CLARE CRAZE:Hi, I'm Clare Craze. I'm a professional dancer, and a dance teacher. I'm classically trained in ballet and I'm also trained in street dance.
CLARE CRAZE:Dance is my passion, and I'm going to show you how to fuse street and ballet into a routine, with the help of some of the guys from…
The Super Six dance crew.
TURBO:You guys are like a box of entertainment.
CLARE CRAZE:Turns, jumps and balance are all part of ballet and street dance. Together, these two very different styles can be fused into a dynamic dance routine.
JUDGE:It was just… It was brilliant. The two styles just blended together perfectly. Brilliant.
CLARE CRAZE:Health and safety is really important when dancing. Make sure you…
DANCER ONE:Remove all jewellery.
DANCER TWO:Get rid of any chewing gum.
DANCER THREE:Drink plenty of water.
DANCER FOUR:Take a rest if you're feeling tired.
DANCER FIVE:Wear the right footwear.
CLARE CRAZE:And make sure that you spread out in the space so you've got loads of room to dance. Okay, let's get started!
CLARE CRAZE:It's really important to warm up so you don't get any injuries. 'So we're going to teach you four basic moves 'just to warm your body up. 'First one is arms.'
CLARE CRAZE:Front and side. Front and side. 'Second one, heels.' Down low.
CLARE CRAZE:'Third one, jumps, bending your knees.' In, out. In, out.
CLARE CRAZE:'And the fourth move, slide.' Side to side.
CLARE CRAZE:Okay, so do all four together. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Okay, let's give it a go.
CLARE CRAZE:Ready, and one, three, five, six, seven, eight. A one, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Slide.
CLARE CRAZE:Okay, great.Now we're going to do it again, but you're going to have eight counts to walk around the space and find a partner. Then you're going to do it facing your partner.
CLARE CRAZE:Then you're going to have another eight counts to walk anywhere else, find another partner. Do it facing your partner. Last time, eight counts to walk back into the centre and we'll all do it together.
CLARE CRAZE:Okay? Ready? Count you in.
CLARE CRAZE:Five, six, seven, eight. Arms. And heels. Jumps. Slide. Eight counts. Walk to your partner. Ready, and arms.
CLARE CRAZE:Heels. Jumps. Slide. Eight counts, eight. New partner, go. Arms. Heels. Jumps. Slide. Last time, eight counts into the centre.
CLARE CRAZE:Ready, and… Okay, just take your legs apart. We're going to roll down from the head all the way to the floor, bend your knees. And roll yourself back up again. Big arm stretch over to the side.
CLARE CRAZE:Roll it down the middle and roll up. Other arm. Stretch it up and over. Carry it round to the middle. And roll up. Big stretch up, breathe in.
CLARE CRAZE:Shake it out. And wrap your arms. Okay, great, that was our warm up.
CLARE CRAZE:'Remember, bend your knees when you're jumping. 'Feel the beat when you're traveling. 'And use the space.'
CLARE CRAZE:Now let's learn the street and ballet fusion routine. I'm going to teach you a basic routine. Each section has a combination of both street and ballet moves.
CLARE CRAZE:Let's get started by understanding the beat. For ballet, it's good to use an instrumental piece, such as strings, which allows the movement to flow.
CLARE CRAZE:For street, it's a good idea to go for a strong, steady beat with good pacing. Use this to help you lower your centre of gravity.
CLARE CRAZE:So the first section we're going to teach you is arms. Firstly, we'll do ballet arms. Take it up to the front and side.
CLARE CRAZE:Up to front, and side. Then we're going to do a wave. So you're going to roll across to the other side, and then back across to the other side.
CLARE CRAZE:We're now going to go into circular port de bras. So your arms go round to the top, all the way back down.
CLARE CRAZE:From here, we're going to round and down, round and down, round and down, round and down. So that's the first section. Let me talk you through it. Ballet arms.
CLARE CRAZE:You want to have curved arms and curved hands. It comes up to the front and to the side. Front and side.
CLARE CRAZE:As you do a wave across, it's going to go from your fingers all the way through your shoulder, other shoulder, to your fingers, and back again, all the way across.
CLARE CRAZE:Now as we're going to go into circular port de bras, you're just going to take your arms down to the bottom, slide your feet out, and you're going to go round to the side, up to the top, side, and down.
CLARE CRAZE:Then we're going to slide our feet back. Around and down. Now this bit, if you can't get the arms, you can always just do the legs.
CLARE CRAZE:Okay? Let's give it a go, counting it to music. Five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four,five six, seven, eight. 'Remember your poise.
CLARE CRAZE:'Get low. 'And curve your arms.' Section two, we're going to be traveling. So you're going to take the bounce step, and travel it across, six, seven, eight.
CLARE CRAZE:Go one, two, three, four, five, stop, six, and then two chest pumps on seven, eight. Then we're going to couru on the spot, which is basically just going right,left, right, left, right, left, but go across.
CLARE CRAZE:One, two three, four, five, stop, six. And leg goes up and down on seven, eight.
