VOCABULARY
Vocabulary you may want to learn and use in class.
Marking the routine
As your teacher goes to switch on the music, you may hear them say, “Let’s mark it,” or, “This is your mark.” This means they want you to do the routine at full speed to the music, but with smaller, less energetic gestures instead of the full movements.
Often, the purpose of this type of marking is to help you get the correct timing of the movements with the music. Making smaller gestures saves energy and allows you to focus more clearly on hearing the timing in the song. This is especially useful with routines where you switch back and forth between dancing to the beat and dancing to the lyrics, or you dance to other sounds in the song.
When teaching choreography that requires more than usual exertion to perform, sometimes the teacher will have you mark to conserve your energy so that you’ll be able to give it your all when you perform at the end of class. In this case, just bring your energy level down a couple notches. Whether you want to perform the movements fully (or close to it) or make your gestures smaller is your judgment call. Do whatever you find best helps you learn and reinforce the choreography.
Sometimes teachers will say, “Let’s mark it half-time.” This is refers to walking through the routine slowly to counts. The main purpose is to refresh your memory and check your accuracy, so it’s ideal to perform the full movements, just slowly (except perhaps large jumps, getting up and down from the floor, and other moves that are hard to slow down or take so much energy they may distract you from marking). “Let’s walk it half-time” means the same thing.
Full out
Dancing full out means performing the routine with full energy and effort. Usually, this term is used to clarify what the teacher wants when the class is switching back and forth between marking the routine and dancing full out.
Pas de beurre
This is a French dance term borrowed from ballet. If you hear “pas de beurre” (pah de boo – ray), it’s a cue that three alternating steps are coming up. One leg will cross the other during the steps; walking straight ahead isn’t a pas de beurre. The steps may be either left-right-left or right-left-right and may go in any direction, so you’ll still need to watch your teacher to know what kind of pas de beurre to do.
Plie
This is a French dance term borrowed from ballet. Most of hip hop is performed in plie (plee – ay), meaning with the knees bent. It’s a good idea as a dancer to learn to pay attention to whether your teacher’s legs are bent or straight as they demonstrate a movement. This is essential to the dance style.
Releve
This is a French dance term borrowed from ballet. Releve (reh – leh – vay) is when you go up on your toes while dancing.
References
http://www.hiphopdanceguide.com/beginners/dance-speak
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