Improvisation Dance Classes and Hip Hop Online Resources, Skunkworks Dance (Summer 2024)
Author: Jana Bennett
Bennett, Jana. “3 Free Online Dance Classes for Improvisation.” Skunkworks Dance, 2 July 2024, www.skunkworksdance.com/post/3-free-online-dance-classes-for-improvisation. Bennett, Jana. “3 FREE Online Hip Hop Videos Resources Keep You Moving This Summer - Beginning Dancer Friendly!” Skunkworks Dance, 18 July 2024, www.skunkworksdance.com/post/3-free-online-hip-hop-videos.
Improvisation Dance Classes
Bennett, Jana. “3 Free Online Dance Classes for Improvisation.” Skunkworks Dance, 2 July 2024, https://www.skunkworksdance.com/post/3-free-online-dance-classes-for-improvisation.
1. Improvisation workshop by NDT dancers Luca Tessarini and Nicole Ishimaru - ABN AMRO x NDT
In case you’re not familiar, Nederlands Dans Theater is one of the most prestigious Contemporary and Contemporary Ballet companies in the world—truly a favorite of mine! This improvisation class, taught by two of their talented company dancers, is both thoughtful and clear, making it an excellent resource for pre-professional dancers.
2. Get Into Dance Workshop: Hofesh Shechter Company
A giant and innovator in the Contemporary Dance scene, Hofesh Shechter, shares his artistic voice and unique training process in this engaging improvisation class. Experience his signature smooth transitions from mid to floor work and captivating spirals, all designed to inspire and challenge!
3. Gaga/Break with Saar Harari, Artistic Director
Join Artistic Director Saar Harari as he guides you through the improvisation technique that revolutionized the dance world: Gaga. Originally created by Ohad Naharin, former artistic director of the Batsheva Dance Company, Gaga is known for its deep human roots, soulful connections, and expansive movements that will get you moving and sweaty! Skunkworks dancers are fortunate to be part of the Gaga lineage, thanks to Director Jana Bennett's professional experience with this transformative form.
Unleashing the Beat: The Electrifying Journey and Short Summary of Hip Hop Dance
Bennett, Jana. “3 FREE Online Hip Hop Videos Resources Keep You Moving This Summer - Beginning Dancer Friendly!” Skunkworks Dance, 18 July 2024, https:.//www.skunkworksdance.com/post/3-free-online-hip-hop-videos.
Get ready to groove to the beats of Hip Hop Dance, a dynamic style known for its infectious bounces and rocks! Bursting onto the scene in 1970s New York, Hip Hop Dance emerged from the vibrant African American, Black, and Latino communities as part of a larger cultural explosion that includes the Five Elements of Hip Hop: Deejaying, Emceeing, Graffiti, Breaking, and Knowledge.
Hip Hop was not just a dance form; it was an electrifying form of expression and a vital escape from the harsh realities of the Bronx. It championed originality, creativity, respect, and community, turning the streets into stages for its people's incredible talent and spirit. Legends like DJ Kool Herc ignited this movement, transforming it into a powerful wave of freedom and evolution that swept across the globe.
As time passed, Hip Hop Dance didn't just stick to its roots—it grew, evolved, and embraced influences from various dance styles while staying true to its core values. Today, it's a vibrant, ever-evolving art form that inspires and brings people together. So, lace up your sneakers and join the revolution—Hip Hop Dance is here to stay!
Hip Hop Online Resources
1. Four Hip Hop Dance Foundations Practice
In every dance class, starting with movement foundations and technique is crucial! Join Jeffery Hu, who brings a fun and engaging vibe to his easy-to-follow videos, as he guides you through the four essential Hip Hop movement foundations: bounce, rock, roll, and wave. Master each one, then explore them together for your next level of practice. These foundational moves are vital to Hip Hop dance and a fantastic way to kickstart your Hip Hop movement journey!
