Musicality Mark A. Sheldon and Didi von Deck

1. Good musicality is thwarted by technical shortcomings. For example, a couple out of balance simply cannot control their timing. It is pointless, and may increase the couple's frustration, to discuss subtle uses of timing in this context. And there are almost always technical problems to fix!
2. Except at a very high level, musicality is not particularly rewarded with competitive success, partly because technical problems make it hard to pay attention to a couple's musical interpretation and partly because one cannot evaluate musicality in the 2–4 seconds a judge has to evaluate a couple.
3. As with most presentation issues, musicality is often seen as individual and not something to be dictated by a third party (though a coach's job should include pointing out where a couple is failing to achieve their desired effect).

One guiding principle of teaching, therefore, is to free the couple from the unattractive distortions, the unbalanced positions, the dynamic blocks, etc. that prevent them from expressing the music in their own way.

That said, it is possible to include musicality in our training quite early on, and it is very difficult to add it in later. So, we shall work on it today.

Awareness

The very first step in dancing musically is to listen. Listen to the music, but while you are enjoying the songs, you must learn to listen with awareness. Notice the musical highlights, repeated rhythmic and melodic patterns, building and receding energy. Notice how each dance, indeed each song, has its own character: The lilting ebb and flow of waltz, the longer feel to a foxtrot's pulse, the relentless drive of tango, the boundless joy of quickstep, the swinging and swirling freedom of Viennese waltz, the romantic yearning of a particular song, etc., etc.

You can often tell when a big highlight or pause is coming in music, even if you haven't heard the song before. How? Popular music has typical patterns that you learn to anticipate, and the structure of the music has an internal logic that you have learned.

First, you must know the rhythmic bases of the music our dances are based on: waltz is in 3/4 time, Viennese waltz is in 3/4 or 6/8, foxtrot and quickstep are in 4/4, and tango is in 2/4 or 4/4. What does this mean? The first number is the number of beats in a measure, which is a fundamental unit of musical structure. A 2 means that the music is structured in 2-beat units, a 3 means 3-beat units, etc. A measure is sometimes called a bar (because the measures are separated by vertical bars in musical notation). The second number is a notational reference we don't need to be too concerned with today (a 4 means a quarter note represents one beat, and 8 means the eighth note represents on beat).

There is internal structure to the musical measure: In foxtrot, quickstep, and tango, beats come in pairs with a greater emphasis on the first beat. In 4/4 time, the first down beat gets greater emphasis than the second (on beat 3). (This distinguishes quickstep and foxtrot from swing/rock and roll/jive which are in 4/4 time with downbeats on 2 and 4 of each bar.) Waltz has a down beat on the 1st of each 3 beats.

Bars come in pairs, the second completing an idea that started in the first. That is why we often count 1-2-3-4-5-6 and 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8. Listen for this call/response pattern in the music.

Pairs of bars come in pairs (4-bar sequences). Then there is the typical 8 bar phrase which dominates most popular music. Just count out your favorite songs, which are almost all in 4/4 time, and look for the 8-bar phrase: Count 1234 2234 3234, etc. Viennese waltz has a very strong structure in which a separate melody is developed over 16 bars. Doing your contracheck at a 16-bar change can be quite effective.

While each bar of music should ultimately be given its own weight, this can be a bit overwhelming at first. So begin by being aware of the 2-bar phrasing of the music as you dance. Then, after 6 months or so, add awareness of the transition between 8 bar phrases. Eventually, you'll more fully appreciate the music, and your dancing will bring you greater joy.

Putting the music into your body

Awareness is not enough. As you've seen in other areas, doing what you feel is right will not necessarily transmit what you want to the audience. You must learn to feel the music in ways that will produce the desired effect, and part of learning this involves evaluating your success on video tape or by seeking the opinion of a trusted observer (e.g., a coach). Many students early on use outlandish facial expressions and overlarge, flailing gestures as proxies for musical expression. These are, of course, fakes.

Step 1: Sing.

Step 2: Incorporate music into your awareness. While doing conditioning exercises (abdominal exercises, foot exercises, posture, running, walking in hold), put on music. You can smile to try to separate your facial response from physical exertion, and you can also incorporate the phrasing into your exercise. (E.g., Up on 1234, down on 5678.)

Step 3: Breath. Using your breath, coordinating it with the music's rhythms, helps bring an awareness to your entire body. We can use the breath in a couple of different ways in our training: to accentuate acceleration and release and to soften actions that are harsh. We'll start with the first. Exhale into the downbeat while listening to music. While exercising, exhalations correspond to points of strongest exertions normally, and you can use this. In fact, because every swing (or weight transfer in tango) requires two abdominal contractions, practicing breathing during abdominal exercise can be very powerful.

