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What’s up! My name is Matt Steffanina, and I’m a dancer, choreographer, and instructor in Los Angeles, California. I actually started as a B-boy with floor work, windmills, tricks and all that. And it evolved into hip hop as I got older. I’ve danced in tours, music videos, TV shows, and movies.

I’ve danced with artists like Chris Brown, Snoop Dog, Busta Rimes, Lil Wayne, and on shows like “So You Think You Can Dance” and “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno. My style includes everything from commercial hiphop to the old school funk styles to the new school animation, waving, tutting, and all the isolations.

Today I’m going to teach you guys how to shuffle, how to dance at a club as well as how to dance like some of your favorite celebrity dancers. For more information on me, you can go to www.mattfreestyle.com, or check me out on Twitter at Matt Steffanina.

By the end of these tutorials, you’ll know how to go out to the club and bust it out. So watch them, practice them, and let’s get to it.

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What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina and today I’m going to teach you guys how to dance to dubstep. Now, the first thing to know when you’re dancing dubstep is that there’s not as much of a groove in it as there is when you dance to hip-hop music. It’s a lot more isolated and this is a chance for you to really show off your animation skills.

So, popping, waving, tutting, ticking, strobing, slow motion. All these effects are perfect for dubstep. We’re going to go over a couple of them today and the first one is slow motion and speed changes. So, anything that you would normally do in a hip hop freestyle, you can do in slow motion to dubstep. Because it has all of those wow and those different sounds, you want to really listen closely to your music and to the patterns and find moves that you can accentuate with quick moves and then go back to a slow pace.

We call this style “warping.” And it’s characterized by a really quick motion at the beginning, followed by something really slow. For instance, if I’m walking forward and I want to add some warps in there on the beat, I can take a step, slow motion, onto my left foot and warp to the right. You want the warp to be really quick with your chest and you want to stop it. But what’s going to happen at the end of it is that my arms are going to keep going to the left, so that it looks like my body created this slow motion with my arms.

Same thing, here. If I’m stepping forward again onto my right foot, I can take my torso to the left, knock it and then have my arms come in slow motion across. You can play with this effect in any direction.

There’s one more isolation that we’re going to work on today that you can practice in dubstep and that’s isolating your shoulders from your head. The first thing we’re going to do is rock our shoulders side to side. You want to create the illusion that your head is staying in the center. To create this illusion, we have to push our head the opposite direction that our torso is moving.

So, as I push my torso to the left, my head is going to pull to the right. It’s important to practice this step in front of a mirror because it’s hard to get a feel for what you’re actually doing. Once you can rock side to side, you’re going to also go front and back and eventually, you’re going to make circles with your shoulders.

This is difficult to see when facing straight on. So, I’m going to bend down so that you can see the circles. Now, when you’re going around in circles again, we want our head to stay in the center. So, whichever way your shoulders and your torso go, your head is going to push the opposite direction to create that illusion.

You can mix this isolation in with your warps, your other waves, your ticks, your pops and all your other animation skills. Just remember the most important thing is to stay on beat. And with dubstep, you have a lot of sounds to play around with.

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What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina, and today I’m going to teach you how to dance at a club, the beginner dance moves. These are things that you can go into a club tonight and start doing right away, and get you grooving and have a good time.

The first thing we need to work on is our basic groove. We have two choices with this groove. You can either rock back on the beat, or you can rock forward on the beat. It doesn’t matter which one you do, but you have to pick one. The most important thing when you’re doing any step in a club is staying on the beat. Once we get this groove we can add any step in we want.

For our purposes today we’re going to start with a simple step touch. I’m going to use the groove that goes back. So, when I say the groove that goes back I mean if the beat is going boom, two, three, four each time that bass hits I’m leaning back on the beat. It’s also important to note that it’s not just my torso going back, but it’s also my chin and my head pulling back this way. And my knees are bouncing so that I’m going lower as I bounce back.

Let’s take that simple groove and put it with a step touch. So, we have our groove here, two, three, four. We’re just going step, touch, step, touch, step, touch, step, touch.

The key to making these simple moves look good is being relaxed and being confident. You can do anything with your arms as long as they follow the same rhythm that your feet are doing. What I mean by that is if you’re body’s going back in a rock you want your arms to groove on that same beat. They can swing front to back, they can open and close, they can push down, they can go up, but you don’t want to have them spazzing out in different directions. You want to keep them smooth. If the beat speeds up your arms can speed up.

