Is it a dance? I tried googling it and got a bunch of tech information. I don't that's it. It's definitely a dance, and may have something to do with hip hop.
Now, I realize this is basically the WRONG CROWD to ask about hip hop, but my friend that teaches high school is gone, so that's out. I work at the Boy Scouts, which is probably the only place that's LESS likely to know about a hip hop dance than Hatrack.
Anyone?
Posted by Jim-Me (Member # 6426) on :
"poppin'" WRT to urban dancing is the whole lay-down-on-the-floor-and-make-different-parts-of-your-body-jump-around-like-a-snake-having-convulsions thing, I'm fairly certain, so I'd think a "pop-lock" would be some kind of particular move from that style, maybe?
<best clueless suburban guess>
Posted by Suneun (Member # 3247) on :
sounds pretty close. Here's what I found.
quote:Break dancing is largely associated with Hiphop. Within the element of break dancing is pop-and-lock. Pop-and-lock has jerky movements that work each muscle as an individual piece. The jerky movements appear as if the body is frozen and segmented. A danced called the “Snakehips” was popular in the antebellum plantation South and Georgia Sea Islands during slavery. This dance is still performed in modern times with the same name. There is slight variation to the step and is performed as a pop-and-lock movement.
quote:First of all... know that popping is one genre of dance, and locking is another. its like saying "balletsalsa" or "I do ball and salsa" (ball being a shortened version of ballet, like "pop" in "pop and lock.") Second, learn the foundations of the two dances and the proper techniques. If you're not sure about something, dont try to teach itm you can only give people the wrong idea. For popping start with: Hitting Angles The Fresno Old Man Waving Boogaloo Rolls Walkouts Air Posing
For Locking: Wrist Rolls Uncle Sam Points The Lock Throwbacks Scootbot and scootbot hop
Posted by skillery (Member # 6209) on :
Popping and locking was a break dance technique that was popular about seventeen years ago, back when Michael Jackson's "Moonwalk" was also popular.
It involved jerky (popping), robot-like motions and momentarily holding a stance between motions (locking).
Posted by Magson (Member # 2300) on :
In the Star Wars Galaxies MMO, there is a Poplock dance that resembles "the robot." It sounds similar to some of what is described above also, with a lot of "snap-to-it-and-hold" motions. It's one of the less well-liked dances (dancers trying to get beyond refer to the time spent doing it until the next dance is learned as "Poplock Hell") but it does look pretty good if you can get 4-5 people in a line doing it in sync.
Posted by naledge (Member # 392) on :
I think the previous answers gave a good definition of "popping and locking". It's definitely not a dead dance form, I see it thriving at alot of underground hip hop shows I attend. I even designed and sold a t-shirt with a popping reference on it. Check out the link.