Tutting is one of the most popularly seen dance styles among hip hop dancers and freestyles today. Tutting traditionally used to be a very simple dance style when it originated in the 80's. As dancers continued to practice the art of tutting the dance dramatically evolved to creating more difficult and challenging shapes and patterns.
From bone breaking to finger tuts I wanted to make the ultimate resource and guide to learning everything you need to know about tutting. Learning how to tut is almost impossible to teach in one video from one person as there are so many different ranges of motion, concepts, and elements that go into tutting.
I've included tutting tutorials from dancers and teachers all over the world to help you learn how to tut. Get ready to stretch and learn and dive into learning the dance style of tutting.
One quick note before we begin. Tutting is a dance style considered in Popping. If you somehow stumbled across this article without having a solid foundation of what popping is. I highly encourage you to first learn the fundamentals and foundation of popping, as it will naturally help you become better at Tutting. Check out my 60 minute premium popping tutorials if your serious about becoming a better dancer. The first video clip I'll show is a preview of my premium tutorial bundle pack, otherwise get ready to dive into the ultimate guide on learning how to tut!
Learning How to Tut Ultimate Guide
Learning to tut requires technique, lots of practice, and creativity. The best dancers in the world who tut could dance for hours just focusing on Tutting and never repeat themselves. So how do you become a master at tutting like the dancer Pandora in this video below?
Leonardo Da Vinci Would Have Been Great at Tutting
Ever seen this image before in history class?
When I took lessons with Robert Muraine aka 'Mr Fantastic' he had this hanging in his studio where we practiced. He explained to me how this drawing can really add perspective about how tutting works.
Think of Tutting as not 2D, or even 3D but 4D. As the drawing depicts there are different layers, levels, or as some would call... dimensions that you can jump to and back from while you dance.
(if you have seen The OA then you will understand this GIF, if you haven't highly recommend there is actually some interesting but weird dance scenes)
Ok now that we've talked about some mindset on how to think let's get down to our first TUTorial.
Creating Patterns & Understanding Your Body Control
What I like about this tutorial to start off is that you get to create how challenging this concept is. This tutting tutorial will really help you focus on individual arm movements and force your body to think about muscle memory while you Tut. Essentially everything your right arm does, your left will follow. Sounds easy right? Guess again. The more challenging the tut you create the harder it will be to match it.
Formations and Beginner Tutting Positions
This next tutorial taught by Mike Song really gives a good layout of all the basic and most common tutting form positions. Remember Tutting is all about angles so focus hard on creating 90 degree angles and keeping your form as your move.
Tutting Can Have Different Styles
Just like many dance concepts Tutting can have drastically different styles. To best explain, I want to showcase the dancer Tim Salaz aka 'Random' as he is well known in the community and has huge diversity and range of motion when he is tutting.
Tutting Transitions
Now that you have an understanding of some of the more common positions and have some inspiration it's time to add some more dynamic elements to your transitions. Below are a few tutting video tutorials to help with your transitions.
Icon Sleepy Tut is a master with his hands. He even has this crazy video of him riding a bike doing tuts flawlessly. In this tutorial he gives some awesome hand flows and transitional moves.
Here is a nice 'helicopter' twist to move from side to side.
This next one well give some dynamic elements to your wrists as you transition.
The Most Underrated Concept of Tutting
Fixed point is one of the most underrated concepts of Tutting and popping in general. When masters of the concept dance using fixed point it almost looks like magic. I want to first show a video of a good example of fixed point then follow it with a tutorial on how to do it. The dancer is Poppin John, make sure you fast forward to 1:06 to start to see some of the elements using fixed point.
Inspired? Below is a tutorial on the concept of fixed point. The challenge for you is after you learn it, try to incorporate it with your tutting.
Learning Tutting Choreography & Combos
Tutting can primarily thought of as a freestyle type of concept however it is often one of the most used elements in all of hip hop styles of choreography. You can't deny the coolness factor of a group or even duet doing intricate tuts in sync to a beat. Below are some videos to learn some pretty cool tutting combinations. Just remember, the best way for you to grow in the art of the tutting dance is to learn, apply, and make your own movements.
This first video concept is half tutting and half finger tutting, but nevertheless, is awesome teaching concepts like Hinges, and isolation points. Compliments to dancers JayFunk & Jason for the tutorial.
This next combo breaks down the 'ice box' and 'scissor concept'.
Another one by Mike Song :)
This next tutorial by Pandora Marie is amazing. For those that don't know her she is a Pioneer and one of the greats!
This combo has a nice fixed point concept to work with.
Conclusion
As you can see, learning how to tut is an ongoing process. From learning new angles, to memorizing combinations, the possibilities are endless. Also, don't just limit tutting to using your hands and fingers! You can do tutting with every body part, even just your feet! Check out Marie Poppins dance video below doing tutting using your feet! So cool!