A random post about Locking!

Hello everyone! It's Ceekay here once again... =)

As we're coming near to the end of 2008, it's perhaps a good time for us to look back and evaluate the locking scene in Singapore... In case you guys didn't realise, Lion City Lockers was formed in March 2008, meaning that we are already 9 months old!

It has been remarkable as to how the locking scene in Singapore has grown during the past 9 months. Just barely a year ago, one could count the total number of recognised lockers in Singapore with 2 hands. Yet fast forward to the end of 2008, we see people picking up locking almost everywhere, and with more lockers being recognised within the local dance scene.

Credits definitely go to Chunky, the man who formed Lion City Lockers and made it possible for the locking scene to grow so rapidly. His vision was simple; he wanted to spread the love of locking and funk across Singapore, and also encourage more people to learn the art form of locking. Hence LCL was born, and the seed of locking has now grown up here to be a young but strong tree.

So nowadays we see people picking up locking from dance studios, as well as joining LCL and gaining their first exposure to what locking is. But still, one question lingers in everyone's mind, and it's also something that many people have came to asked me: "How do you improve in locking? What does Locking mean to you?"

I think I shall answer these 2 questions here; hopefully it will inspire all lockers out there. My opinions are, however, purely my own perception of locking. It is still up to your own personal intepretation to understand what locking is. =)



Locking, as most of you should know, was founded during the Soul Funk era in the 1970s, by this man called Don Campbell. Just like for any other dance genres, the music plays a big part when it comes to Locking. Hence, it is important to know the history of locking and understand why Locking was done to Soul/Funk music in the 1970s. At that time, locking was born on a well known TV show called "The Soul Train", where black americans got to express themselves by dancing to Soul and Funk music.

It doesn't matter to them whether the moves look good; they just wanted to enjoy the freedom of expressing themselves, and dance to the music the way they love to. That is why they look so funky... Every move they do is natural, and comes from the bottom of their heart. Everyone has their own character and their own way of intepreting the music!

Check out this video here to see an example of blacks dancing at "The Soul Train":






Therefore, in my opinions, you gotta feel the music and express yourself from the bottom of your heart. Techniques and form are important of course, but the foundation of it all comes from your love for the music as well as your own way of expressing yourself. Techniques, form, angles are things you can always work on to improve by constantly practising hard, but truly dancing to the music is something that is born in you... Feel the music through your own character, dance with your own style and your own way of intepreting the music. =)

Also, remain humble in dance always. There's always something for you to learn, something new for you to try, and every time you dance it should be a new experience. Even when you hear the same songs over and over again, you may dance differently to the songs everytime as you can intepret it in so many different ways. I'm sure that this applies to any form of dance, not just locking.

Last but not least, enjoy the music and stay happy when you dance! Locking is so different from many other street dance genres, because it is funky, happy and it celebrates! Be happy to dance, and enjoy expressing yourself like there's no one watching you. You should do locking as if you're celebrating your freedom to dance! There may be only a certain number of moves we have in locking, but there's endless ways of doing each move and different ways of combining them. You can always add in your own flavour, your own moves... Don't stop exploring!





This post may be long, but I hope that it has inspired you somehow. Locking may not be easy to many of you, and the road towards improving is long and arduous... But I'm sure that as long as you truly love funk music and enjoy dancing, nothing can stop you from being the dancer you can be.


Stay funky always, and enjoy your festive holidays coming up!




Cheers,
Ceekay. =)