Lesson Leap

At about 3-4 weeks into a class I usually start introducing isolations for beginners in hip-hop. It’s important to remember as a teacher that you can start introducing advanced concepts to beginners, you just have to make modifications to make it easier to understand.

Isolations, simply put, is a skill where you move only one part of your body at a time. This is an important foundation skill for hip-hop, as more advanced choreography uses a lot of isolations.

I teach hip-hop to toddlers (3-5 years old), and I started working with them on their isolations at the beginning of the year. It was rough at first, but now they’ve got it down and it’s really improved their movement quality! Just imagine how good they’ll be in a few years when they’re only 7 but have been doing isolations for 4 years!

Here is a breakdown of how I approach teaching isolations for beginner hip-hop classes, this method can work for beginners ages 3 to 8 years old:

Start with focusing on isolating one body part at a time:

1. Head/neck
   • turning to the right/left
     • NOTE: Make sure they don’t turn their shoulders/upper body! Only moving their heads.
   • looking up/down
   • rolling the head (both directions)
2. Shoulders
   • Lifting one shoulder at a time
   • Alternating shoulders (one lifted/lowered, and switch)
   • Rolling shoulders (to the right and to the left)
3. Ribs/stomach
   • Moving right to left
   • NOTE: Try not to move your hips/upper body, only your waist!
   • Moving front and back (arching and contracting)
   • Rolling in a circle
4. Hips
   • Shaking hips right to left
   • Double-bounce on each side
   • rolling hips in a circle (to the right and left)

After working through each body isolation, now you can piece it together with full-body rolls:

1. Body Roll – Top to Bottom
   • Starting with rolling your head back, and all the way down ending with your feet
2. Body Roll – Bottom to Top
   • starting with rolling your feet/knees forward, then all the way up to your head.

Now that they have the basics of isolations, you can start incorporating them into your combos and choreography! Start with slow and even-paced isolations that hit loud accents in the music (this makes it easier for beginners to grasp the choreography).

Overall I’d say isolations can be really challenging, but the longer they’re working on it, the easier it’ll be, that’s why I make sure to expose beginners to isolated movements!