What I have to write here is not so much of an essay as it is a rambling, or a kind of journal entry. I have to justify it as such because the ideas I want to write about are probably pretty obvious, but the way they’ve overtaken me recently has induced both delight and determination, and I’m just desperate to share.
So… I haven’t been writing much on Conception lately, for many reasons. One is that I’m finishing my senior year of high school, and I have plenty of projects, homework, and events that require my attention. That’s probably my most valid reason. Another is that I’ve been devoting most of my writing energy towards stories, which take a lot longer for me to write and aren’t the sort of thing I intend to post on here. The third reason is that I’ve been, as I like to put it, “imbibing new sources of inspiration.” That is to say, a YouTube shorts recommendation has suddenly triggered a new obsession for me: watching dance battles, specifically of the dancer MT Pop.
MT Pop is a Vietnamese dancer who dances in the popping style. The dance blog Steezy describes popping as “a style of dance that started in the late 1960’s and 70’s, characterized by sudden tensing and releasing of the muscles ("hitting") to the rhythm of beats in music.” Other moves and techniques, some from other dance styles, are also incorporated, and it’s a style often done to funk music. I am no expert (I’m not even a dancer myself) so I couldn’t explain all the nuances of it to you much more than that. But I do know: it is ridiculously fun to watch. And since it is usually done freestyle, it involves a lot of creativity and athleticism from each individual, making it fascinating to analyze as an art form.
From what I can gather, MT Pop has been a well-known dancer for a long time, but he’s gained particular attention after winning the Red Bull Dance Your Style World Final in November 2024. It’s this clip in particular that went viral — in which he delivers a clean, stylish dance over a stereotypically Indian song, in Mumbai, India, with an Indian opponent. When I encountered it on my shorts feed, I watched it once… then watched it a few more times… then came back later and watched it again. It took me a moment to realize I was hooked on whatever was going on. I didn’t fully understand it, but I could tell there was something special about him, a kind of ease and charisma.
So, like anyone would, I went and watched his battles from the rest of the competition. And I watched them again and again. I was filled with joy as I began to understand his musicality and his perfect engagement with the crowd. And then — in a last fateful step — I began watching his rounds outside of Red Bull, where instead of dancing to mainstream songs to win the crowd’s engagement, he was dancing to songs of the popping style, being evaluated by experienced judges. What I had seen in Red Bull was paltry compared with the quantity and vitality of his typical work.
What is so compelling about him? It is the combination of every attribute you could come up with as befitting an artist. His movements are clean, comprehensible, but often complex nevertheless. His creativity is seemingly boundless, and yet his moves are tasteful; he plainly knows how to listen to the music carefully, when to match it with standard moves, and when to embellish it with something unexpected. And his choices reveal a deep, deep attention to the music, every layer and detail within it. Another thing is that even aside from the music, his choices of movement often build and connect to form a coherent whole within each performance, even a story, with transitions so reasonable yet unexpected. Finally, he has his own charisma, unique but understated, that makes his every movement seem like an inevitable expression of his very self. He has the calm of some idle young man walking through a grassy road on a summer’s day, but also a fierce logic, a technological clarity to every moment. He divides up the music cleanly, with detail and pleasure and expression of his own. You can tell it all comes from his own mind, which must be complex and constantly branching out to continually lead him to some new movement of genius.
If you look up videos of him from the last year on YouTube, you can see that he just couldn’t stop winning battles in 2024, and part of it must be that so many just find him irresistible, a master, a god of dance— he’s a real star, to put it lightly. And surely part of his appeal must be not just the dance, but the ethos that shines through, the way he seems both curious and confident, daring and reasonable, building from one step to the next so naturally, as if destined to dance that way, and yet so clearly, deadly present in the moment, as if it was presence in the moment that makes one’s actions flow as if practiced since the dawn of time.
If you’re curious to see some of him at this point, which you probably are, here are my favorite rounds that I just can’t get over. Or if you just want one short one, here’s a good option.
