Jeffrey Daniel:Urban Genius

Jeffrey Daniel has got to be one of dancing's greatest legends.He's innovated and contributed a lot of character to poppin.For those of you who don't know him he used to be a soul train dancer back in the 70's.From lockin,miming,poppin,and robot jeffrey did it all with the utmost effort and talent.Now get ready for this because waht I'm about to tell u might come off as shocking.Are you ready.Lol ok he is also known for introducing the moonwalk to Michael Jackson.You didnt see that coming did you?With Jeffrey contributing that much to the game he deserves his credit

As stated before he started out as a Soul Train dancer back in the 70's.Also around this time he had a dance partner named Jody Watley and they later formed the r&b group known as "Shalamar."They came out with a few hits of that time and Jeffrey would use his dancing skills to sometimes promote the group.Back in 1978 him and his crew "Eklipse" performed the moonwalk on soul train.The moonwalk was the signature name of the dance but it is originally called the "backslide."It was the first time that it was done on television and a young Michael Jackson followed their dance career ever since.It wasn't until the 80's when michael met jeffrey but was no stranger to his dancing on soul train.Geron 'Casper'Candidate and Coolie Jackson were the other members of Eklipse and Jeffrey actually sent them to MJ to teach the backslide.Jeffrey couldn't make it himself due to touring with shalamar.MJ paid Cooley and Casper a couple thousands of dollars to learn the move after JD introduced it to UK and Europe for the first time back in 1982.A program in the UK called Top Of The Pops was where JD introduced the move off of Shalamar's hit song "A night to Remember."MJ kept in contact with all three dancers and they worked together later on during the release of his "Bad"album.

Jeffrey remained choreographer for MJ for several years and went on tour with him as well.Videos such as "Smooth Criminal","Bad",and "Ghosts" were the main MJ hits that JD choreographed along with others.His success with Shalamar played a nice role with the r&b and pop charts with hits such as "A Night To Remember","Second Time Around",and "Friends."He would later on go solo in the late 80's and early 90's.Today he tours around the world as a solo artist and as well as a dancer.The man still has the skills and has been a major influence on artists such as Usher,Sisqo, and Justin Timberlake.His moves also inspired my mentor TJ Jefferson who is a OG from New Orleans.JD has played a major role with poppin and lockin culture since the early soul train days and the success of MJ's success.True OG!!

Here is a clip of JD getting down in the UK

Battle Tactics and Respect

When it comes to battling in dancing it can be very competitive.This goes especially for poppin.I have come to realize that when you battle somebody,tactics and respect play a big role.Those 2 words determine your reputation as a dancer.I have battled numerous times before and I still do to this day.I tend to think of battling as competing with myself as my focus.With that being said let's explore a list of battle tactics.



1.Take your time!!The main thing I see in battles is hype energy.To much of it will make you rush and be off beat.Plus your stamina will go down faster.when poppin on beat and taking your time,your moves look 10 times cleaner compared to rushing.Show your opponent that you are in control and smooth with it.dancing fast and being off beat is not cool at all which leads me to tactic #2.

2.Stay on beat.I cannot stress this enough.Rather if u are being judged by an audience or a panel of professional judges,being on beat is a MUST!!!No matter what the song is and how fast the tempo is,ride that beat like it's on cruise control.U can have a thousand moves but if you are not on beat your whole time in the battle is pointless!

3.Don't show all your moves in one round.This is major sign of weakness.Let's say you are confident that u are winning the first round.You basically showed all your best moves and you are on fire.Ok that's well and fine but what if your opponent suprises you in the second round.What will you have to show for round 2 when your opponent brings out some of their good moves.If you don't have any moves left then 9 times out of 10 you are gonna repeat what you did in round 1.The point is spread your moves out through each round.Another thing is that your audience will get bored looking at you.This strategy helps especially when u are battling somebody that is very skilled.

4.Wear clothes that fit.I know this may sound irrelevant or funny but it plays a big role with your moves.If u like to wear big clothes I highly suggest to make an exception when u pop.See waist moves and upper body moves are best shown when u wear clothes that fit.Imagine if u were wearing a baggy shirt while u pop.In your mind your technique could be flawless but nobody will see it because your xxl size shirt is hiding all your moves.

5.Don't Think.As the late great Michael Jackson said about dancing"Thinking is the biggest mistake a dancer can make,you have to feel."This is so true especially for battling.When you think throughout a battle,you give your opponent the impression that you are nervous.Just feel the music and stay on beat.So many dancers try to battle with thinking of moves before they even dance period!!If you are skilled enough feeling the music should automatically hit your soul as a dancer.



Now that I have gone over tactics,lets talk about battle respect.A lot of times respect is determined with basically the winner and the loser.The concept of a battle can make or break ego's.Lets take a look shall we?







This a poppin battle that took place in Atlanta back in 2004.Do you notice something wrong here?Well I do.Aparently the guy with the blue on got mad and threw a tantrum. This is often done when personal feelings get involved.Which leads me to the first point about battle respect.