2. Basics of Breakin' with Vince Horiuchi
Perfect your Break Dancing foundations with this fantastic free video from CLI Studios featuring instructor Vince Horiuchi! The footage offers clear instruction, excellent demonstrators, and live music, making it an unbeatable learning experience.
Vince guides you through top rocks, down rocks, musicality practice, freestyle introduction, and more! With Break Dancing making its Olympic debut this summer, now is the perfect time to dive into this essential element of Hip Hop culture. Don't miss out!
3. Learn Hip Hop Choreography with TweetBoogie
Now that you've mastered some foundational Hip Hop techniques and movements, it's time to dive into choreography! Follow along with TweetBoogie, a Bronx native who has collaborated with hip-hop and R&B legends like Jay-Z, LL Cool J, Kanye West, Jasmine Sullivan, Nicki Minaj, and the iconic Miss Janet Jackson. She'll break down and teach you a beginner-friendly combination she choreographed.
TweetBoogie's precise direction, infectious energy, and brilliant moves make this the perfect finale to your online Hip Hop exploration for the day!
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What you are seeing here is a moment that really captures process more than a set “step.” The dancer’s body is off-center—one leg swinging out, the other grounding them; arms crossed and curved overhead in a shape that is unusual and asymmetrical. In improvisational dance, this kind of off-balance, in‑between position is important: it shows the dancer listening to momentum, gravity, and impulse rather than trying to land a perfect, rehearsed pose. It is like catching a thought mid-sentence instead of a memorized line.
Would you like to go deeper into how this relates to ideas like weight, flow, and choice-making in improvisation?
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This photo has such a strong, clean energy: one dancer in black against an almost glowing white background, caught mid‑motion with one leg lifted and arms curved over their head. The contrast makes their body look like a sharp silhouette, so every angle and line of the pose really pops. It feels both controlled and a little off‑balance at the same time, like they are right in the middle of a transition rather than a “finished” pose.
What’s the first thing your eye goes to when you look at it—the leg, the arms, the expression, or something else?
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It looks like the person in the image is captured mid-movement in a dance or expressive performance. Their body is balanced on one foot, the other leg extended, and their arms are curved and intertwined above and in front of their head, which suggests a deliberate, choreographed pose rather than a casual action.
What do you notice first about their body position or the feeling of the movement here? Want to look more closely together?
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Here’s one piece to start with:
In improvisational dance, this image captures a moment that looks like the dancer is “caught mid-choice” rather than posing for a fixed, rehearsed shape. The lifted leg, the off‑center balance, and the unusual crossing of the arms suggest the body is exploring possibilities in real time—testing weight, direction, and tension—instead of aiming for a classical, symmetrical line. The bare feet and simple clothing also support an improvisational context: they strip away costume and virtuoso “showiness” so attention goes to sensation, weight, and spontaneous decision-making in the body.
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In terms of improvisational dance, this image captures a moment that looks like the dancer is “caught mid-choice” rather than executing a fixed, memorized step. The off‑center balance (one leg lifted, weight tipping into one bare foot, arms crossing overhead in an unusual shape) suggests exploration: the body is testing limits of balance, direction, and line rather than aiming for a clean, symmetrical pose. If your question is how to understand this image through an improv lens, one way is to see it as a single frame from a stream of decisions: shift, reach, suspend, maybe fall—each response emerging in real time to sensation, gravity, and whatever sound or inner impulse is driving the dance.
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Step One – What seems important here?
The person in the image appears to be in mid‑movement, balanced on one foot with the other leg extended and the arms curved overhead, suggesting a dance or expressive pose.
In many dance traditions, such as contemporary dance, still photographs often freeze complex transitions, which can look strange unless we imagine the motion before and after.
The clothing is simple, loose, and monochrome, focusing attention on the shape of the body rather than on costume details.
Photographers working with dancers frequently choose neutral or black clothing to highlight silhouette and geometry against a plain background.
The background is completely plain and light, with no visible props or setting.
Minimalist studio setups like this are often used to study movement itself, almost like a visual experiment in balance and expression.
I have some questions about these observations that could help deepen how you understand what is going on in this scene. Are you ready to look at those questions next?
