Every week · start from nothing · come alone
Hip-Hop Dance Classes in Blackpool
Hip-hop dance classes in Blackpool, for everyone who has quietly copied half a video in the kitchen and wondered how the thing is actually taught. Slowly, is the answer. One hour a week in a town-centre studio, groove drilled before any choreography goes near it, then eight counts at a time until a whole routine exists. Ten pounds to walk in; thirty-two if you take four weeks together.
Getting started
Message us once and the hip-hop night comes to you.
There is an hour of this every week in the town centre. Rather than print an evening and an address that could change next term, we send you both — usually the same day — with a line about what to turn up in.
- £10 on the door · £32 covers four weeks
- No experience assumed; most of the room started here
- Trainers, joggers, done — nothing to buy
The essentials
- Where Blackpool town centre studio
- When Weekly, evening — sent by reply
- Length One hour
- Level Beginners upward
- Ages 17 – 75
- Partner Not needed
What it is
Groove first. Always groove first.
Hip-hop in a town built on showing off
Blackpool has been putting ordinary people in front of an audience since the piers were new, so there is a healthy local tradition of learning something and then doing it where strangers can see. Hip-hop suits that. It grew out of block parties in the Bronx as a social dance, invented on the floor rather than designed in a studio, and the way we teach it keeps that order of priorities intact. Weight, bounce and rock step come before any choreography, because a routine danced by somebody who hasn't found the groove reads as a string of poses. Every style on our weekly timetable assumes you know nothing; this one starts lower still.
The room is a proper mix — sixth-formers, people in their forties who grew up on the music, the odd person dragged along by a friend who then wouldn't leave. Nobody is put in the middle on their own. Choreography arrives eight counts at a time and gets repeated until counting stops being necessary, which for most people lands somewhere in the third week. Ages run from seventeen upwards with no ceiling worth mentioning, and the only thing separating anybody in the room is how many weeks they have been turning up. If you want the wider family — house, popping, the older breaking vocabulary — the street dance class covers more ground, and a good number of people do both on purpose.
Inside the hour
A warm-up that is really a groove drill in disguise. Then isolations: shoulders, ribs, chest and head learning to move one at a time, which is the whole reason the style looks sharp instead of wobbly. Then the routine, taught facing the mirror, then facing away from it, then in halves so one group dances and the other claps. It closes with the lot to music at full tempo, run more than once, because a routine you have only ever done perfectly on the second attempt is not really learnt. Every so often somebody takes that nerve somewhere unexpected — we have built first dances for couples who wanted something with a bit of edge to it.
Four weeks of hip-hop
Week one is bounce. Week four is the whole thing.
Roughly how a four-week run goes. Roughly — if the room wants another go at the isolations, it gets one.
Bounce and rock
The two grooves everything else balances on. No choreography yet — just weight moving in time and knees that stop locking.
Isolations
Shoulders, ribs, chest and head, each one moving without dragging the rest along. Most people leave this one mildly startled by their own ribcage.
Eight counts
The front half of the routine, drilled slowly and then at tempo. Also the week the counting quietly disappears.
Full out
All of it, music up, run often enough that it stops being a memory test and turns into dancing.
Side effects
What hip-hop hands you on the way out.
You came for the choreography. This lot comes free.
- Cardio that never once feels like a treadmill
- Timing you start hearing in every song afterwards
- Coordination on your weaker side, finally
- Sixty minutes with the phone in a bag
- A routine you can finish, not just start
- Being watched in a mirror without flinching
- People in your week who aren't from work
- Somewhere to be on a wet evening off the front
Before you come
Hip-hop in Blackpool, asked and answered.
The ten that land in our inbox most often.
IDo I need any dance background for hip-hop?
None whatsoever. The opening third of every class goes on groove and isolations, which is precisely where a newcomer belongs, and the regulars use the same drills to sharpen up. Nobody in the room is waiting for you to catch up.
IIIs it choreography or freestyle?
Choreography, built across a four-week block and finished at full speed in the last one. Freestyle gets a few minutes at the end for whoever fancies it, and stepping into that circle is entirely optional — plenty never do.
IIITrainers or dance shoes — what do I wear for hip-hop?
Trainers with a bit of give in the sole, joggers or leggings, and a top you don't mind sweating through. Nothing branded, nothing bought for the occasion. We don't lend or sell shoes, clothing or props of any sort, so come in what you already own.
IVAm I too old for this?
The class takes seventeen upwards and the middle of the room tends to be in its thirties. Hip-hop works close to the ground rather than in the air, so it asks far more of your coordination than of your knees.
VHow is a class priced?
One class is £10, handed over at the door. Take four together and it drops to £32, so £8 a time. Nothing else gets charged — no sign-up, no card kept on file, no minimum term.
VIWhere in town does hip-hop run?
Blackpool town centre — a couple of minutes from the Comedy Carpet, a tram stop either side, parking within walking distance. We send the exact street when we send your timetable, since the rooms we use move about as more nights get added.
VIIWhat's on the playlist?
Today's hip-hop and R&B mostly, with older tracks whenever the room asks. Anything with a lyric that would make the room wince gets swapped out — this is a mixed class of adults, not a club.
VIIICan I turn up on my own?
Most people do. There is no partner work at all, so arriving alone costs you nothing, and the group halves at the end mean you'll have spoken to a fair chunk of the room before you leave.
IXHow fit do I need to be?
Fit enough to keep moving for an hour that has plenty of stopping in it. We break constantly to explain, which adds up to more rest than it sounds, and you choose how low you go on anything that drops. Nobody is counting your reps.
XCan I do a single class before a block?
That is exactly what the £10 single class is there for. Come once, work out whether the teaching style suits you, and if it does the next four-week run is waiting whenever you want it.