the only 3 moves you need to dance to hip hop

🔥 Join Dancers Den & finally become the dancer you keep saying you'll be: https://www.skool.com/dancers-den/about If you're new here, my name is MENI. By day I work in tech as a Solutions Architect. By night I'm building a real career as a hip hop dancer. And I'm filming the whole thing so you can watch if it actually works. This channel is one big experiment I call the bet. Can you build a real creative life without quitting the job that pays your bills? Most people think you have to pick one. I think you don't. And I'm putting it on camera either way. How I got here... 26: Took my first dance class at a real studio. Started with hip hop and shuffling. Trained under Alec Faddoul, Gabby David, and Gabrielle Odom. 27: Auditioned for the first time in my life. It was for the NFL Command Force. 28: Started posting on TikTok and YouTube every week, instead of waiting until I was "good enough." 30: Landed the Solutions Architect job. The stable half of the bet. 31: Launched Dancers Den. A community where I teach the hip hop basics I had to learn the hard way. Today: Still got the tech job. Still building the dance career. Still filming all of it. The wins, the slow parts, and the stuff most people cut out. Dancers Den is where I teach what I'm learning as I learn it. If you have a steady job but you can't stop thinking about something creative, this is for you. You don't have to pick one. Take a look at skool and I'll show you where to start. To everyone running their own version of the bet, keep going. The point was never to be the best person in the room. It was to prove the room was worth walking into. MENI #itsmenilik 0:00 - Intro: Simple rhythm tips 0:19 - How to dance & gain rhythm 0:26 - Myth: “I can’t dance” 0:37 - 3 foundational bounce grooves: Up, Down, Bounce 0:44 - Up Groove: Bend & extend knees, chest up 1:00 - Down Groove: Bend & extend, chest down 1:08 - Bounce Groove: Up & down motion 1:22 - Why these grooves are essential 1:32 - Basketball analogy: Bounce like a ball 1:50 - Show energy & liveliness in dance 2:25 - Breaking down the Up Groove 3:14 - Adding chest movement to Up Groove 4:11 - Breaking down the Down Groove 4:34 - Adding chest movement to Down Groove 5:02 - Difference: Up Groove vs. Down Groove 5:32 - Breaking down the Bounce Groove 6:01 - Mixing Up, Down, & Bounce Grooves 6:15 - Demo with music 6:48 - Importance of staying on beat 7:13 - Variation 1: Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down, Up Down 7:37 - Practice Variation 1 7:59 - Variation 2: Down, Down, Down, Up Down, Up, Up, Up 8:12 - Practice Variation 2 8:35 - Variation 3: Up Down, Up Down, Up, Up, Up, Down, Down, Down 8:53 - Practice Variation 3 9:17 - Recap: Up, Down, Bounce Grooves 9:25 - Keep the bounce alive in advanced dance 9:44 - Outro If you’re new to my channel, my name is Meni. I'm a Solutions Architect who is becoming a complete artist (singer, songwriter, dancer) in public, from scratch, against all odds. This channel documents all of it: the auditions, the music, the grind, and whatever it looks like to build something real from scratch in public. Wanna stay in the loop? Here’s where you can find me: 🎵 TikTok:   / itsmenilik   📸 Instagram:   / itsmenilik   🐦 Twitter:   / itsmenilik   💬 Discord:   / discord   🎮 Twitch:   / itsmenilik   Subscribe if you're on a similar path or just want a front-row seat to see how it goes 🙏 Until next time! 🖤 #itsmenilik