Lastly, with your feet we aren’t limited to just the step touch. We can step over and over with the same foot, for instance turning ourself around in a circle. We can add a slide. Step, touch, slide. We can bounce on the beat and go back to our basic groove.

If you take these three things, your step touch, your bounce, and your slides you can have limitless combinations that you can use out at the club. Just remember to smile, have a good time, don’t be shy, and keep that groove on beat no matter what.

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What’s up? This is Matt Steffanina, and today I’m going to teach you guys how to incorporate kicks into your shuffle.

When we start off with kicks we want to put them into our Running Man. So we’re going to first do a couple of steps with the Running Man. From here, when we pick our back knee up, rather than coming to this position we’re going to bring that leg up and we’re going to kick it. Now, you can kick it to the front. You can turn and kick to the side. You can even turn and kick it to the back.

You can kick in any direction. The most important thing to remember is that you want to keep on beat, so don’t let your kicks get so crazy that you lose the timing. So from the Running Man as your leg comes up you’re going to kick it front, then you’re going to hop and use that leg that kicked to be the front leg in the next Running Man.

Let’s try that a little bit faster and put it to music. So we’re going to start with just our Running Man step nice and slow on the music. When that leg comes up we’re going to kick it and put it back down into our shuffle again. Kick it, back down into the Running Man. SO from here you can turn this any direction. I can kick, kick, kick and go back down. As long as I stay on beat it’s all good.

Let’s try a little bit faster. Five, six, seven, eight. Two. Kick, down. Kick, down.

That’s how you add kicks in to your shuffle.

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What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina and today I’m going to teach you guys how to dance like Chris Brown. Chris Brown is known for a lot of different styles but the three that we’re going to focus on today are footwork, crumping and tutting.

We’re going to start by kicking our right leg forward. This is one. You’re going to switch your feet, and kick in the left leg. Then you’re going to take your left leg and cross it over and bring your right foot up. Notice how my upper body is still turned toward the front. Now we’re going to reverse this kicking our left leg to the front, switching to our right foot, coming across with the right to come here. Again, my upper body is still twisted to the front.

From here I’m going to put my left foot down. I’m going to grab my pants right here and come all the way around, circling on five. So bring this right foot in together. From here we’re going to chest pop twice, six, seven. Take your right hand and punch it into your left on eight.

Let’s try that first eight count again. You kick one, and twist, and three, and four, step out on your right, five, you pop six, pop seven, punch eight. Notice how I turn my body into this punch to hit on eight.

From here I’m going to open my hands up. I’m going to go and, dropping our right hand down, make an ‘X’, lean to the left to open up again and step in. Now, from here on two I’m going to take my right shoulder and knock my head so that it bounces over. So this is two, look to the left. You’re going to cross your arms again on three. You’re going to pull this down on four.

When you bring this cross in you want to make it knock your head up. So I’m just opening my arms here and I’m going up with my head to roll down my body. From here I’m going to step on my left, my right arm is going to cross in front of my left to come open to here on six. From here you’re going to reach across with your right hand, and then you’re going to take this shape and move the whole thing over to the other side of your head bringing it down in front of you.

From here you’re going to roll this across, sliding your right foot into your left and you’re going to push down and contract on one. There’s a nice big bass there on one so you want to make sure that you really hit hard using your stomach. You want to think of contracting, as if you were doing a crunch and hit as hard as you can on that bass, your arms are just pushing down.

Let’s try that again and put that whole combination together. We have five, six, seven, eight. You go kick and two, and kick, and twist, step out five, pop six, seven, punch eight. And one, and, two, three, knock four, step five, up six and seven and eight. This is one.

And that’s how you dance like Chris Brown.

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What’s up? This is Matt Stefenina, and today I’m going to teach you guys how to add in forward dance steps while shuffling. Any of the steps you’ve learned while shuffling can be done in multiple directions. But today I’m going to teach you a special one that we do to the front. We’re going to go from the running man. So you want to start by doing a few running mans and finding the beat. Once you’re here you’re going to pick your back leg up as if you were going to do the running man again. However, rather than taking this leg back and going into a lunge, you’re just going to hop both feet back and tap the front. Now you’re going to come right back up to the same position.

You can repeat this step as many times as you want and then go back into the running man. So let’s try that a little bit faster. From the running man, you pick this knee up. Now you’re going to hop this foot back, tap your front. You can even do it again, tapping again, and then going back into the running man. Once we get going, and you’re back knee comes up, rather than hopping back to our lunge, we’re just going to stay here.

