Running Man Masterclass

1. Introduction: Would you like to master the iconic Running Man? In this class, you will learn how to perform it from scratch. This is the most important move in Shuffle Dance. Grab your shoes because we're getting started. 2. Running Man: I hope that you're excited as I am because we're going to start with our first shuffle move the Running Man or Running woman. This is the most important step in shuffle. Actually, you can shuffle just knowing the Running Man. So I recommend to really, really pay attention to this lesson, please watch it as many times as you need. The Running Man can look a little bit complex at the beginning. So please relax. Take your time to learn it properly. And don't worry if at first looks a little bit complicated. I promise that you will get there. So I want to show you first how the Running Man looks. So I'm going to show you from the front and then from the side. Yeah. So first, I'm going to do it slowly. And now I'm going to do it a little bit faster. Now, let me show you from the side. First slowly. And now I'm going to do it a little bit faster. I want to mention that I will explain you the technique in detail. So we will cover everything. I will also share with you some common mistakes so you can avoid them. And I wanted to tell you that after we see the technique, we are going to practice it. So we're going to start very, very slowly, and we are going to gradually increase speed. So at the end of the lesson, you will be able to dance the Running Man with 120 BPM. That is the same PM that you will find in a song of electronic music. So don't worry if today you cannot reach that speed. It takes some time. We talk about it before, so not to worry, yes. If you need many days to practice at a slow speed, it's totally normal. Actually, that is something good. But I want you to cover everything in one lesson, so you can rewind the lesson as many times as you need. Just according of how are you feeling with the movement? Yes. So remember, each person has a different learning speed. So take your time to learn it very, very carefully because it's important to know it. And once you get it, you will be able to dance with the Running Man without even thinking about it. So, I trust you. You can see that I put in the floor three tapes at the same distance each. So I did that, so I can explain you the move better. If you have some tape at home, you can do the same. It's not really necessary, but I thought it was going to be better for you to understand it. So something that I want to mention about the Running Man, it's why it's so important because it's a move that for me, it's like a safeguard, meaning that if you are dancing and you don't know what to do, you can always do the Running Man. And you can always use the Running Man as a connection move, meaning that you can do, let's say, a T Step, and then do a Running Man, and then, for example, another T STEP. So you can always use it whenever you want. The Running Man is great for freestyling. It's also great for choreos. At the beginning, your Running Man might look a little bit like a robot. It's common. It happened to me as well, but once you internalize it, you will be able to feel more relaxed with the move, and you will be able to add your own style to it. So just to show you an example now, for example, you can do the Running Man more or like to say more flow or softer, something like this. Or you can do that Running Man harder, like if you're dancing to a technoso. So it looks similar, but you can see that it's not the same. I know at the beginning of your shuffle journey, you will want to learn a lot of steps, to be able to perform a lot of moves. I was like that, too, but I realized that learning a lot of moves and not being able to perform even one properly, wasn't a good way of learning shuffle. So it's better to learn one move, learn it properly, really, really get it, and then continue to the next move. So in that way, you already internalize one move, and then you're moving to the next one, and then the next one, yeah, that is what I recommend to you. So be patient. You know, you are at the beginning of your journey. This is actually the most complicated part of your journey. Let's be honest with this because you're learning the basics, you're learning the foundations. So it's really, really important what you are doing right now. So think that what you're learning in this course, you will use it forever. And then once you master all these moves, then it will be easier for you to learn new moves. But really, at this time, you're learning something that is totally new. So it's common that it will be harder, yes. So so don't worry if it takes some time. As I said before, we will go in detail with the technique. So really, really pay attention in each move where you have to place the weight of your body. How your feet are landing in the floor, the way that you have to place your feet. So I know it looks like a lot of things, but be really patient with that and pay attention with this because these are the things that make a move to look good or to look not good. Yes. This is where we're getting professional. So something that I wanted to tell you also in every move, yes, you will hear me