CLARE CRAZE:So we add the arms… Freestyle arms going across. And then seven, eight, chest pump.
CLARE CRAZE:Couruing across, arms go up. And on your seven, eight, go side and down.
CLARE CRAZE:So we add the arms, freestyle arms going across, and then seven, eight, chest pump.
CLARE CRAZE:Couruing across, arms go up, and on your seven, eight, go side and down.
CLARE CRAZE:So we're going to try that to music, and count you in.
CLARE CRAZE:Five, six, seven, eight. Go one, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. 'Remember bounce, 'rise, 'and be light on your feet.'
CLARE CRAZE:Section three is jumps and slides. So if we start with jumps, you're going to put your heels together, toes facing out, and we're going to jump together and apart.
CLARE CRAZE:With your arms curved. Five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, stop, four.
CLARE CRAZE:Now for the street version, turn your toes to face forwards, free arms, and cross in front. Five, six, seven, eight. Cross, out, cross and stop.
CLARE CRAZE:So we just have in, out, in, out. Cross, out, cross, out. For the slide section, curve your arms for ballet, bend your knees,slide to the side, swap, and slide to the other side.
CLARE CRAZE:And then to come forwards, parallel feet, your arm's going to go up and shoot down, come forwards and down, and then forwards and down.
CLARE CRAZE:You're going to put your heels together with your toes facing out, in a little triangle. Your arms here, and you're going to jump from together to apart, first and second.
CLARE CRAZE:Five, six, seven, eight. One, two, three, stop, four. Now we're going to turn your toes facing forwards, and we're going to cross front, and out, other side, in front, and out.
CLARE CRAZE:The ballet version, curve your arm, curve your side arm, you're going to bend, slide out to the side. Other side, slide out to the side. And street version, parallel, forwards, arm up, other arm up.
CLARE CRAZE:So we're going to walk backwards, freestyle, one, two, three, four. We're going to prepare to the side, and we're going to put one foot behind, and arm up. Okay? So do it again.
CLARE CRAZE:Five, six, seven, back, one, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
CLARE CRAZE:Then you have eight counts to walk anywhere you want in the room, and we're going to start again. Second time when you finish, instead of doing a ballet pose, you're going to finish with a pose of your choice.
CLARE CRAZE:So if we put them all together and I count it for you, you have five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, cross, five, six, seven, eight. Slide one, two three, four, and five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, and five, six, seven, eight.
CLARE CRAZE:Five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight. One, two three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
CLARE CRAZE:'Remember your positioning for ballet and street. 'Glide. 'And give it some attitude.' Seven, eight.
CLARE CRAZE:And one, two three, four, five, six, here we go.
CLARE CRAZE:So it's really important to cool down when you've been dancing to bring the heartrate down, and to get your breathing back to normal.
CLARE CRAZE:So let's start by tilting the head to the side. Other side. Two more times.
CLARE CRAZE:Now we're going to look side to side. One more time. Roll your shoulders. Slightly bending the knees. Same thing forwards.
CLARE CRAZE:Now reach your arm up. Lean over. Curve round, roll up. Same thing other side. Curve round, roll yourself up.
CLARE CRAZE:Put one foot forwards. Straighten the front leg. Lean onto your thigh, not your knee. And put your toe up if you can.
CLARE CRAZE:You're going to change, so the front leg is bent, back leg is straight. Again hands on the thigh, not the knee.
CLARE CRAZE:Push yourself up, same on the other side. So front leg straight, toe up if you can, so you can see the heel.
CLARE CRAZE:We're just going to come forwards, bending the front leg, straightening the back leg.
CLARE CRAZE:Bring your feet together. Step out into second, bring your arms up, and breathe out down. One more time.
CLARE CRAZE:And that's our cool down. Remember, even though ballet and street seem like totally different dance styles, you can be creative and fuse them together in so many different ways. So just have a go and have fun with it.
Video summary
Professional dancer Claire Craze teaches a street and ballet fusion session with the help of Super Six dance crew from CBBC's Alesha’s Street Dance Stars.
Claire gives a brief history of ballet and street with a focus on the music followed by a demonstration.
The warm up is taught in a follow my leader style looking at four key moves (two from street and two from ballet).
Claire uses the four key movements to allow the group to work together and travel around the space.
There are three sections; each section contains ballet and street steps and is broken down and repeated with teaching points, counts and music, giving visual and oral directions throughout.
The three sections are then performed to a chosen piece of music.
At the end of section three Claire suggest an eight-count walk around or freestyle section before repeating the three sections, again finishing in a pose of your choice.
This clip is from the BBC series, Street Dance Masterclass.
Teacher Notes
This short film can be used as an introduction to ballet and street fusion.
It can also be used in the classroom as a follow my leader style session, broken down over four to six weeks (depending on time and the discretion of the teacher leading the session).
This video could also be used as a research tool for older groups when looking at different fusing different styles together.
It will also introduce a group to a new dance style and show how to fuse different styles together.
Exploring the art of street dance, this series will be relevant for teaching physical education and dance at primary level.
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