My left leg is still hopping back each time my right leg touches the floor. So I’m still traveling, I’m just not switching my feet. Once I get this going, I can always go back into my running man. And that’s how you do forward dance steps in the shuffle.

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What’s up? This is Matt Steffanina and today I’m gonna teach you guys how to tick. Ticking is a style that’s easy to learn, but very difficult to master. So, today I’m gonna give you guys some drills that you can do at home, to improve your ticking.

The first thing you’re gonna do is, start with your arms relaxed by your side. We’re gonna bring our arms up, one at a time, going right, left, right, left, right, left, right, left. This should feel really robotic. You want it to hit and stick, hit and stick, hit and stick. In order to do this, you have to really tighten up the muscles in your upper arm.

So, when I go to begin this movement, I’m jerking my arm forward, and I’m tightening my bicep, my tricep, and my forearm, to stop on a dime. You can also add a pop at the end of each movement, to make it a little bit more accented. Once you get this down, you can practice this in any direction. In any normal movement you would do while dancing, you can add a strobe or a tick to it, to create that jumping effect.

Remember, practice makes perfect. So, take a lot of time to put music on and just go over these drills. They feel a little bit tedious, but in the end, your ticks are gonna look crazy, and you can mix them into your waves, and other pops to add a great animation effect.

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What’s up? This is Matt Steffanina and today I’m going to teach you guys how to incorporate arm movements while shuffling. The most important thing when you’re using your arms is to know that there are no rules. There’s no right or wrong. It’s just whatever feels comfortable. When you’re doing the running man, a lot of times it feels good to just do a natural running motion with it. So, when my right leg is front, bring my left arm up. When I switch my feet, switch my arms. Also, when you’re doing the running man, you can swing your arms side to side like this, so going with the leg that’s in front. So, when my front leg, my right leg is in front, my arms go to the right. You can even keep your arms by your side. The only thing that you don’t want to do with your arms is let them dangle, so that when you’re shuffling they’re just all over the place like spaghetti. You want to make sure that whatever you’re doing with your arms, you’re doing it on purpose, so if they’re pressed down to your side, keep them strong to your side. When you’re doing the T-step, the same rules apply. You can run with your arms. You can press them down to your side. Be creative and have a good time.

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What’s up? This is Matt Steffanina, and today I’m going to teach you guys how to put together combinations while shuffling. The first two moves that we’re going to combine are the T step and the Running Man.

You’re going to start with the T step. While you’re going across the floor, when your back knee comes up this is your opportunity to push this bottom leg back and go into the running man. From here you can continue the running man, or you can push this leg back down and go back into your T step. You can go back and forth between these two moves to create tons of combinations.

Now let’s add in some kicks. From your running man you’re going to take your knee, and as it comes up you’re going to kick it forward. From here you can go right back into the running man, or you can add a spin in. To go kick, kick, and then back into the running man.

There are really no rules as far as your combinations go. You just want to make sure that you keep the beat, that you keep your timing going, and that you keep dancing so that your transitions feel natural.

We’re going to go half time, and we’re going to put together our T step and our running man. We have five, six, seven, eight. Up, down, up, down, up, down, and into your running man. Running man. From here you can keep going in the running man, or you can take this and put it back into your T step. From here you can always drop back into the running man when your knee comes back up. To add in kicks we’re going to go from the running man here, and when our knee comes up we’re going to kick our foot front. So this is running man, running man, running man, kick, back, back. You can also kick and drop this foot in front.

Again, there’ really no rules as long as you stay on the beat. Let’s try it a little faster and put some combinations together. Five, six, seven, eight.

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What’s up? My name’s Matt Steffanina, and today I’m going to teach you guys how to add to Moonwalk into your shuffle combinations. In order to combine these moves, you need to know two steps. The Moonwalk, and the Running Man.

From your Running Man, we’re going to take our foot, and as it goes back, we’re going to come up onto the toe. This foot is now going to help us start our moonwalk. In order to Moonwalk, you need to remember that the foot that’s sliding has to stay flat to the floor. What I mean by that is, as I pull my right foot back, I’m pushing my heel down towards the floor. So that I’m not dragging my foot on the toe. Once I pull this foot back, I’m going to switch my feet, coming up onto my right toe, and now I’m going to slide my left foot back flat, to switch my feet again.

You can continue doing the Moonwalk all the way across the floor if you want, but when you’re ready to go back into your running man, you’re going to take the foot that’s in front and put it flat, bringing your back knee up. From here we can go right back into our Running Man. Let’s try and put those together, starting with the Running Man.

