Liquid dancing
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Liquid dancing (or Liquid) is an illusion based form of gestural, interpretive dance that sometimes involves aspects of pantomime. The term invokes the word liquid to describe the fluid-like motion of the dancer's body and appendages. Liquid dancing has many moves in common with popping and waving. The exact origin of the dance is uncertain, although it came out of either popping, raves, or both sometime from the 1970s to 1990s. The dance is typically done to a variety of electronic dance music genres from trance to drum and bass to glitch hop, depending on the dancer's musical taste.
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[edit] Origins
Since the spontaneous rise and propagation of Liquid throughout the rave culture sometime during the 1980’s and early 1990’s, the root origins of the dance have ultimately remained a source of contention between both those involved directly with the dance as well as those outside of the immediate culture. In fact, even the time frame is difficult to pinpoint. Sightings of the dance range all the way back to the early and mid 1970’s. While some argue that the dance evolved spontaneously from combining elements in the rave culture, others still contend that the dance is merely an extension of existing ideas from other art forms. It should be noted that scores of these artists (Funk Stylists, Glowstickers Contact Jugglers, Mimes, & The Unknown) attended raves regularly all throughout the 1980’s and 1990’s. In the wake of the decline of the original rave scene, Liquid has become a standing part of a worldwide club culture and the underground street dancing movement.
B-boys and funk stylists generally contend that liquid dancing is a development of waving, a technique in popping. Liquid dancing covers many of the same fundamentals as popping and it is fully possible (and common) for dancers to combine the styles, further blurring the distinction between the two. The defining difference is liquid dancing concentrating on smooth movements while popping is characterized by pops (hits) and contractions.
Some other liquid dancers[who?] uphold that liquiding is a pure B-boy style of dance that was merely inspired by popping and that the liquiding done by ravers is merely a toned down version of the dance meant to compensate for the lack of space and lights within a rave.
[edit] Techniques, concepts, and construction
Liquid dancers use a variety of techniques rhythmically strung together to create an illusion of continuous flow that corresponds to the music.
[edit] Hand flow
Hand flow is the most commonly used technique in Liquid dancing and simultaneously the easiest to grasp. It consists of curling the fingers of one hand and following them with the straight fingers of the opposite hand. The wrists, elbows, and shoulders may be involved to extend the motion. A Liquid dancer's personal style is defined by his or her individual approach to hand flow, and how it fits into their dance as a whole.
[edit] Rails
Rails, often a heavy focus in liquid, are characterized by the moving of the arms along a set path or "rail".
[edit] Waves
Waves maintain the illusion that a wave is passing through one's body by the isolation and alternating tensing and relaxing of one part of the body at a time at a steady speed in a constant direction.
[edit] Traces
During a trace, one's hand follows the path of a wave going through one's body. The hand moves at the same speed and in the same direction as the wave.
[edit] Contours
This technique entails the hands following exactly the outline of an object, be it real or imaginary. Most commonly the hands follow the outline of one's own body.
[edit] Threads
This style maintains the illusion that one is pulling parts of their body through holes created by the positioning of other body parts, typically arms. An example of this would be holding one's shoulder to create a closed loop which the other arm goes through. These are performed at the same speed as the flow of the liquid and waves to maintain an illusion of continuity.
[edit] Splits
This technique is characterized by the hands moving independently of each other while maintaining the illusion of a fluid relationship between each other. One way of achieving this illusion is by having one hand in front of the other and each hand reflecting the motion of the other.
[edit] Builds
Builds are identified by the manipulation of imaginary objects in a manner similar to pantomime. These moves can be combined with video editing to show the imaginary object being manipulated as the person dances.
[edit] Gear
Some liquid practitioners commonly accentuate their dance with light emitting gear. Typically the gear will consist of either glowsticks, very bright LED keychain lights called photons, or white gloves under black light. When a dancer specializes in glowsticks, the dance often ceases to resemble liquid and is then referred to as glowsticking.
[edit] External links
- Floasis - Current Liquid Dance Community. Forums and tutorial/exhibition videos can be found.
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