Hello World, what's happening.I go by the name of Gary Shorter aka GT SanDiego.Lol u can call me GT though.I am a dancer from Atlanta, Ga and I have been dancing since the age of 5.My dance styles of interest are poppin and lockin.Now this may sound like a familiar category of dance to some of you.And as to others u may not know what I'm talking about.Now as you have seen recently on TV, Americas Best Dance Crew and So You Think you can dance are top rated televised dance shows.Most of the moves u see on those shows were inspired by the styles of poppin and lockin.Now let me break down both terms to you for a sec. Poppin is basically a dance where the muscles are contracting and relaxing to the beat of the music.The overall outcome is a funky robotic strike effect.Lockin is a dance that involves a lot of wrist rolls,pauses,and bounces.I've practiced these styles since 1999.
Growing up as a dancer,I remember the first talent show I performed in back in elementary school. It was 1996 and I danced to Michael Jackson’s “Bad.” I had a friend that was supposed to perform beside me that day but he choked throughout the whole performance. I didn’t win the talent show but I did win the respect amongst my peers that night. That same respect followed me as my dancing evolved over time. Back then local trendy dances would come and go but I was still dancing like MJ no matter which dance came out. I wanted to be just like him and was eager to prove it at any given day. When I attended middle school, it was a totally brand new environment to take on. I would actually get picked on because of the way I danced around that time. Girls looked at me funny and didn’t want to go out with me because my dancing turned me into an outcast. However that suddenly changed when I made it to the 8th grade in 1999.
As I entered 8th grade I made a couple of friends. They never knew I danced because I kept it a secret from being picked on so much. Until one night where it changed the rest of my life and made me into the dancer that I am today. This particular night I was spending the night at my homie’s house. His little brother, him, and myself were acting a fool the whole night with no adult supervision. So we decided hey let’s listen to some music and turn it up loud. We cut some music on and started getting off and jammed the
whole night. My homie then cuts on this one song by Ice-T. I forgot the name of it but I went crazy when I heard the beat. I started doing some poppin moves that I saw mj doing on stage and my homie was in shock. He was like “dawg I didn’t know u knew how to tick!!”. And I was like know how to what lol?? My homie found out about my talent and was telling everybody at school that following Monday. As my rep around school began to blow up, unfortunately I had to transfer to another school due to moving.
I got picked on a lot at the new school I attended which was nothing new to me anyway. Mainly it was because of how I dance with it being so similar to MJ and not like everybody else. My first battle was against a dude named Gerald. For some reason everybody wanted me to battle him as soon as they found out I knew how to dance. That was the first and maybe my shortest battle. It didn’t last long because I got laughed at. I heard remarks like, “shawty u can’t tick” and “u look like a 1975 robot!!” All the dissing from that day forward just motivated me to practice. I eventually battled Gerald again and I won!!
Throughout High School I started doing more talent shows and my poppin was getting better and better. I studied movies such as breakin, breakin 2, and beat street. Over time I learned that what we call “tickin” in atl was really called “poppin”or “pop lockin.” My college days of poppin began the start of my reputation as a dancer in the city. I was battling anybody that wanted to get it or any popper that heard of me locally. It got to the point that I loved the dance so much that I wanted to do my homework and find out about it’s history. In 2005 I found out about the Electric Boogaloos, a poppin group based out of Fresno, Ca. I obtained a lot of info from learning their history behind the game as well as other poppin crews such as Black Resurgence, The Mysterious Poppers, Medea Sirkas, G-Style, and Blue City Strutters just to name a few. I ended up putting a crew together along with some friends that pop as well and we are known as Down South Boogaloo Brothas(DSBB for short).We been dancing together as a crew for 2 years now. Our group is based out of atl of course and we are proud to have the identity that we worked hard for.
That’s my little bio and I hope yall enjoyed my adventure lol. There is still more years to come with this journey an every second of it is worth it because of my love for poppin Now this is just my opinion but I believe poppin and lockin are the best dances ever created. I have evolved incredibly with both dances and I continue to practice on a day to day basis. With that being said here is my introduction video of me dancing.This is a recent video of me doing a michael jackson performance.He really is the reason I started dancing and I hope you all enjoy.Oh Btw I incoporated just a little bit of poppin in this video.
Funk for the Robotic Soul
What’s going on world? With the dance scene blowing up tremendously within the past couple of years, it’s almost impossible to overlook any kind of dance movie, contest, tv show, and etc that’s marketing the art form. Here’s the thing though. A lot of the styles u see being performed at top notched levels have a root connection to what I call the best dance created better known as poppin aka pop lockin. Now for my older generation out there u probably thinking yeah, “Yeah we did that back in the day,” or , “Man that dance is played out.” And for the younger generation u probably don’t even know what I’m talking about and if u ever seen it before. Well the truth is this no this dance is not played out and yes u have seen it before. EVERYWHERE ACTUALLY. For example look at Ginuwine’s “So Anxious” and “Aint None Of Ur Friends Business” videos. The dance break sections in those videos displayed some poppin with fluid arm movements and the sudden robotic stops. Still confused? Better yet let’s take the late great Michael Jackson(RIP).Most of his stage performances contained a lot of poppin sequences with the slides and floats on his feet and the mime movements inspired my Marcel Marceau. These examples are NOT the ONLY elements of this dance as there is plenty of footage worldwide to dig through. However I like to use those examples as common footage that most of you have already seen before.
Bottom line is this. I honestly feel like poppin aka pop lockin doesn’t get the credit it deserves in the media for what it truly is. And this is why I created this site. If there’s anything u want to find out about the dance rather it be history, tutorials, videos, and etc, it’s all here. Some of u might be highly skilled with the dance and just want a website to visit that’s just geared toward the poppin community. Or u might be a newbie to the poppin game and u want to learn as much as possible from this incredible dance. Whatever the reason may be for your viewing of this website, knowledge of this dance is the foundation of the material that u are viewing. This site is also geared towards sharing your ideas and experiences with the dance. Lots of people would love to just have insight on poppin and their interpretation on the dance but don’t have a source to refer too. By no means am I a pop lockin God of any sort but this site contains loads of knowledge that is vital and it is my pleasure to share it with u. The site is completely free and enjoy the dance as it evolves constantly….
I'm your host better known as GT SanDiego.This is a video of me poppin.
Friday, August 21, 2009
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