Here we go, one, two, three, four. Now we’re going to go onto the toe of our back foot. Pulling our front foot back, switching into the Moonwalk. Now we’re going to do one more and then we’re going to pick our back leg up to go back into the Running Man. And that’s how you add the Moonwalk into your shuffle combinations.

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What’s up? This is Matt Steffanina and today I’m going to teach you guys how to add spins into your shuffle combinations. I’m going to teach you guys one of my favorite spins and you start by going into the running man. Once we get to this position we’re going to turn on our front foot over our right shoulder. So I’m going to take this shoulder and pull it back, spinning on my front foot.

Another thing that you can add into this spin, to make it even more stylish is a kick. As you’re finishing the spin you’re going to take the leg that’s up and you’re going to kick that foot out before dropping back down into your running man.

So, as I turn I’m pulling around. I’m going to kick this leg and then I’m going to go right back into my running man from the kick and from the spin. Let’s try that again, slowly. So I start with the running man. I put my weight onto my front foot, use my arms to turn, kick this foot out and then right back into the running man.

You can do this both directions and once you get the hang of it you should be able to do it on beat and add it into your freestyle anywhere you want. Here’s some examples of how to add spins in a little bit faster.

And that’s how you add spins into your Melbourne shuffle combinations.

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What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina and today I’m going to teach you guys how to dance like Ne-Yo. Ne-Yo really doesn’t dance a whole lot, but what he does he does really well. Ne-Yo is known for his smooth glides, his walks, his points. He’s a very subtle dancer but he comes across really strong in his movement. So I’m going to teach you guys a short combination today that will help you learn to dance better, like Ne-Yo.

We’re going to start by stepping on our left foot. As you do this you’re going to drop your left shoulder down. From here you’re going to step your right foot behind, so pick this knee up to step it out to the side. We’re going to repeat the same step on the other side, stepping down with the right foot and dropping the right shoulder, to pick this up again.

This time when you put your right foot down you’re going to put it behind your left to turn around to face the side. Let’s try that again. This goes one, two and three, four and five, six, from here you’re going to kick seven with the front leg, step and turn real strong to the front on eight. You want to make sure that this turn is really clean, so this is seven and eight. You want to use your stomach, squeeze and tighten to stop on that eight.

From here we’re going to go into a step touch. You’re going to start with your right foot. You’re going to go, and one, and two, and three, and four. When you’re doing this step it’s important to keep a bounce in your knees. And also remember that we want to rock back, so that this step doesn’t appear stiff. So each time you step we’re going back, back, back, back.

From here you’re just going to step out to the front on five and you’re going to bring your right hand across your body on six, seven, eight. Your right heel is going to press down, down, down. This is on five, you go six, seven, eight. On one you’re going to step your left foot in and just press down your body.

Think really smooth and really chill. Ne-Yo is always really relaxed and in complete control of his show so you don’t want to ever appear rushed when you’re dancing like Ne-Yo.

Let’s try that from the top. Five, six, seven, eight, you go one, two, and three, four and five, turn six, kick, stop. One, two, three, four and stop, groove, groove, groove, down one.

Let’s try it with the music. Five, six, seven, eight, one.

[music]

And that’s how you dance like Ne-Yo.

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What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina and today we’re going to teach you guys how to dance like Ciara. I’m going to talk you through the moves and Dana is going to demonstrate. To start off you’re going to step forward on your right leg, arching your back and pulling your right knee open. You want to make sure that you arch your back and pull your shoulders back when you step into this first move.

From here you’re going to pull your right elbow and shoulder back, bringing your right foot back and repeat the same thing on the left side, opening that left knee to the front. From here pull back with your left arm and shoulder, stepping open. You’re going to punch down to the center and drop down, contracting your stomach. Repeat this step punching behind on six. Now take your arms in front. You’re going to rotate your right knee in and circle your right arm back twice. From here we’re going to use our hips to come up, starting with the right hip, circling and bringing you up, up, and up. From here you’re going to step onto your left foot, pulling your left elbow back and opening up to the side. You want to make sure that your feet are nice and wide and that your arms are in fists up in front of your chest.

From here we’re going to roll our right hip to the front three times and you’re going to drop down lower each time until your back is parallel to the floor. From here you’re going to take your hands, push them down to the floor on one, arch your back and roll up slowly on two, three, four. Let’s connect those moves from the top. Step right, pull back, left, pull back, punch down, back and pull, pull. Hip two, three, elbow four, five, roll six, seven, eight. Drop one, up two, three, four. Let’s try it with the music. Five, six, seven, eight . . . And that’s how you dance like Ciara.