Next, I can guide you with questions that treat this image like a little philosophical puzzle about movement, expression, and context. Shall we step into that next layer together, or would you rather pull on a different thread of the image?
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Step Two – Why might these points matter?
1. The captured motion
How does your sense of the image change if you imagine the second just before and the second just after this pose—does it feel more like a leap, a fall, a stretch, or something else, and why?
What might the photographer be asking you to notice about time and balance by freezing this particular instant rather than a clearer, more symmetrical position (you might compare with examples of contemporary dance images on Google or Bing)?
2. The simple, monochrome clothing
If the dancer were wearing bright colors or elaborate costume, which parts of the body’s shape and tension do you think your eye would stop noticing, and what does that suggest about how clothes can guide our perception of movement (you could explore images of “contemporary dance costume” on Google or DuckDuckGo)?
Do you think the lack of visual distraction makes the pose feel more abstract—almost like a moving sculpture—and if so, what emotion or idea does that “sculpture” communicate to you?
3. The plain, empty background
Without any stage, audience, or scenery, what clues are you using to decide whether this is performance, rehearsal, or even a private moment, and how sure can you really be (compare with “studio dance photography” examples on Google or Bing)?
Does stripping away context make the dancer feel more like an individual person with a story, or more like a universal symbol of “a body in motion,” and what makes you lean one way rather than the other?
At this point I have some suggestions for places you could explore if you want to research these questions and see how dancers, photographers, and philosophers of art think about images like this. Would you like to roam further into those resources, or would you rather stay here and wrestle more with your own impressions first?
Next, I can point you toward sites and search terms that will let you investigate movement, dance photography, and perception on your own, like a small inquiry project. Shall we open that door of inquiry, or is there another door in this picture you are more curious to push on first?
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Step Three – How could you investigate this further?
1. Movement and frozen time
You might look at how photographers and choreographers talk about capturing “the decisive moment” in dance by searching sites like Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo for interviews and essays on dance photography.
As you read, you could ask yourself which ideas match what you sensed in this pose and which ones challenge your first impression.
2. Costume, body, and abstraction
To explore how simple clothing turns the body into a kind of sculpture, you could search museum and company sites such as major ballet or contemporary troupes’ pages, or image archives accessible through Google or Bing, and compare “rehearsal” images with full-costume stage photos.
Notice how your attention shifts between emotion, story, and pure line when costume becomes more or less elaborate.
3. Minimalist space and meaning
For the empty background and “pure movement,” you might browse essays on modern dance or performance theory through general searches at sites like Google, Google Scholar, or multidisciplinary databases you can access via a library website.
As you encounter different theories of space, ask which ones help you see new possibilities in this lone figure against a blank field.
4. Useful one-word search keywords
Here are some simple search terms you could combine with “dance,” “photography,” or “theory” on any of those sites:
Try pairing one or two of these with “contemporary dance” or “performance” and see which ideas resonate most with what you notice in the image.
Now I am curious: if you had to choose just one of these paths—time, costume, or space—as your main trail of inquiry, which would you follow first, and what draws you to that trail? Shall we dig more deeply into that one together, like two friends tracing footprints in the sand of this photograph?
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Starting with your idea
When you say you want to talk about hands, what do you have in mind: the body part itself, how artists draw hands, how hands are used (work, touch, violence, care), or something more symbolic like “having blood on your hands”?
If we do not first decide what kind of “hand” we mean, will we really know what we are talking about together?
So, how would you finish this sentence in your own words: “Hands are important because… ?”
Different ways to look at hands
Which of these four feels closest to what you want to explore first, and what made you pick that one instead of the others?
Where we could go next
We could look at how much of your daily life depends on your hands, or how hands can both heal and harm, or how hands appear in stories, religion, and art.
We could also notice your own hands: what they have done today, and what that says about your life and values.
If you had to choose just one question to start with—“What are hands?” “What are hands for?” or “What do hands say about a person?”—which one would you like to wrestle with, and why that one?
