Musicality

True or false: Only musicians know how to count and understand music. That is false! Dancers have just as much musicality as musicians, and today is the day you learn all about that, DOA readers!

As most of you probably know, music is typically counted in 4s. If you listen to almost any song and start counting to 4 when the song begins, you will find that there is a constant rhythm in the song, right? Dancers like to use this constant rhythm in the melody to choreograph their routines. This helps them to find which moves work in the dance, how they should be done, and on which counts of the song to perform them. Most of the time, however, dancers count in 8s instead of 4s. This gives dancers more time to execute moves, since moving your body takes more time than playing or singing a note. Because 8 is just 4 twice, dancers can find the rhythm easily in the song, just like musicians do when they are playing a song.

When I was six years old, I started taking piano lessons. I was also dancing at the time, so music wasn't all that new to me. Now that I am older, counting music, whether I am playing it or dancing to it, has come naturally. I guess you could say that playing the piano has helped my musicality in dance!

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