

Learning to differentiate between instruments will help you translate what you hear into movement, which will, in turn, give your dancing shade and texture. The by-product of doing this is exercising your brain’s musicality muscle. You can even choose to “choreograph” music that challenges you. Spend some time listening to the genres of music you are using to perform or dance. With a little bit of natural intuition and a whole lot of practice. So how do you hone on the musicality if you don’t have formal training? Oscar De Leon didn’t have proper training to do this. Once he was happy with it, a songwriter would write it for him. The person who played the instrument would mimic his request to his liking. He said that in the beginning he would gather the members of the band together, point his finger to a particular instrument, and then make the sound for that instrument with the desired tempo. One of my favorite artist of all time, Oscar De Leon, was asked to share the story on how he manages to write such great melodies all the time.
Musicality definition in dance how to#
But that doesn’t mean you’re doomed if, for instance, don’t know how to read music and never learned how to play an instrument. They have a head start when it comes to developing musical sensitivity. This will come easily to those who are trained to play instruments. Having an excellent sense of rhythm, balancing yourself, and knowing how to translate the mood of the music will help you to hold the audience’s attention. Perhaps you can hold a turn for an extra moment creating the illusion of slowing the tempo of your movement to squeeze in another turn. The better you know the song, the more you’ll be able to play with the dynamics and timing of the steps.

Sometimes choreographers will specify the way their steps should be phrased, but when it’s allowed, experimenting with phrasing can give you multiple ways to dance a piece. Should one step be performed quickly so another can be stretched out? Another example is when to pause to use body motions to add flare, and so forth. Like which steps hit on the beat or which steps move through the rhythm. It is how steps are organized within a musical phrase. Where the syncopations, cadences, or accents live within the musical measure.Īnother term, choreographic phrasing, I learned when I was collaborating with others and it is very similar. Musical phrasing is the way music is organized within measures. I learned this term when I was becoming a ballroom dance instructor. ”īut the real question is, do you know what it is? Have you’ve ever discussed musicality with other dancers or teachers? You’ve probably heard about the expression “ phrasing. This will give you more options and you’ll be able to take advantage of the space available. Others create entire dance routines before they choose the music.Īs a dancer who wants to perform, you must be ready for any approach they use.Īnother simple thing is to make sure that you’re clear in your execution, regardless of which group you belong to. I’ve worked with some choreographers that may start with a piece of music before they create a single step. There is no right or wrong way to interpret music. This doesn’t mean one is better than the other but It’s important to understand that musicality comes in many forms. Musical dancers never get so caught up on steps that they ignore the music. They turn until they move on to the next point in the music, with the intention on the next thing. This kind of dancer doesn’t just turn until they stop for the sake of turning. The musical dancers, on the other hand, never disregard the music to fit in more tricks or moves. With the nonmusical dancer, you can see the effort put in. They seem unable to transmit the emotion or attitude to the songs while they are dancing.Ī strong but nonmusical dancer is like a painting on a canvas without any colors.

They might seem stiff or disconnected-often, they’re a little bit hard to watch. The nonmusical dancer is the dancers without a connection to the music. If you put a musical dancer and a nonmusical dancer side by side and you’ll see why it’s so important to grasp the concepts of rhythm, melody, and mood of a song when you are dancing or performing.