1.Control your anger.This is a life lesson in general but can prove your overall composure in a battle.A lot of times dancers will get mad if they are losing a battle.This kind of outtake is a sore loser mentality and will not help you win.After all the better DANCER wins the battle not the better trash talker.If you get frustrated then that goes to show that you are not battle material.Nobody wants to see you whine and complain when you are supposed to be getting down.

2.Don't talk just dance. You have certain dancers that will serve as their own commentary before and during a battle.For example, before a battle you're going on and on about what move u can do and how skilled you are.Then when the battle starts you act as if you are teaching by talking about each move u do while u do it.This a major sign of being cocky.Yes think highly of your dance ability but as I like to put it,"Just shut up and dance!!"Nobody wants to hear how great your dance ability is especially if you can't prove it.Besides let your moves do all the talking.

3.Hang in there.There will be times when you battle somebody that is more skilled than you.Now if it is pre-determined that you know you are going to lose then still battle anyway.As a matter of fact give it all you got.You never know what the outcome might be really.By doing this you are earning respect because you are not willing to give up.There's been times where I would battle someone more skilled than me,but I would get mad respect even if I lose.Think about it this way.What are you really risking?Losing helps u become a better dancer.Think it about it!

4.Wait your turn!!As your kindergarden teacher used to say."Wait Your turn!"What do I mean by that with battling.Easy!!Don't interupt your opponent's turn when you wanna dance.You wouldn't want your opponent to do the same to you.Besides you don't wanna cause confusion with the battle.One thing I see with battles is that you got both dancers dancing at the same time trying to out do each other with a move.That's a big no no.It's a major turn off judging wise and you are not focusing on your own feel with the music.

5.Shake Hands.As with any competition or sport,out of respect shake your opponents hand.Its a declaration of win or lose unity.Enough said.


Those are the key elements with battle tactics and respect.Take high consideration of each as you grow as a dancer.Or if you don't dance at all,it is something good to know for if you watch a battle.Either way it goes for any of you, the battle itself is the common variable.

Part 1 of video blog:"History Of Popping

The history of poppin is unheard of to most.A lot of people have their conception on the history but the fact is that their wrong.With that being said, I decided to start a video series of poppin's history.Part one of this series is talking about the birth region of this dance as well as it's earliest stages.Pay close attention to the names I mention as these name are vital to who created what and who did what.Watch part one below.





As you can see from part one the dance was more underground than anything in its beginning stages.

What is Poppin?

Ok this blog post is the meat and potatoes for the newbies that don’t have a clue on what this dance is about. Poppin is basically a dance where the muscles are contracting and relaxing to the beat of the music. With this technique with the muscles, the outcome is a jerky illusion effect. The dance itself, if done correctly, is intended to come off as a funky robot dancer to the audience. It’s earliest origins derive from the robot, mime, and a dance called locking. It is often commonly called pop lockin as more of a familiar slang term that started in the 70’s. Poppin’s base location in which it was born is California. To be more specific, Its roots date all the way back to the late 60’s out of the northern California area(bay area), in areas such as San Francisco, Oakland, and Richmond. Now as u are reading this section the overall term known as “poppin” was not originally the term for the dance in the Bay area. See different areas in the bay called it different names and it wasn’t labeled as the term “poppin” until 1976. Pre-dating 1976, the dance was known as boogaloo, robot, and strut which were the main names that came straight from the Bay. In relation to those names they were different variations of the dance but all had the same effect. Fact is that when money and politics got involved, the dance was coined the name “poppin” by a dancer named Sam Soloman aka Boogaloo Sam. Sam is from Fresno, Ca but moved to long beach in 1978. There is a lot of controversial confusion with Boogaloo Sam being the creator of this dance. He is mainly responsible for innovating the dance and taking it to new levels with his VERSION of what was already being done in the Bay. He is also responsible for the being the first to call the dance “poppin.” However he did not create the dance and that’s where the controversy began to surface across the culture. The starting point of the controversy began as Sam started his first group known as the Electronic Boogaloo Lockers. The name was later on shortened as “Electric Boogaloos” when Sam and the group made their debut on the hit tv show “Soul Train.” The year was 1978 and the history of dance coming from bay area in the late 1960’s was pretty much non existent due to Sam’s success with the Electric Boogaloos.

There are many different sub styles of poppin that took affect in the late 70’s going into the early 80’s.Styles such as waving, animation, tuttin, scarecrow, and strobing are just to name a few. Sam’s success with the eb’s(Electric Boogaloos) began to die down after the explosion of break dancing in New York. New York started dominating the scene when they came up with their version of poppin better known as “electric boogie.” The name itself is like I said THEIR version of poppin. Under the direction of marketing electric boogie, the east coast decided to coin it under break dancing to make money. The thought of it sounded clever as it did reach the mainstream more but overall demolished the dance in years to come later. Poppin was now seen in movies, commercials, and music videos. Movies such as “Breakin,” “Breakin 2,” and “Beat Street” became popular in 1984 amongst households. Dancers such as Boogaloo Shrimp, Poppin Pete, Skeeter Rabbit, Cooley Jaxson, Poppin Taco and Shabba Doo were the big names from Cali that represented that era in poppin. As the success with mainstream attention began to take poppin to new heights, it died down quickly in the late 80’s going into the early 90’s.

