#Musicianship vs musicality how to

It seems we have a lot of mathematicians counting to eight and although they hear music they do not listen to what it is telling them.”Ī recent online discussion of the brilliance of Fred Astaire brought to light how he was so musical that he made simple things like walking musical events. I wish more of our Ballroom and Latin couples would do the same. They became an integral part of the orchestra. What they achieved was like hearing a good speaker with beautiful voice intonation. He says: “I have just enjoyed the Nicholas Brothers tap routine, I am even more interested to hear they only phrased from the musical accents and the punctuation. I love how the great Anthony Hurley expresses the problem with musicality in today’s dance world, where the focus is too much on sport and rapid movement rather than the finesse of artistic expression. Musicality is layered on top to create the sophisticated development that makes dance more beautiful. Luke Martin puts it this way: “Musicality, to me, is dancing with the music rather then dancing to the music.” This is a significant difference and what I believe illustrates the sophistication of musical expression. Do you dance to the lyrics or to the instruments? Dancers can choose, and a sophisticated dancer may even choose to use these in different ways at different times within the dance. Some songs have vocals that use phrasing that is not the same as that used by the instruments, creating a unique challenge for dance. You can even choose specific instruments. That is very different from simply having rhythm.Ī sophisticated dancer can hear the different patterns of music within the piece and choose to accentuate one part or another at any point. When one is expressing musicality through dance, others should be able to feel the music even in a silent room. The great ballroom champion Massimo Giorgianni says that you can show musicality without any music playing. In this, I agree with Peter Mueller who says, “If somebody has got a good rhythm in dancing it doesn´t mean he has good musicality. The one is the foundation that the other builds upon. Now, you can’t have musicality without rhythm. Musicality, on the other hand, is sophisticated. I don’t believe you can teach rhythm it is something you have or you don’t. Rhythm doesn’t require sophistication or understanding. It’s feeling or hearing where the beats are and having an innate ability to move your body in response to those beats. This is rhythm and it’s quite straightforward. You may have seen the popular video clip of the dog responding to a musical beat. Pamela McGill says, “Rhythm must surely start with the beat of the music, the accents that are being heard, then the body responds to that beat whatever it is.”Ĭhildren can have rhythm. Famed choreographer Valerie Preston-Dunlop described it as something that “emerges by the way movements are put together so that they grow out of each other.” Walter Laird, who is often thought of as the founder of modern Latin dancing, said “Rhythm is a regular occurrence of accented beats in a bar of music,” a simple explanation that speaks only to the music itself rather than the dance technique used. I don’t believe you can have musicality if you don’t have rhythm, because you must be able to hear the music before you can respond to it, and rhythm is the foundation of response to music. When we see it we recognize it and everybody tends to agree it is there. It is somewhat subjective in the sense that we donʼt all agree on what it is and whether it is there when only some qualities in this area are present, but it seems very objective when musicality in the dancing is very good.

Jesper Fredricksen, who is in the process of writing a book on musicality, defines it as “a quality describing the dance performance, not the dancer and not the choreography.” He says that musicality in dancing is very abstract for most people. Here’s some insight from what others have said around the world. It seems that most are in agreement that rhythm and musicality are different, but there are big variations in how the two are defined. I was looking at several articles on this subject, including comments by some of the world’s best dance coaches and top champions.

#Musicianship vs musicality how to

We often refer to people, even people who don’t know how to dance, as “having rhythm.” But in ballroom dancing teachers are always talking about “musicality.” What’s the difference, or are they the same thing?