Lately, I've been reading this manga called "Baki the Grappler", which is a manga about various fighters fighting to become the strongest creature on the planet.
Sounds very similar to Dragon Ball Z right? But its totally different.
It is similar in a sense that the scale of the story and the power of the characters are unbelievable. They jump high, destroys elements like steel and concrete without any injury or problem, their skin stops bullets, bleeds continuously but they some how recover, the earth shakes with anger, etc.
Whats different is that this manga has beautiful drawings and introduces body mechanics, martial arts teachings and practices pretty legitimately to a point where it convinces you that some of the things they do is actually possible in real life.
This manga began to gain my interest once again because I've started to workout. This manga is definitely has the power to attract people who favors inhumane strength and fighters.
Within the recent episode I've read, there was a mindset I felt dancers can use more to improve their dancing abilities.
So! the story is about a Karate Master who is training to create a strike faster than the speed of sound by twisting every possible joints in human body (yea I know it sounds ridiculous lol).
The Karate master knows that there are 27 joints in human body. Thus, by twisting them in a certain speed, it will get him to create a strike faster than the speed of sound.
While he was training with his friend (Pony tail Kung Fu Master), the friend's master enters.
As he enters, he states that compare to Chinese martial art with 4000 years of history, Karate is like a little baby that barely knows anything about how to use their body.
This 145 years old man (yea I know, 145 is ridiculous) proves this statement through a demonstration. The old man tells the pony tail Kung Fu master to hold an egg attached to a string.
The old man strikes with his single arm, slicing the egg clean due to his unbelievable speed.
So the manga explains the mindset that I felt very useful for dancers after this demonstration. Please read the episode !!!!
( Its in English. Read from the computer and click right to continue reading) right after the old man's strike.
PLEASE READ THE MANGA AND THAN CONTINUE TO READ MY BLOG :D
Ok,,,,,,
Wasn't that cool? lol
" Imagination has no boundaries...No limits"
I think we dancers applied this method to improve as a dancer.
Especially the O.Gs. They had no teachers or example to learn from. They created movements out of pure inspiration from their surroundings/environment.
Sure some may have been influenced by other dance forms. But how did they create those movements?
When I have conversations or a lesson with OGs, they have tenancies to teach their dance movement through a form of imitation rather than giving specific steps or angles.
For example, lets look at my two mentors, Jazzy J and Future Ninja.
As he says things like that while demonstrating the movements, you can really see the table or the wall that he is creating from his imagination.
This makes his movements more mysterious and interesting.
Future Ninja is, in my humble opinion, a waving master of the East Coast.
When he taught me waving, he did not break the movement down by showing the order of how to bend the arms.
Instead he said "imagine that you have a long plate that has water inside, when you rock it side to side, how does it feel?"
When Future Ninja taught me this concept at Pop Shop, I was bugging out. Because I really FELT THE WATER......This allowed me to dance to the music while imagining the infinite possibilities of how the water changes its shape.
It felt great because ideas came out infinitely out of no where and I was able to move the way I never expected to do.
Knowing this power of imagination, the episode of Baki the Grappler made a click inside my mind.
There should always be some kind of basics, foundational movements that we can follow in order to practice any form of art.
But to truly appreciate the art and evolve as an artist, I think people should get back to this kind of mentality.
We are now so accessible to many information.
It is EASY to learn something or find the answer, just GOOGLE it.
We become smarter, and try to look for the right answers instead of dreaming.
But doing so will decrease our endurance, patience, appreciation towards things that takes time to understand its value, like dancing.
To be the best student of this culture (like how Mr. Wiggles tries to be) to help the evolution of this culture, I believe it is important to believe in the power of imagination.
The cleanness of movements is not the only thing that matters!
Stay original.
Peace and God Bless
SUGALOO