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What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina and today we’re gonna teach you how to dance like the step-up movies. Now, if you’re a guy, you can follow me. If you’re a girl, you can follow Dana. You can still do this routine, even if you have two guys or two girls; you might just need to change a couple of the moves.

You’re gonna start with your feet together. First, you’re gonna step out with your right leg and punch across with your right hand.

From here, you’re gonna continue this motion in a figure eight; bring your left foot in, and bring your right arm down to your side. You wanna make sure that your left heel stays up, because on this next move, we’re gonna bring our arm up, switching our feet; bringing our arm down, and switching them back.

After that, you’re just gonna nod your head up, and bring it back to center. From here, I’m gonna step out on my left foot, and run to the side. Dana’s gonna do the same thing, to the opposite side. Now, we’re gonna run in towards each other. I’m stepping on my right foot, Dana’s on her left.

From here, I’m gonna turn left, right, left, over my left shoulder, like this. Step, step, step, to come to center. Dana’s gonna do the same thing left, right, left, but as she turns, she’s gonna step across, on her right foot and turn, so that she ends up in front of me. You wanna make sure that the person in back is directly behind the person in the front.

From here, Dana’s gonna start a body roll with her head going down, to come up, and she’s gonna sit down, on two. While she’s doing that, I’m gonna wave my arm up, to drop down with her, on two; with my hands and fists by her sides. Together that looks like this, one, two.

From here, I’m gonna pull my right arm back, as she pulls and turns her right knee in; bring it back to the front, and do the same thing on the left side, pulling and pushing.

From here, we’re gonna snake to the left, and Dana’s gonna dip a little lower. I’m gonna run my hand up her back, and trace this roll to bring my hand in front of her chest, on six.

From here, she’s gonna pop out and I’m gonna pull away, on seven; bring it back in, on eight. She’s gonna drop back, and I’m gonna catch her, holding her neck in my hand; bring her back up slowly, on one.

Let’s try that from the top. Five, six, seven, eight. We step one, two and three, head four, run, run, turn seven and eight. Roll one, two, three, four, snake five, six and seven, drop eight, bring her up, slow. Let’s try that from the top.

And that’s how you dance like the step-up movies.

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What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina and today I’m going to talk to you guys about the history of the Melbourne Shuffle. The Melbourne Shuffle was actually created in the late 80’s and into the early 90’s and it’s a club and a rave dance. This dance was started in Melbourne, Australia, thus the term Melbourne Shuffle, and it was mostly done in underground clubs, real late at night, techno music, real hard electric music.

It’s evolved over the last couple of decades and been mixed with other styles like hip-hop, and even b-boy, to create what we know as the modern day shuffle. The basic step is called the T step, which involves taking your front foot and putting it in the center of your back foot and making a T, and then shuffling across the floor, side to side, or even front to back.

From the T step, some hip-hop dancers and some b-boys started to shuffle and started to incorporate the running man. The running man is an old school hip-hop move which has been adapted to fit with the shuffle. The biggest difference between a hip-hop running man and a shuffle running man is the groove. Hip-hop running man you’re hitting down and it’s a much more aggressive movement, whereas the shuffle, you’re hitting back and it’s a little bit softer.

A big reason for the shuffle’s popularity is because it’s a free-style dance. You can learn how to shuffle in an afternoon and go out to the club and start dancing right away. If you just know the few basic steps that you’re going to learn in these videos, you can go out and dance all night.

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What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina and today I’m going to teach you guys how to the Reject.

We’re going to start by turning sideways. We’re going to start by picking our back foot up. From here I’m going to jump the leg that I’m standing on foward. Then I’m going to fall back onto this foot, bringing my other knee up.

This cycle just repeats over and over. Taking the back leg, hopping forward. Taking the knee that’s up and falling back. Hopping forward and falling back. Hopping forward and falling back. It’s important to remember to keep your hop forward the same size as your step back. If you want to travel this step you can change the size of your hops and your steps so that you can travel to the front or the back. But in general we want to stay in place while doing the Reject.

Let’s try this a little bit faster and put it to some music. So first we’re just going to do it half-time, nice and slow starting with this back knee up. You’re going to go front, back, front, back, front, back, front, back. When you’re ready to speed this up you’re going to keep the steps exactly the same, we’re just going to double time and this is how you do the Reject.

From here you can turn it to the front, you can travel it back, and don’t forget to use your arms. Even if you’re just letting them swing you still want your arms to be involved in the dance. Five, six, seven, eight.

