In locking there are many things to learn. Whoever your locking teacher is, when you begin learning it you will learn many of the moves associated with the style.

You will spend a lot of time on the foundations and the things which make the dance style what it is such as the locks and the grooves.

Once you have an understanding of these and can do them you are free to do what you want. You can perform the moves in your own style, you can begin to freestyle and dance with more freedom.

What this means is that the same step or move can be done by two lockers and they can look totally different as each will do it their own way. No two styles are exactly alike.

So once you know what the locking style is then you can’t really go wrong. There is no right or wrong as such, though you must first understand what locking is before you start taking it in a completely new direction.

This is evidenced by the performances of Don Campbell’s dance group The Lockers. When you watch them perform as a group, they all lock but it is quite apparent that each has their own style and their own set of moves to go along with it.

What it all comes down to is that locking is a form of expression, as is all dancing. There is no such thing as perfection really, there only exist theories and guidelines on such a principle. It is about whether those movements feel true to you.

There could be one amazing dancer with a great style and you could try to copy them, but you will probably find that it doesn’t fit as well or that it doesn’t line up with your identity. Mere copying is discouraged in all styles of dance, though it is especially pertinent in locking where freedom of expression has been encouraged right from the start.

Perfection is a somewhat ambiguous term but the easiest way to understand it, is that whether a move is perfect is whether it feels right to you and looks the way you intend it to. Watch yourself back on a video camera and see if what you feel and how it looks matches up. If it does then you have found the harmony that is required.