I’ve been making how to dance to dubstep tutorials on my YouTube channel for almost 3 years now and have compiled a massive amount of knowledge, lessons, and facts on learning how to dance to dubstep. For someone who is brand new to my channel and just starting out as a beginner learning how to dubstep dance it can be overwhelming and kind of confusing on where to start. That’s why I made this ultimate guide on the top 10 dubstep dance tutorials I have ever made that will help a beginner grow and develop into a pro :)
I was once in your shoes until I took the initiative to stop watching dance videos and start learning the dance dubstep & popping! Like you I spent hours on the internet searching for video dance tutorials on how to dubstep dance for beginners, how to learn cool dance moves from spinning on your toe to 'vibrating'. This probably won’t come as a surprise to you, but there really isn’t a lot of good resources out there on learning how to dance dubstep, popping and the culture of street dance.
I'm going to teach you everything I learned that helped me turn from a shy living room dancer to a professional dancer.
I have many references of how I have learned how to dubstep dance in this guide whether through research, or personally meeting dancers well respected in the industry which I will reference through out this guide. All the tutorials in this guide are absolutely free, but depending how serious and dedicated you are about learning how to dance to dubstep and popping you'll for sure want to check out my 60 minute premium tutorials which are the #1 most downloaded tutorials on learning to freestyle and dance dubstep on the internet.
The first video displayed is a trailer of the 60 Minute Dubstep Tutorial from my bundle pack, if you want to check out the good stuff right away! Otherwise continue with the dubstep dance beginners guide below and best of luck! Without further hype, I hope you enjoy my ultimate guide to learning how to dance to dubstep.
What is Dubstep Dance
To kick off learning how to dubstep dance it’s important to answer the question What is Dubstep Dance? After all don’t you want to know what is dubstep dance? Where did dubstep dance come from after all? As they say, knowledge is power and this tutorial gives you the foundation and importance what dubstep dance actually is. There is somehow a little misconception about what is dubstep dance. Many think that dubstep dance is a type of dance. However, dubstep dance is actually not exactly the correct terminology of the dance style. Dubstep dance is actually popping with an emphasis in animation performed to the sounds of dubstep music. There is no such thing as dubstep dance. But there is such a thing as dubstep music.
So know you know it's actually not called dubstep dance but rather popping or animation dance to dubstep music. The dance has been named as dubstep due to the popularity of the music. It received the name dubstep dance because it is the most commonly used dance style when dancing to any dubstep music. Dubstep music has a beat frequency of 140 beats per minute. It has certain elements such as the build up, the kick and snare, drop and beat down and many others which allow a natural fit with the dance style popping and doing the robot.
Learning All the Dubstep Dance Moves
The below tutorials are all some of the most common dubstep dance moves seen when people are dancing to dubstep. Depending on how serious you are about learning how to dubstep dance I do have a premium 60 minute tutorial that will cover EVERYTHING about dubstep dance. Check it out here. Otherwise enjoy the below tutorials that will teach you all the popular dance moves for dancing to dubstep.
How to Move In Slow Motion
One of the most epic dance concepts ever performed by a dancer is learning how to dance in slow motion. Slow motion can be done with any dance style. Slow motion is a great dance move as it shows the contrast between a fast popping dance move and slow animation dance move. You can also mix the slow and fast popping dance style using a sort of transition with a quick change. The combination will look extremely cool.
Now there are three ways or three concepts to dancing in slow motion. The first concept is doing a turning or twisting motion in slow motion. It is done by bending the knees and making an arch on your upper body. Then with a little preparation from the opposite side, thrust yourself to the other side. The bigger or wider your preparation, the further you go and the more obvious your slow motion turning movement becomes.
The second concept is the slow motion walking movement. It is like walking on the moon. This concept is a forward motion and is concentrated on the feet. The movement starts by lifting one foot forward and slowly placing it on the floor heel first then transitioning to the toes as you start to move the other foot. This movement does not look like your normal walking movement. It is done with style. You can add small arm waves using your hand. The arm waves can be done forward or sideways.
Lastly, the third slow motion dance concept deals with the lower body. A lot of dancers fail to include the lower body when doing a warping movement or a slow motion. So the third concept makes sure that your lower body movement is connected to your upper body movement.
How to Spin on Your Toe
This next dubstep dance video teaches how to dance on your toe. Which is more of a signature type of move in dubstep dance. One of the most important things you need to have when dancing on your toe is to wear rubber shoes or toe shoes, or just anything to protect your toes because dancing on your toe will definitely hurt.