For a while poppin was pretty much played out going into the 90’s. It was shown on tv rarely and soul train pretty much moved on to the next big dance at that time. Many of the OG’s had regular 9 to 5 jobs as opposed to living a flashy celebrity lifestyle. It even got to the point where if u were caught poppin somewhere u would get clowned. A drastic downfall indeed but Sam decided to do something about it. In the late 90’s Sam and the EB’s made the ultimate attempt to revive poppin by re-introducing the dance to the world. It was a huge task to take on but it didn’t go un-noticed. With the revival, EB’s member, Poppin Pete, put poppin and lockin under a new term called funk styles in 2000. The term itself is supposed to describe the dances being put in the genre of funk era music instead of hip hop. Pete felt it was necessary to do due to the confusion New York caused with break dancing and poppin being in under the same category. The idea of it was clear cut and dry but it also falsely re-introduced the eb’s as the primary poppin source and therefore not acknowledging the bay area. In addition to that, it was a method for the EB’s to make money off the dance. Poppin now remains predominately underground but it has slowly reached it tv again. Poppin has spread across the world especially in target areas such as Japan, Canada, Sweden, France, and Korea. Its revival has reached tv programs such as MTV’s Americas Best Dance Crew and So You Think You Can Dance. Even theaters are showing poppin in movies again. This may sound like the ultimate comeback for the dance, but it’s true roots still remain underground as the Bay created it.

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Poppin in the 80's

As you all know, when you think of the dance known as poppin you automatically think of the 80's.In addition to that you think of adidas suits,cardboard,and kangol hats.The reason for this is because of the marketing of this dance back in that era.Back then this dance had it's main misconception of being called breakdancing.Even to this day, I can go poppin somewhere and somebody would automatically think I was from new york.Well that's because was the main area that marketed poppin back in the 80's.Now for those of you that can remember,let's take a trip down memory lane shall we?Remember the movies Beat Street and Flashdance?Those movies were filmed up north and gained an increase in popularity due to the breakdancing in those films.Now notice I said BREAKDANCING and not POPPIN.But see the thing is that New York Categorized poppin as breakdancing to market it to the mainstream.Way before this happened,poppin's main exposure came from Soul Train and very few music videos.New York did not create poppin at all but they did market it the most in the 80's

Back in the late 70's going into the early 80's,most breakers would learn how to pop from watching soul train.By 1983,they would eventually learn the dance from it's birth state in california as west coast OG's would travel to NY.Dancers such as Shabba Doo,Boogaloo Shrimp,Suga Pop,Poppin Pete,and Skeeter Rabbit would travel from Cali to spread knowledge about poppin in exchange for NY knowledge about Breakin.After the colaboration of knowledge between both regions, NY took their half and blew up with emergence of hip hop music.So basically you had Breakers from NY that would get exposure in Hip Hop videos for both dances.Commercials were coming out where u would see poppers dressed up like they are from New York.Lionel Ritchie's video "All Night Long"featured west coast poppers and happened around the same time NY learned how to pop.Another highlight in 83 was Michael Jackson's perfomance of the moonwalk on the Motown 25 anniversary special.

By 1984,the movies "Breakin"and "Beat Street"were released.Beat Street was based out the NY while Breakin was based out of Cali.The movies put an extreme impact on street dancing and had viewers excited.There were tours following up the promotion of these movies which hit worldwide success.Now u had every household poppin and breakin.And with the marketing of New York's version of poppin called "Electric Boogie,"it was still considered breakdancing.Around this time poppin on the west coast still had its share of mainstream success but not as much as NY.Now u see why poppin is often listed as breakdancing,

Poppin died down in the late 80's.It got to the point that if u got poppin somewhere, u would get clowned!!It's commercial success became an damaging aspect of the dance.To many people took it as just a fad and not an actual culture.A lot of the OG's began to see this and started working regular 9 to 5 jobs.In my opinion, the stratgies of marketing poppin were pretty clever but not genuine enough to truly recognize the dance for it's influence on street dance culture.I mean think about it.You had a whole state marketing this dance under the wrong name first.Due to mainstream hype in the 80's,I bet most of you never heard of west coast OG's like Skeeter Rabbit and Boogaloo Dana.Quite a few dancers in the 80's got false credit for creating poppin when all they did was innovate it.The 80's had its success with the dance which is a highlight to most people of today that experienced that era.However poppin was marketed wrongly as being called breakdancing in that era.

My introduction...

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.