repeating this over and over again. You really have to have your core engaged, your apps, yeah? It's really important. This is in the Running Man and in every move, actually, in every dance that you're doing. But we're talking here about shuffle. But, yeah, it's very important because having your core engaged is what will give you stability. If not, you will be like this. So see the difference. If I engage my core, I instantly have my weight in the center. If I don't engage the core, I'm like, anywhere. So this is something really, really important. I will repeat you over and over, so you really have that in mind. Something that I wanted to also share that we will see in the upcoming lessons. So once you get the regular Running Man, you will be able to also learn some variations of fit. So you will see that in the upcoming lessons. Well, so as I said before, in the running man, your weight should be center. That is important. And you're always going to start your running man from the perch position. That is this one. Let me show you from the side. Yes. Think also this Berth position as a transition position. I will explain more about these transition positions in an upcoming lesson. But you can start to have that into account. You will see why this is a transition position because we start in the perch position. And then we do a step, yeah. We land with our feet on the floor. So see that I'm starting with my right leg because I'm right leg dominant. So see that I actually step with my right foot on the front, and then my left foot that was in the middle is landing on the back. Yeah. Then what I will do next, I will go again to the perch position. Like this. But this time with the opposite leg, yes, I bring my right leg to the middle, and then my left foot is in the perched position. And then I will do the same with the other side. So see that I land with my left foot on the front, and my right foot is on the back. Yeah. For me, the Running Man, the way that it works, is actually two moves. Why two moves? Because one is the arch position. And the second move is the landing on the floor. Yes. This will be with the right leg. Then if I'm starting with the left leg, I just do the same. Move number one, perch position, move number two, landing on the floor. I'm holding myself with the wall because you will see that when you are performing the move slowly, it's actually quite hard to keep yourself in balance. But once you start to do this faster, you don't need to do that. But at the beginning, if it's helpful for you, you can do the same. Just stay close to a wall. So what I just did, I did two running mans because I did one running man with the right leg. And then I did another Running Man with the left leg. Why I'm saying you this? Because you don't always need to do two running mans. You don't always need to do it on the right and on the left. Yeah? For example, you can do just a Running Man with your right leg and then move to a T step. Yeah. So in shuffle, it's common that we will perform the moves on both sides, to be symmetric. But this is not something that is always needed. We tend to do it because it looks good, and it's great for a choreo or a combo, but you don't always need to do that. Another important thing regarding the technique is that see that from the perch position, I'm moving both feet at the same time. Yeah. This is very, very important to have into account because, remember, we do the perch position, and then we move both feet at the same time. A common mistake at the beginning is, for example, doing something like this. Just moving. 1 ft. Yeah. So see that my back foot is still in the middle. No, it should be here. And that was a mistake I used to do at the beginning, that I only found it filming myself and watching those videos. So please have into account so you can avoid that mistake. Yeah. So remember, p position, landing with both feet at the same time. Page position, landing with both feet at the same time. Let's go now with the tips. So something important, and this applies also for, I would like to say, most of the shuffle moves as well, that when you're landing with your running man, yes, you're not actually landing with your knees or your legs like this. Yes, you are actually landing with your knees slightly bended. Why? That is the same reason why you're lifting your heel, to be able to perform the next move faster. If you are with your knees like this, it's like, again, you are, like, stuck in the floor. Apart from that, when you have your knees slightly bended, you're actually protecting your body. Yes? If you remember when you were at school, the teacher always said, like, if you jump, you have to bend your knees. Yeah. Of course, we're not jumping like this in the Running Man, but it's the same idea, yes. So always remember to protect your body. Another important thing that I told you before is to lift your back heal. This will also help you to be able to do this movement faster. Let me show you a close up when I'm doing the Running Man fast. You can also see in slow motion. Remember that only the back heel is the one that we have to lift. The front foot will step with the whole foot. Also, it's important to try to move your feet as closer to the floor as