Would you like to go deeper into what hands are physically, what they mean emotionally, how they are used in society, or what they symbolize in stories and art?
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Is that how you felt doing this yourself?
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Yes, I can help you think through it. Before we dig in, can you either upload the image or describe it in detail—what’s in the frame, what’s happening, what colors or shapes stand out to you, and how you’re planning to use it (for a class, for your own project, etc.)? Once I have that, we can start unpacking how movement is working inside that one still moment: where the eye moves, what feels “in motion,” and what kind of emotional or narrative movement it suggests.
Do you want to tell me about the image so we can go to the next step?
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I am with you on that frozen moment: one leg, full motion, body caught mid-story. One way to start is to think of his movement as a line that keeps going even though the camera stopped. If you could draw a line from where his motion began to where it is headed next, what shape would that line be—straight, curved, zigzag, looping? And how does his one raised leg fit into that line—does it feel like a comma in a sentence, an exclamation point, a question mark?
What kind of “sentence” does his body seem to be writing in the air right now?
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The person I think about first is Barbara Morgan’s photos of Martha Graham. I wonder how my photography students could take photos like this at my school. how to set up a studio etc.
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One thing I want to clarify before I go further: are you asking this as a reader who’s curious about dance photography history, or as a teacher/writer planning something for your photography students and maybe writing about it (assignment, unit plan, reflection, etc.)? Your second comment about your students and setting up a studio makes me think it’s the second one, but I do not want to assume.
Can you tell me:
- Are you mainly looking for background info on other dance photographers,
- Or are you mainly looking for practical ideas for how your students might experiment with this kind of work at school?
Once I know that, I can walk with you through some focused, one-step-at-a-time prompts and resources.
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You’re naming two really rich threads here: the iconic Barbara Morgan / Martha Graham images and the very grounded question of how your students might actually try something like that in a school studio setting.
Before we go deeper, I want to check one thing so I do not run past what you actually need:
Are you mainly:
- planning a teaching unit or assignment where students will both study and create their own dance photography,
- or thinking more about building a basic school studio setup (lights, backdrop, camera settings, safety, space) and then figuring out the assignment later?
Tell me which of those feels closer to what you need right now—or if it’s really both at the same time—and I’ll start with a few short, concrete prompts to help you shape it in your own way.
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It sounds like you might be seeing both pieces at once—a unit where students study and make dance photographs, and at the same time you are wondering what you would actually need to set up in the studio at school so they can do it safely and successfully.
To ground us, let me start with one focused, practical question that can shape everything else:
If you imagine the end of this unit, what do you most want students to walk away with:
- a small portfolio of dance/action images they are proud of,
- a deeper visual literacy about how photographers like Barbara Morgan work with movement, light, and bodies,
- or more technical confidence with lighting, shutter speed, and studio setup?
Take a moment and name which outcome feels most important to you right now, and why. That answer can drive how we talk about both the teaching unit and the studio setup.
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The technical confidence with lighting and shutter speed and studio setup is probably the top priority, and it builds on lots of literacy work that we did when they were 9th graders.
Nice, that gives you a clear anchor: you are really designing a skills- and confidence-building unit that uses dance photography as the context. The Barbara Morgan / Martha Graham thread becomes a kind of artistic north star, but the main outcome is that students feel, “I can walk into a studio, set up lights, think about shutter speed, and make intentional choices with moving bodies.”
Staying with that: if technical confidence is the core, what do you already know your students can do in the studio (exposure triangle, basic key/fill, using a backdrop, etc.), and what do they still seem tentative or unsure about? Naming that gap is going to help you decide which technical moves this dance unit should really spotlight.
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I don’t know how dance teachers do it now, so I’m guessing here.
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Is there something he is doing specifically with his breathing? He mentioned tension release so I’m curious if it is related to that.
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I noticed that they introduced themselves this way, ie associated with NDT 1 or 2.
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It seems that in the video the dancer is trying to relate to the body in a way that might different from other types of dance.
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