And that’s how you do the Reject.

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What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina and today we’re going to teach you how to dance like Nicki Minaj. I’m going to talk you through the moves and Dana is going to demonstrate them for you.

You’re going to start by turning to the side. You’re going to take your right foot and step it back into a lunge and punch down with your right hand. Then you’re going to bring that right foot in, punch down again with your right hand, and this time you’re going to pop your left knee up.

We’re going to repeat that same step again on three and come back in on four. From here you’re going just do a basic step touch starting with your right foot. Now we’re going to add the arms and the shoulders into this movement. You want to bring your hands up in front of your shoulders and fists and you’re going to push out with your right hand as you knock your right shoulder to the front.

You want to make sure when you’re doing this that you also have a little bounce to the back so that it has a groove to it. Now let’s add that to our step touch. We go five, six, seven, eight. From here you’re going to snake to the right starting by dipping your head down and then rolling back starting with your chin, arching your back, and tucking your hips under.

From here you step right foot in to meet your left, and we’re going to start a roll going down. But we’re going to learn this in parts. The first step is to just press your heels into the floor one at a time. From here you’re going to keep going with this motion and add your hips circling to the outside. As you push your heel down your hip rolls out.

Now, let’s try this same step but dropping down for four and coming up for four. It goes down, two, three, four. Up, two, three, four. When you get back to the top you’re going to step out on your right foot and hit any Nicki Minaj pose. You want to remember that Nicki is really animated so you don’t want it to be a normal, everyday pose. You can do something like Dana’s doing here, bringing her hands in and really contracting and pushing her shoulders forward.

Let’s try this again from the top a little bit faster. Back and in and back and in. From here, step touch, five, six, seven, eight. Snake down and roll back, together, to go down, two three, four, up two, three, four and pose.

Let’s try that with the music. Five, six, seven, eight.

And that’s how you dance like Nicki Minaj.

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What’s up my name is Matt Steffanina and today I’m going to teach you guys how to dance like Usher. Usher is known for his big movements and his smooth glides. So I’m going to teach you guys a combination that incorporates both of those that you can practice on your own. You’re going to start by stepping left, right. You’re going to go ball exchange, a one, you’re going to step forward two. You’re going to jump out and you ‘re going to cross your left foot in front of your right, three.

Notice how I brought this arm in front to prepare for this turn. From here I’m going to take this arm and I’m going to use it to pull around, I’m going to unwind my feet and face the side. From here I’m going to take my front leg, step it out, then I’m going to switch my feet. When you switch your feet, you don’t want to just step and step, you want to use your toes to make this smooth.

So as I step back, I go under the toe of this foot, then lower down slowly as I step out with my back foot. From here we are going to do a roll to the front, but we are going to isolate it. I’m going to start with my chest and upper body. So my chest is going front and around to bring my legs around after. Let’s try and put that first eight count together. We have six, seven, eight. This goes a one, two and three, this is your prep, turn, four. Step your right foot out, five, switch your feet, six, pull to the front, seven, unwind your legs, eight.

When I release my legs, I’m going up on my toes again to bring my knees around to the front. From here I’m going to step my left foot in to meet my right and I’m going to body roll down. You want to create the illusion that this left foot stepping in causes your chest to go up to start this roll. As you finish this roll, you’re going to bring your right knee up, then you’re going to use your right leg kicking back to help you slide back on your left foot.

The further you travel back with this step, the more impressive it’s going to look. So use this leg and really kick hard to travel. From here you’re going to step this right foot back down in front and we’re going to go into Usher’s signature glide. So this is a little take on what Michael Jackson used to do and instead of gliding straight to the back, we’re going to go in a circle. I’m going to start by going up on to my right toe.

From here, I’m going to push my left foot out and turn my toes so that they are facing away from each other. From here I’m going to bring my right foot in and shift my weight over to my left foot, gliding my right foot in. We’re then going to go back up on to the right toe and continue this process all the way around. Pushing our left foot out, shifting our weight, bringing our right foot in. Right toe, shift our weight, bring our right foot in. When we get all the way back to where we started, we’re just going to finish with a little groove.

Let’s try to put that all together. We have five, six, seven, eight, ball exchange, two and three, turn four, right, left, chest, legs step together, roll down and three, four, you glide five, six, seven, eight, we bounce one, two, three, four. The groove at the end is up to you, just freestyle it. Have a good time. Practice that; and this is how you dance like Usher.

What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina and today we’re going to teach you how to dance like Lady Gaga. I’m going to talk you through the moves and Dana is going to demonstrate them for you. Let’s get started.

