keep up with lessons week after week but never get better. They are loyal students, but their effort never pays off unfortunately.
What is happening here?
It all comes down to how much one is practicing by himself/herself.
People who attend the classes but never grow have much less time practicing outside the studio. And mostly, the only time they are moving their body is inside the class.
On the other hand, those without studio/lessons route and become better in a short period are undoubtedly practicing somewhere else every day.
It is likely they go to a place where break dancers gather every day and receive inspiration while getting personal advice sometimes. They soon become hooked to break dancing.
Importance of environment
To be acquainted with someone better than yourself or to practice in the vicinity of experienced dancers is an essential element of growth. It is an ideal environment.
People who put up with thinking that a practice environment is secured and they want to save money from not attending to the lessons will stop coming to the classes. There are lots of dance information now like YouTube. You can also learn from people practicing together.
Even those who attend the classes, will not grow regardless of dance style, as long as they are satisfied by just attending the classes.
It is particularly true in break dancing when it is like stacking 0.1 improvements every day.
Of course, it is a different scenario if you respect that particular teacher and are driven by the desire to learn from that person.
Otherwise, breakers grow in the street. Thereby the name won the title of star street dancing genre. Good actions really happen in the street.
Recently, the amount of uploaded dance videos is growing every day on the internet that is too large to finish it even in your whole lifetime. You can watch them anywhere on your smartphones.
Breakin has a strong element of studying by yourself and is more dependent on the absolute exercise volume and practice environment than the quality of lesson.
Does it make dance classes useless?
So far, I wrote the nature of breakdancing requires you to have a good practice environment outside the classes. But it is under the assumption you want to do the power move.
Because most people begin break dancing hoping they will one day do an astonishing move like Windmill or Thomas. That is why I went ahead with that assumption. But, that is not all to breakdance. There are plenty of standing steps and footwork that you can wow the audience.
You can certainly learn the latter during lessons. As a matter of fact, having a structured lesson with a good teacher would be more efficient in that case.
It is about making a clear distinction between purposes. Classes are where you want to learn steps and move. Practice environment for self-learning is for power move and foundation. You can proceed as long as you understand these differences.
Take advantage of different ways of learning, and become a one and only master dancer.