How To Pop-Lock: Body Wave

A body wave is a pop-locking dance move which creates the illusion of a wave traveling through the body, from your head to your toes and back. It is recommended that you know how to arm wave first, though you can still perform a body wave if you haven't. The following directions cover a top to bottom wave, then the return wave.

1. Stand with your arms loosely at your sides.
2. Raise your shoulders straight up, as if you were trying to touch them to your ears.
3. Roll your shoulders backwards, so they are being pulled behind you, and project your chest forward, as if trying to bump an invisible wall in front of you.
4. Pull your chest in, pushing your pelvis forward to make your stomach stick out. Pulling your shoulders forward to further "cave-in" your chest helps to enhance the illusion.
body popping how to
5. Pull your abdomen slightly inward, while thrusting your hips forward.
6. Pull your hips back, and push your knees forward by raising your heels and standing on the balls of your feet.
7. Push your heels down, touching them back to the ground.
8. Straighten your knees and push your hips forward.
9. Pull your hips back and push your stomach forward.
10. Pull your stomach backwards, push your chest out.
11. Pull your chest in, and end the wave by raising and then dropping your shoulders.

As you begin practicing this move, start slowly, and build up speed. Eventually, as the moves become more familiar, you'll get used to doing rapid body waves. The best way for a beginner to practice is to perform waves in front of a full-length mirror, making sure that the above steps are performed in a smooth and continuous manner. Avoid jerking movements. The key to creating a wave illusion is to disguise the steps by blending them into each other.

It is also possible to do an arm wave into a body wave, and then return. Directions for an arm wave can be found at How to Pop-Lock: Arm Wave. First, perform an arm wave from your fingers to your shoulder, only raising the shoulder which performed that wave. From there, lower that shoulder and pop out your chest, as you would in step three. Continue to step ten. Now, instead of raising both shoulders, raise only the shoulder which originally performed the arm wave, then perform an outward arm wave.