When dancing with the toe, it is like shifting your body weight to your toe. So there are two different ways that a person can do with this. One of them is the safer one. You can either carry your weight on your toe or just point your toe and pop yourself all the way up. The latter one is safer because you don’t have to carry that much weight, which will keep you from straining your feet. The first trick is to point your toe down on the floor, jump using your other foot and bring your body forward using your upper body. In order to thrust yourself up, you will need to just make a three-count bounce. You can also stick out your other leg so as to maintain your balance.
Now if you apply that into a combination, you can start with your wave from the upper right or left side, move on to your body. At this point, your wave is now in the middle. Then you continue with the wave moving down your legs. As you shift your wave to the other side, your toe is going have the continuation of the wave from which you can transition to thrusting your body using your toe.
How to Dubstep Dance: Magnet Concept
This beginner dubstep dance lesson again shows another epic dance concept to add to your freestyle or choreography to dubstep music. The theory of the dance move is based on the mechanism of a real magnet. A real magnet pulls metal objects to themselves. Likewise, this dance style will exhibit the same mechanism. So there are several steps or concepts you use in performing this dance style. The start of the move involves the upper body and the fingers. It starts out by twinkling your hand down straight out to your body. The magnetic mechanism happens as you bring your body and elbow close to your hand in a swift way. It will look really quick and will look like your elbow was magnetized to your hand.
You can also use this magnet concept in tutting. You just have to twinkle your fingers and bring your other hand towards it in a quick way to make it look like it was magnetized. Another way to do the magnet concept is with your lower arms. You can put your arms up in a straight way. Those arms can do the magic. One arm is going to act like the magnet and then the other arm is going to come close like it was pulled by a magnet.
Dubstep Dance Isolations
One of the coolest dance isolations in learning dubstep dance as a beginner is the hand isolation. Hand isolations are a combination the traditional mime movements and choreography. Hand isolations are very creative and they make excellent choreography with the dubstep dance style.
In hand isolations you have to pay a lot of attention to the details. There are several concepts in doing hand isolations. The first one is very simple. All you have to do is place your two hands in front of you like you are holding on to a wall. Make sure that your hand is still like it is frozen. Then start moving your body in circles. Your hand should not be moving. Your body and hand may not be 100% isolated but just make sure that it looks like you are holding on to something. If it is really difficult, you can practice by standing in front of a wall.
Practice a lot so that your hand will sort of memorize the position of the hand. Details are very important. So you have to make sure that your hand looks like it is really holding on to something. The next concept is with your palm. You will have to isolate your palm. Hold it very still like it is frozen and go around without moving your palm. The last concept is still with a single hand. You position your hand to a position like you are holding on to a table. Then try to keep your hand immobilized and go around. You can also practice this concept with the help of a real table.
Dubstep Dance Arm Waves
This dubstep dance video is about how to do arm waves. They are not just ordinary arm waves that you see in typical dancing. The are arm waves that work best for dubstep dance are robotic and jagged. Arm waves look best with timed with dubstep music bass notes that sound robotic. Those bass notes help you emphasize those waves dance styles.
So how do they work together?
This music and dance combination is woven together by the bass part of the music. Whenever the bass note sounds, you can hit with it, then make a wave with your arms and end with a huge hit. The hits you make emphasize the bass sound of your dubstep music. Adding the hits to your wave makes it look more creative than just doing a simple arm wave. Those waves ultimately become part of the music. In doing this arm wave dance, every detail should be carefully executed. This means that you have to pay close attention to the bass notes and be able to apply the hits precisely. Otherwise, it will look less than the robotic arm wave that you are trying to make.
Dancing to Dubstep Music
This easy beginner dubstep dance lesson is quite different from the other videos that I’ve made. In this dance lesson I teach quite a number of dance patterns which form into a small dubstep choreography piece unlike the other videos where I just teach individual dance concepts.
This dance tutorial breaks down how to dance to the drop in dubstep music. It is explained here that the drop in dubstep music is the 8-to-16-count part of the dubstep music which eventually progresses in speed and ends with the drop. So for the first part I use an example of hand grab isolation as the first 8 steps. The isolation I do on one side is mirrored on the other side. The total counting of this first part is 8 counts. The next step is a chopping step, which is faster than the grabbing isolations. The position and movements are the same as that of the grabbing steps. But this time, the counting is double the speed of the hand grab isolation.