Anyways, it’s an important question for any creative person, as well as other dancers— how does one reach this level? Where basic technique comes naturally, giving the mind room to move and blossom and constantly create? Where one’s own personality shines through the art, giving it a new level of transcendence? How can we artists attain this? The answer is—again—very obvious, yet a truth we are often loathe to face. I’ve seen multiple clips of MT Pop himself as well as other dancers testifying to the fact that MT spends hours—hours—doing what? Practicing. The answer is practice.
I know about practicing. I took piano lessons for most of my life so far, as I’ve written about before, and was expected to practice almost every day. Every musician knows how important this is to their teachers. When I was younger, I often didn’t want to practice, but I kept at it for ulterior motives (I was only allowed to play Minecraft if I had practiced that day). By the time I was about thirteen, I noticed an almost indescribable change, the kind that happens without your knowledge. I had developed a confidence, a familiarity with the keys— I still had to practice, but I could learn faster, sightread better, and play with more expression. Hours of practice had wired my brain, and by extension my hands, to know the keys like I knew the fit of my favorite jacket, or the face of my crush. As of now I haven’t practiced much in the last two years, but when I sit down to play I can feel the intuition there in my hands, even as my strength is lacking.
Thus on a much lesser level, I attained something of the same relationship MT Pop has to his dance. The music I can play feels like my good friend. Meanwhile he seems almost to be married to the music he dances to.
Such a disappointingly obvious thing to be reminded of— that if you want to succeed in anything, you must simply do it, and immerse yourself in it, and do it over and over again. And you must do it with your whole self. You cannot just think about and understand it, for you have a body with a memory of its own that must be trained. You cannot just feel the appropriate feelings about it, for these feelings require action. You cannot just practice mindlessly, for your mind is the fount of technique, and you cannot perform without feeling, or you have nothing to offer to your audience.
MT’s own story, his attitudes and methods, show much to learn from besides this simple principle of practice. There are two really good interviews of him on YouTube, which I’ll link in a bit, and I found his insights to be simple, often things I had been told before, but instructive. He is a real live artist putting those creative principles I’ve always known in action, and talking about his art with real passion and experience. He is proof that excellence is possible, as a way of life.
And so like the model student I aspire to be, I took notes. The main question I wanted to answer for myself was: How can I emulate MT as a great artist, even as he’s a dancer and I’m a writer? What do his methods translate to, for me?
And I couldn’t find any better way to write this post besides just giving you my notes, disorganized as they are, because I couldn’t find categories to sort them into, and that’s the thing: every practice and attitude and mindset all come together to form one coherent whole, which is MT Pop’s artistry. So maybe that’s the first note: artistry is an organism in its own right, that can’t be broken down into equal parts, and that requires its own special care.
The notes I took are from two interviews, one from the Enculturation Podcast and one from The Capsule. I’ll put the interview name and its timestamp for most of the notes, if you want to listen for yourself.
MT Pop Notes
First - what’s his story?
-He always loved dance and creativity. Eventually he asked to take dance lessons, and when that didn’t work out, he practiced dance secretly at home, going to the studio to watch YouTube videos in a language he didn’t understand and then practicing the moves for himself. This forced him to find the “feeling” and the “meaning” of the moves for himself. His family didn’t have the money for him to go to college, so he decided to devote all his efforts to dance. Indeed, dance had already reformed his habits, causing him to stay out of trouble and stop playing video games, and it continued to instil good habits in him, as the leader of his crew wanted to prove the respectability of street dance. These good habits led to even more opportunities for his crew. And even now, his crew often helps those in need, the homeless and orphans, with the money they make from their dance. And as far as dance goes, after years of putting out good work he’s become a star, having won many events just in 2024, and being known for his creativity and technique.
What are his methods and how can I apply them to myself?
-Learn from the masters, carefully examining their work, without bias or narrow-mindedness. Replicate what they do and bring it into your own style. (Enculturation Podcast 7:30, 19:20).
