Did you know…
…there are at least 25 different elements involved in being a musical dancer?
Now, you probably don’t have the exact same level of skill and experience in each element of musicality.
For example, you might do a great job of showing the overall feeling of a song while not being very clear with your rhythms (or vice versa).
So if you truly want to be a badass musical dancer…
…you’ll want to improve in all 25 elements because the more ways you improve your musicality:
- the more musical you will be.
- the more others will love dancing with you.
- and the more you will love dancing!
Let’s dive into 22 of those elements and some easy ways to practice improving them. See the timestamps for each element below this video.
NOTE: One of my favorite elements is the ‘Instantly Reacting (not predicting)‘ shown at 23:00. It will show you one of the most awesome and underused methods of being musical.
09:08 Energy Changes
11:13 Example Energy Change with hand
12:48 Volume Changes
15:33 Volume vs Energy Changes – How they relate and differ
16:47 Overall Feel of Different Songs – Emotion, Description, Story
21:46 Overall Feel within the Same Song – How it changes
23:00 How To Instantly Predict Music – so you can dance musically to stuff you’ve never heard
25:05 Creating A Story – pick a basic, go outside of it & return, adjust it & return
29:40 Rhythm Timing
31:30 Benefits of focusing on one topic
32:57 Large Phrase Changes – A to B, chorus to solo, etc
36:56 Small or Subtle Phrase Changes – A to A, etc
38:19 Hitting the Horns, Pianos, & Other Surprises
39:09 Call & Response
40:56 Being Your Own Instrument
41:53 Straight (or Even) vs Swing (or Swung) Rhythms – when being your own instrument
43:51 Measure/Bar Repetition
44:42 Tension Builds & Drops – often the same as Measure/Bar Repetition
46:30 Choreography – Surprising Your Partner – or the crowd
48:17 Rhythm Texturing
50:04 Clarity of Rhythms
55:32 Contrasting Simple Versus Complex Rhythms
56:42 Contrast – in general
57:03 Breaking Down Specific Dances – how well do different dancers dance in these categories… Are there trends based on styles?
MUSICIANS: I apologize. Some of the words I use will not be the terms used from the standpoint of a musician. Instead, they are meant to speak directly to dancers who may not have a musical background and so I use the words they commonly use (whether correct or not in musician terminology). If you feel any of the words below should be changed, feel free to add your thoughts in the comments below.
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What elements of musicality would you add to this list? Reply in the comments below.