possible, like doing a little jump. This is called micro bounce. The micro bounce gives the illusion of gliding instead of jumping. I will talk you more about this in other shuffle moves. So let's talk about other common mistakes. Some people are doing the run man, like, running. I don't know if I will be able to show you the mistake, but I think people are doing something like this. I don't know. Like, that's not the way you're doing the Running Man. That's actually running. So please avoid that. And other thing, other common mistake is is not to put the weight in the center, as I told you before. So, for example, let me show you how it will look if you're putting your weight on the front. So it will be something like this. I'm actually I'm actually about to fall. Yes, it's really hard to do it that way. So keeping your core engaged, keeping your waist in the center will actually help you to perform the move better. Great. So I'm going to start to do it slowly. So let's practice, and you can follow along. So remember, we started with the perch position with our right leg. That leg comes forward. The other leg comes backwards. Then left leg comes to perch position. That left leg goes forward and right leg comes backwards. Now I won't talk. I will just do it slowly so you can follow along. Let's start in the perch position. Good. Now I'm going to do it with the counts. So remember that I mentioned the counts before. Yes, how do we count when we are dancing? So remember that it was one and two, and three and four. Yes. So the idea is that our perch position will be the. And when we land with our both feet like this, it will be the one. Let me show you so you can understand it. So we start in the end. One and two, and three, and four and five and six and seven and eight. You don't need to count. I'm doing this to help you. You will see that you will get more tired if you're talking while you're dancing. So I recommend not to count at this moment, at least. So let's practice again slowly, yeah, so you can start to internalize the move. So let's go again. Sure. Don't worry. I know when you are doing it slowly, it looks kind of weird. It looks very robotic, as I mentioned before. That's common, but it's good to understand the mechanics, yes, to understand the technique properly. And then when you know and you already get this and it's already in your muscle memory, you will do it looking at cooler, yes. So to keep practicing, I would like to bring something that I think is very helpful for this. I will bring my phone that is actually the metronome. So remember we talk about BPM. So the metronome will help us actually to choose the BPM that we want to dance too. So for the metronome, I download an app that is called tempo. You can download any app that has a metronom. So the idea is that the metronome will actually count the bits. So, for example, if I put a BPM of 50, we will hear, yeah the bits. So remember, as I just explained to you, every time we hear the beats, is the moment that we need to land with our feet. When we hear silence in the metronome is the moment that we will be doing the perch position, the ant. The metronome just counts the tempos. But when we hear a song, we will hear a lot of sounds, we hear a melody. So there's a lot going on. With the metronomes just very simple, just a bit. Yeah. So it's good at this moment. So the Da with this practice with the metronome, we will start at 50 PM, then move into 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 110 until we reach 120 because 120 BPM is the standard BPM of any electronic music. We have some music that is slower. We have others that are faster, but it's standard. So if you are able to dance at 120 BPM, you're ready to go to the club. You're ready to go to a festival. So again, don't worry if you need to practice many times, let's say, at 50 BPM, do it as many times as you need. Remember you can rewind the video. You can also play your video slower. You have this tool that you can play it slower at a slower speed. So in case that you need it even slower. So really, really do it at your own pace. See how you are getting the move. I promise you that you will get there that you will get to 120 BPM. But of course, take some time. Yes, you won't get it in one day, yes. So be patient about it. So let's start with a tempo of 50 PM. I'm going to count while we hear the bits. One and two and three, and four and five and six. So let's do it. One and two and three, and four and five and six and seven and eight. Now I'm not going to count. Let's just hear the bits. Right. Now let's move to 60 Pm. Now, let's continue to 70 PM. We will continue to 80 PM. Let's move on to 90 PM. Great. Let's continue to 100 PM. Very good. Now 110. Almost there. C, C. Now, 120. Finally. Let's do it. This was quite fast, right? But great. You did it. You did it. You're dancing at the speed of electronic music, ready to go to the festival, to a show. I know you might be a little bit tired like myself. I feel that the Running Man is a really great workout. Congratulations again. 3. Goodbye: Congratulations on completing this class. Want to keep learning shuffle. My Shuffle Dance master class has more fantastic moves waiting for you. I can't wait to see you there.