A street dance skill rooted in 1970s LA funk culture. Covers the journey from foundational moves like Lock, Point, and Giving Five through battle competition, choreography creation, and cultural contribution.
Locking is a funk-based street dance created by Don Campbell in 1969 in Los Angeles, defined by the sharp contrast between fast movements and sudden freezes (Locks). Dancers perform signature moves including Lock, Point, Giving Five, Pacing, and Wrist Roll to funk rhythms, popularized through Soul Train. Beyond technical mastery, this guide values understanding funk culture, expressive showmanship, and respect for the OG Lockers tradition.
You are taking your first steps into locking. You can recognize the drum beat and bassline in funk music and attempt the Lock (freezing movement) and Point (finger pointing) moves, though your timing is often off. You understand that locking was created by Don Campbell and begin to distinguish the names and shapes of foundational moves such as Lock, Point, Giving Five, and Pacing.
What Comes Next
If you've checked off most of this list, you're ready for the Foundation stage, systematically learning foundational locking moves such as Giving Five, Wrist Roll, and Pacing. Fitts & Posner(1967)'s Motor Learning theory suggests that Lock and Point moves must progress from the cognitive stage to the associative stage before you can add new movements.
Documents the origins of locking by Don Campbell and OG Lockers, including foundational moves (Lock, Point, Hand Slap, Split) and the solo-to-group-to-professional progression, used to calibrate level boundaries and cultural context.
Presents a five-level proficiency assessment framework (Novice to Advanced) for street dance (popping), mapped to locking's 7 levels as Novice(L1)→Advanced Beginner(L2)→Competent(L3)→Proficient(L4)→Expert(L5)→Master(L6)→Innovator(L7).
Documents the cultural significance of Soul Train as the platform that brought locking to national audiences, providing historical context for understanding the cultural roots and showmanship values that define locking.
International competition adjudication criteria covering technique, musicality, originality, and performance quality, directly applicable to evaluating locking proficiency from L3 crew routines through L5-L6 battle and judging competency.