The choreography that we’re going to teach you today is the short sequence from Lady Gaga’s music video “Bad Romance.” We’re going to start by teaching you the legs and the arms separately. The legs are simple. You’re just stepping right, left, right, left, right left, taking small, quick steps and keeping your feet close to the ground. Your arms are pushing out to the side in blades then covering your mouth, then brushing out, then pushing back down.

One, two, three, four. This repeats again just like that. One, two, three, four. From here you’re going to step your left leg out and pull your left shoulder down to the front. Switch to the other side kicking your right leg out and pushing your right shoulder down. From here you’re going to come up to the center, pushing your hands out in front. Now your right hip is going hit to the right side three times. One, two, three. From here you’re going to bring your right foot in to meet your left, lifting your left hip and bringing your right arm up.

For the next eight counts we’re going to do the same motion with our hips over and over. You’re dropping your left hip, twisting back and lifting your right hip. As you do this your right arm is turning in towards your body as if you were screwing in a light bulb. For the first three you’re just going to repeat this step. On and four, you’re going to press across and then bring your hand back out to the side to go back to the twist. Four, five, six, seven, pushing across on and, and back out to the side on eight.

Let’s try it again from the top and connect all those steps. Five, six, seven, eight. Stepping one, two, three, four. Again, five, six, seven, eight. Stepping left, right, head down, up to the front. Hips, hips, hip, prep, hip. Two, three, push, pull, five, six, seven, and eight. Let’s try that with the music. Seven, eight . . .

Transcript

What’s up? This is Matt Steffanina and today I’m going to teach you guys the basics of the Melbourne Shuffle. The first step that we’re going to learn today is called the T-step. You’re going to start by making a T with your feet, putting your front foot at a T with the heel in the center of the back foot. From here we’re going to bring our back knee up as we pivot our front foot to the front.

So I’m pivoting on my heel of my front foot as my back knee comes up. When I press my back foot back down I’m going to pivot on the toe to make the T again. You can continue this motion to travel across the floor by going heel, toe, heel, toe. We can do the same thing going the other direction but you want to make sure that you switch your feet. So now I have my front foot again, with the heel in the center of my back foot. As I bring my back foot up I pivot on the heel. Push this foot behind again to go back on the toe. And I could continue traveling across the floor like this.

Once you guys can do the T-step in both directions, you want to learn how to combine them so that you can go back and forth across the floor. We’re going to start in our basic position and from here we want to go across. once you bring your knee up and you’re ready to switch position you’re going to put this foot in front so that you’re ready to go the other direction. This way you can go back and forth across the floor without stopping.

So we’re going to start out doing the Shuffle slowly, now that we have some music own. You want to make sure that we stay on this beat, so you’re going to start by setting up, just half time.

Once you can do it half time we’re going to try it a little bit faster. Five, six, seven, eight. And that’s the T-step.

Transcript

What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina, and I’m going to show you how to dance like Michael Jackson.

Now, Michael Jackson is famous for a lot of different dance moves but we’re going to take his biggest move today, and I’m going to break it down for you step by step, and that’s the moonwalk.

Now, it’s important to note that Michael did not invent the moonwalk, he actually was taught the moonwalk, but he did make it famous.

You should also know that the moonwalk is a different move and the move that Michael made famous was called the backslide.

The moonwalk is the same glide, but in a circle, whereas the backslide is done in a straight line, the way Michael did it. Let’s break it down step by step.

The first thing we’re going to do is take our back foot, lift the heel up, and press the ball of our foot into the ground. The left foot, or the front foot, is going to slide back across the floor. Now, when you slide your foot, you always want to keep it flat. This goes for almost every glide.

The illusion is created when it looks like a flat foot is sliding across the ground. For instance, if I bring my heel up and slide my foot on the toe, I lose the illusion. You want to make sure that that heel is in contact with the floor as you’re sliding back.

From here, you’re just going to switch your feet, bringing up the heel of the left foot and pressing down the heel of the right foot. Slide the right foot back. Switch your feet again.

You’re going to repeat this process as many times as you want to get your backslide going across the floor.

A couple things that will help you. Michael was really good at switching his legs really quickly and really strongly. A lot of times when you see people moonwalk, it’s very lazy whereas Michael’s was very clean and very snappy. So, each time you switch your feet, you want to think of pressing your heel into the floor, and lifting your other heel as quickly as possible. It also helps to get higher up on your toe, so really lift that heel of the supporting foot.