Caution: Exhaling makes the body relax all over. We want to use this natural reaction in some body parts, but not in others. See below.

Step 4: Do this exercise without and then with a partner: Keeping beautiful posture and poise, practice relaxing your legs to lower into the initial down beat of every bar. Exhale to help the lower body relax. Be careful not to allow the upper part of the body to relax. We want to keep a long, toned, poised upper body while we relax the legs (and tone the ankles). This will be difficult to master, but feel that the upper body resists lowering while the lower body relaxes into the lowering action. Do that for a while and to music for each dance. Then try to modulate the rapid lowering according to the strength of each part of the 2-bar mini-phrase (again in each dance). Repeat while swinging from one foot to the other once per bar for each swing dance. Then repeat the weight transfers without swing (for tango). (Let's stop with 2-bar phrasing for right now.)

You will be surprised how much of the character of the dance you can capture this way!

Step 5: Use the lowering (compression in the case of tango) you just practiced while you dance. Sing (either the song or the counts) as you dance to coordinate the action with the sound. The beauty of this approach is that your dancing will look musical even when you are not dancing pre-arranged choreography.

We said above that you should leave the ankles toned as you let the body weight respond to gravity. Softness comes from relaxation in the knees and hips with tone in the ankles and upper body. The faster you are moving, the more tone you will need in your ankles. A light, springy action, something we would want in quickstep, is acheived by toning the ankles and using your feet to push out of the floor.

Step 6 [optional in the syllabus]: Phrase your choreography. You may want to work with your coach on this. The idea is that you will always look better doing things you've rehearsed, so make up groups that you can polish and that will fit with most music, i.e, plan on 8-bar phrases and choreograph 4 and 8 bar units in your routines.

Many couples start with this last step, which is a mistake because you need to be musical even while you alter choreography to fit on the floor with other couples and because some popular songs will vary the phrasing. It also leads to odd ideas that 123 of a natural turn must be on a strong bar, or coming out in promenade must be on a strong bar. This is not a bad way to start, but there are so many more possibilities. If you are trained to swing in response to the ebb and flow of the music that is playing, then dynamic changes won't hurt you nearly as much and you'll look and feel better in your dancing.

Light and shade is a simple matter of mathematics. For example, if you have a two-bar phrase in waltz (123 456), you can slow down some steps in order to speed up others to make your dancing even more musical and interesting to watch.

Characterization of the dances

If you use the techniques and knowledge above and dance the correct technique, you will get a distinct characterization of each dance and express the unique phrasing of each song. Nonetheless, there are some additional constraints to be aware of, especially as you leave the syllabus and begin to design your own choreography.

The lilting waltz music places a greater premium on the appearance of rise and fall and on more rotary amalgamations. The rise and fall of waltz is like a sine wave. Many students over-emphasize rise and fall however, and we normally recommend that students try not to go high in waltz (or any dance). The appearance of rise and fall comes from elevation that results from closing one's feet and on the continued trajectory of the swing in the body (that produces sway). Distinguishing foot rise from altitude gain is very important, and staying down in the body will allow greater use of the middle and lower body. Rotation is, however, very important. While there may be relatively linear combinations in waltz, they produce a kind of tension that is resolved by a return to, say, a natural turn.

Foxtrot has a more linear feel that is reflected in the syllabus figures and should be reflected in advanced choreography as well. Reverse the rule of waltz: rotating combinations should resolve to a linear action (like a feather step). Because the feet pass, the dance appears more flat in rise and fall as well, a damped sinusoid if you like.

Quickstep is a cross between waltz and foxtrot at the syllabus level. It is joyful and full of boundless energy. Generally, we don't want to get a lot of elevation, especially in the syllabus figures, but even in the hopping and skipping actions that characterize open quickstep choreography.

Viennese waltz is visually a swirling turning dance, but in feel it is pure linear swing (except for the fleckerls). The insistent swing of each forward going partner down the LOD gives it its classical character.

The characterization of tango is very different from that of the swing dances. First, the tango technique was developed with 2/4 tango music in mind, so be very aware of the insistent drive this implies. Second, (to paraphrase the incomparable Vicky Barr), the speed and power of tango come not through exertion or swing, but through the accuracy, in time and space, of foot placement and weight transfer: Tango is all about the feet. Attempts to muscle one's partner are not only cruel, but ugly and counterproductive.