The last step is broken down into 2 parts. The first part is done with one arm extended up while the other hand is bent, then the two arms switch position as they move down. This is also going to be the fastest movement. And finally, the second part of the final step is the body wave. The wave goes down to the feet and then back up. Then to close the drop, the hand goes to the center with a bouncing move. 
Dubstep Dance Mastering the Drop
This video is part 2 of Mastering the dubstep drop. Again the drop starts with an 8 to 16 count-dance movement which progresses and accelerates until it reaches a drop. All of this is part of the music called dubstep. The first 8 counts of the dance are performed with your right arm doing the wave followed by several twisting of your left wrist. But the movements are not just limited to the hands and arms. Your body will sway or twist along with the hand movements. So this movement goes on as you make sort of a wave up your body. The second part of this dance step is making again making a wave but this time, downward. The wave is executed from the head, to the upper body, including your behind until the wave reaches your feet. Again the counting in this part starts to accelerate.
Dancing to the Drop in Dubstep Music
This next dance lesson is still about mastering the drop. But this time, we will be focused on the lower part of the body. The foot work part here is a combination of popping dance. Without this popping dance style, your foot works will appear very simple and they might look boring. So try incorporating the examples shown here in this video. The first 8 steps are simple. It is like a walking dance move where the right foot goes first forward, followed by the left foot. Then, the right foot steps backward followed by the left foot. The movement is then followed by sideway steps which then finishes off by pulling the feet back in the middle. The next part of the music is just a faster way to execute the first 8 steps making the same movements, forward, backward and the sideways.
The last example would be a spinning movement. This is done with the use of your toes. It is just very simple; you just spin around using your toes in a really fast movement. You then end this dance routine with sort of a rotating stop. Once you have landed at the center from the spinning move, you do this slight, short twisting motion like that of a spring door.
How to Hit or Pop Dance Move
In this step by step dance lesson, we are going to be learning the dance concept of hitting. Hitting is the most fundamental part of popping and dubstep dance. You can do all styles, from waves to tutting but without hitting, it won’t be popping at all. And again, dubstep is not a dance style. It is popping dance to dubstep music. There are major points in popping.
The first point where you need to have focus on is your wrist. You need to develop a muscle memory for hitting with your wrist.
The next focal point is the chest. It is done by bringing your chest forward with your back arched. You can even do a combo of it, starting with a mini hit, to a mid hit and then full hit.
Another focal point is in the biceps and triceps area. All you have to do is flex your muscles in that area. If you are new to this dance style, it may seem difficult but all you have to do is practice controlling and tensing those muscles.
The fourth focal point is your legs. You can have a whole effect of hitting with the use of your legs. It is done by bending the legs and quickly snapping it straight. But you have to be careful with this one especially if you are new because snapping too much can be really painful. So while you are doing this, get your body loose so it will have the whole hitting effect on your body. You can now combine all the focal points together to make it look really dope. There are some hits however that are difficult to execute especially when your movements are wide but there is no problem to that as long as you practice and get used to it.
Advance Arm Waving Dance Moves
This next dance lesson is about making advance waves. What is this concept? Well this is a catching wave. By starting out this advance wave, it is understood that you already know how to wave. You just incorporate it into a combination and make it look cool on a freestyle or choreography.
In this tutorial, the concept is that you have a ball of energy in your hand which you seemingly toss or play around. Doing this combination is like doing role play. You have to act like you see and feel your imaginary ball of energy. So whenever you toss it up, you also have to look to where you supposedly threw it. Now moving on from where you threw it, you can grab it with your other hand. And make a wave that will look like the ball of energy is traveling to another part of your body. You can then end the wave with a hit to emphasize it and make it look really dope.
You can also add more creativity to that wave. You can also send or throw that somewhere else. You can maybe throw it or send it to your foot, and you can kick it up, catch it or grab it and swallow it, and just do anything that you like to do with it.
Learning Dubstep Dance For Beginners
I hope you have enjoyed my top 10 videos on how to dance to dubstep and want to let you know that it doesn’t stop here! On my YouTube channel I upload a new dance tutorial every single Thursday so you have to subscribe and check it out! Other than that I also have 60 minute downloadable dance dvds that go into all the details on learning how to dance popping and dubstep which I highly recommend for those of you are serious about learning how to dubstep dance. If you have any questions about this guide or how to dance in general hit me up on my Twitter or Facebook!
