Musicality: How To Count Music
As the great American choreographer and founder of the New York City Ballet, George Balanchine said, “Dance is music made visible.” Learning how to embody musicality is a skill that can take time to develop. Many aspiring dancers first come to dance without knowing how to count music. Like anything, learning a new skill takes both time and practice! Let’s take a quick look at some various definitions of musicality and what makes it so essential to dance.
What is musicality?
So what is musicality? Some describe it as the way in which a dancer expresses music through their bodies and their movements. Others have described musicality as the dancer’s ability to become one with the music. In short, dance musicality can be defined by how dancers hear, interpret, and move to music. Movement and music go hand in hand to embody what can often be described as the perfect pairing. Regardless of what first comes to mind when thinking of the concept of musicality, it plays an essential role in the dance world, especially ballet.
How does musicality relate to ballet?
In regards to ballet, musicality plays an essential role. It creates an aesthetic that makes ballet beautiful and captivating to watch. The concept of ‘becoming one with the music’ is something very often thought of in relation to ballet. When you watch professional dancers perform in the famous classical ballets, there is no talking to communicate what is going on. Instead, there is only the dancing and the music. The ways in which the dancers both interpret the music and portray the emotions in their bodies is what carries the story the ballet is trying to tell. This consequently makes musicality a very important player in storytelling.
Musicality and counting music
In addition to learning and embracing the emotional aspect of music, the ability to move in time to the music’s rhythm is a skill all dancers should learn. Musicality should also be understood as the ability to observe a specific count in the music, pairing it with specific steps and movements. The combinations we do both at barre and in center are typically done to music, and rely on specific counts and tempos to execute the dance steps to. For example, knowing on what count a specific step happens in a combination can help the dancer move in the correct timing with the music.
How do you count music?
One question we get asked quite frequently, is how do you even count the music? If you're new to ballet, or even music, keeping track of the music can be quite challenging. Join one of our lovely instructors, Kristen, as she breaks this tricky concept down while helping you learn the basics!
Let’s dance!
Learning how to move to music is a skill like anything that takes time to perfect. The more you dance and take class, the more comfortable you will feel with counting music!