Hip Hop Dance - How to Chest Pop

Josh Jackson: Hi, this is Josh Jackson here with Studio Bleu Dance Center in Ashburn, Virginia. The first step that I will be starting of with teaching when hip hop dance moves and choreography is chest pops. Chest pops are a very basic moves, all it deals with is rib isolations coming forward and dropping them back. Chest pop, this is all it is from side view, popping forward and dropping it back. Now, common mistake is the rolling of the shoulders as I have said before. You do not want to roll and dropping forward. Your shoulders have nothing to do it, it's a chest pop not a shoulder pop. So, remember take your ribs right here chest your ribcage, pop it forward and drop it back. Forward-back, it's all in the chest, hence the name chest pops. Now, because they are called chest pops you need to pop your chest not just move your chest forward. As I said they are rib isolations.

Most of the people can do rib isolations to the left and to the right. Now, there is a rib isolation taking your chest and raising it forward and dropping it back, do not roll your shoulders that's not how you are supposed to do the dance move. So, take your chest pop and drop, pop and drop, arms, hands can be at beside in front of you to add a litter bit of character and aggressions through the chest pop take your hand place it over your chest and pop it out. It gives the affect of a heart beat, how you do this as you are going to flex your palm, your hand. Flex just like this, place it over your chest, your palm is going to in the right of the sternum. Once again flex to start it of like this, thumb right on the right hand side of the sternum, place of the hand just as you had them before flexed on top of your chest. Now, as you go to pop your chest out, your hand flattens as you drop your chest back you come back to flexing the hands, so this goes from here to here, that's placing it on the chest, out hand flattens, in hand comes back to flex. This is good it adds a lot of character into the choreography, what you are doing into a hip hop dance.

That is the basic step of a chest pop just a rib isolation to the front and to against side profile. Front and drop it in your back, remember it just the rib isolation, it's not that difficult. That is how you do a chest pop. Next, I will be showing you another hip hop dance move, how to do a body roll from the feet all the way your shoulders.