-Build a foundation of necessary skills through diligent practice. But at the right time, decide what to practice based on where your heart/mind/intuition/current interests—I’ll just call this “feelings”, as he does—are leading you. (EP 57:48-1:00:36). Practice whenever you can even when you are busy. (EP 1:00:50).
-These “feelings” and their communication are the goal. Discern carefully how your art interacts with your feelings. Share them with the audience, with openness, not being hung up on technique but using it as a medium to share those feelings. Let yourself play, as that will let yourself find new ideas and have fun.
-Winning is NOT the goal. Focusing on winning pushes away creativity and makes you unnecessarily stressed (and it’s selfish). Focus on play, on communication, on what you’re trying to express. Not only that, but when you do lose a battle of some kind—remember it’s a learning opportunity. You can always try again. (The Capsule 26:57-28:43, 31:05, 34:13)
-The feelings should come from yourself but also from your subject. For MT this is the music he dances to. For writers, it’s whatever they’re writing about, or the story they’re trying to tell. (There’s a blurrier line for us between our subjects and our self-feelings). Make sure you are in tune with your subject, tracking every nuance, layer, pattern, and opportunity for you to do something creative.
-Sometimes what drives your work is simply having no other option for what to do with your life. (EP 27:03-33:04)
-Limits and inconveniences can drive your creativity and your depth of understanding of what you do. (EP 15:32-19:10)
-Make sacrifices, have discipline. For MT this looked like spending money frugally, and not smoking or drinking much like other dancers. (TC 49:54-51:54). For me it could look like giving up certain entertainment, or (some) sleep, or even social events, and spending less money on looks, treats, coffee shops, even gifts. (But for writers especially, it’s important to “have a life” too).
-In addition to discipline, having good character and respectability will multiply the opportunities presented to you, as others see that can trust you. This will also help you share the beauty of your art with more people. Sometimes this will look like transforming the culture surrounding your art from what it was before to something new. (EP 36:39-41:17, 43:56-47:46)
-Always practice, so you are ready for any opportunity. As MT put it, the dancers who only practice in a frenzy once there’s a competition coming up are “already late.” (TC 52:51-53:39)
-Seek out people of all walks of life, of other trades and forms of creativity, and learn from them. Their creativity can flow into yours and teach you new ideas and methods. (EP 1:38:06-1:41:57). And sometimes, what you need to learn from your teachers is not just techniques, but lifestyles, mindsets, stories. (EP 10:27-10:55) Because all art is related, and life and art are always intertwined.
-Find as many ways as you can to use your art in different ways and combine it with other arts—there’s nothing stopping you. (TC 55:51, EP 1:35:31-1:37:13)
-Use your art to help people in need. (TC 41:09, 1:01:36-1:03:05, 45:44-46:29)
Well, those are the notes. I hope you enjoyed them and found something instructive to mull over. I also hope you check out MT’s dance and find the same pleasure from it as I do! I’ve been really wanting to write about him for a while, and it took a while but here we are.
These ideas have been sinking into me with more and more intensity as I think about my writing life. The importance of reading, so I have examples to learn from. The importance of play and a relaxed attitude, so my mind can wander and dream and find new ideas, but also the importance of discipline, of showing up as often as I can and sacrificing that which interferes. The importance of practice, of simply doing the same thing again and again until it’s like muscle memory, a habit carved into my own self, the air I breathe. Until the art is a friend of mine. So we’ll see how that goes :)
Life is pretty crazy right now—as I write this, I’m graduating in a week. If you’re reading this, please pray that I transition into the next stage of my life well. I’m nervous but excited too. There’s a lot coming up. A lot of creative energy that I hope I can direct towards productive causes, and with MT’s insights to guide me, maybe that’ll be easier.
Also while I have you here I’d like to give a music recommendation: Paul Hardcastle. I discovered him from a clip of MT dancing to his track “Rain Forest” and his music is the most lovely, relaxing instrumental stuff ever, perfect background music for anything. Here’s his Spotify profile. Anyways. God bless and thank you for reading!