Let’s try and do a few of them in a row and start to practice travelling across the floor while doing the backslide.

So, we want to start up on our right toe, we’re going to slide our left foot back, and we’re going to connect four slides to glide all the way across the floor. And that’s how you dance like Michael Jackson.

Transcript

What’s up? My name is Matt Steffanina, and today I’m going to teach you guys how to dance like Lil’ Wayne. Now, Lil’ Wayne doesn’t really do a whole lot of dancing. He more so rocks. So I’m going to teach you the rock that Lil’ Wayne does when he’s rapping, and when he’s on stage.

I’m going to turn sideways so that you can learn it a little bit easier. You want to think of contracting from your stomach, and bending forward. At the same time, you’re also going to bend your knees.

Now, when he does this, it’s not a very big movement, so you don’t have to make it really exaggerated. You just want to have this bounce.

The last piece to this is our head. You want to make sure that your chin and your head are hitting forward on the beat at the same time as your chest. Now, this feels a little bit strange, when you’re just practicing it like this, almost like a pigeon, but it’s really important to get this groove, so that when you put it all together, your groove doesn’t look stiff, but rather has a nice bounce to it, which comes from the head.

We’re going to practice this nice and slow. While you’re doing the rock, I want you to let your arms just be free. You can push them out to the side, cross and uncross, push to the front. The key is to get this rock going, and to make it feel comfortable.

You’re going to start by rocking right and left, eight times, just like that.

This is one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. After you finish these eight bounces, you’re going to step forward twice. You’re going to go right, left, right, left. As you do this, your right shoulder is going to go down, and down. And down, and down. So with each step, my right shoulder is dropping.

So this with the counts, is one, two, three, four. From here, I’m going to step out on my right leg, and we’re going to bounce to the right four times. Again, the arms are up to you, so have fun with the arms.

Let’s put it together from the top. So we have five, six, seven, eight. You bounce right, left, right, left, right, left, seven, eight, walk forward, two, three, four, take it out, out, out, out. And that’s how you dance like Lil’ Wayne.

Transcript

What’s up, this is Matt Steffanina, and today I’m going to teach you guys how to do the running man in your shuffle.

To start, we’re going to turn sideways. We’re going to pick one leg up. As you put this leg down you’re going to take your bottom leg and push it back so that you get into a lunge. From here we’re going to take the back leg and pick it up hopping our front leg to the center, and then take the top leg stepping it down pushing our back leg back.

You’re going to repeat this motion, and each time you hop you want to make sure that you don’t hop up, but rather you hop just enough so that you can slide your foot back. It’s really more of a slide than it is a jump. You want to think of staying low to the ground. It also helps if you have a bounce in your body. You don’t want to be too stiff, so remember to keep relaxed.

Let’s try it a little bit faster. You’re going to start with your leg up, and go back, up, back, up, back, up.

It’s also important that when you push your leg back you straighten your leg out so that you get a nice line here. You don’t want to have your legs like jello and sloppy. You do want to really push through that back heel so that this is a really strong move. When we go to speed it up you’re going to need to be fast on your feet, so remember to stay on your toes and stay really light.

Let’s try it with the music. We’re going to start slow, half time. By going on the beat you want to go down, down, down, down, down, down. Remember, when our feet go down we want our body to accent up. So, you’re going to start by taking this leg down and rocking back. We go back, back, back.

And that’s how you do the running man.

Transcript

What’s up, my name is Matt Steffanina, and today I’m going to be teaching you some street dancing moves.

Today we’re going to be focusing mostly on up rocking, and I’m going to give you a couple of floor moves that you can do out at the club. For your basic rock, you’re going to start by hopping, and bringing your hands in front of you. Then we’re going to take our left foot, and step it across.You want to make sure that this has a nice bounce to it, but you don’t want to lean back so far that you’re just tapping your toe out in front. You still want to put some weight onto that foot.

From here, you’re going to push off of that foot, come back to the center, and do the same thing to the other side. From here, we’re going to kick our right leg to the front, taking your hands out to the front, pulling your hands back and pushing your hips forward to drop down and bring your hands back in front.

Let’s try that much the top. This is one, two, three, four, five, and six. From here, I’m going to put my right hand down on the floor, and kick my right foot out. Notice how my heel is on the floor so that I can roll over to my toe and twist. Then, I’m going to bring this back to center, switch my feet and my hands, twist again to the left, come back to the center, bring this foot in, and bring this up. We have one, two, three, four, a kick and drop, kick, twist, switch, twist. And there you have it, a basic combination to get you started street dancing.