It is always exciting to see when a young dancer has obvious musicality; sometimes they may have no technique but great musicality. The good news is that technique can be taught and if a dancer has wonderful musicality they have the potential to become a great dancer and artist. It is almost impossible to teach musicality but it can certainly be developing from an early age.
From the Mom and Me classes that we offer for mothers and their children from eighteen months to three years old to your most advanced classes, musicality is something that constantly needs to be worked on and developed. Understanding how the different musical instruments make up any piece of music is helpful to students of all ages. For a dancer, being aware of the bass is extremely important as that is the rhythm that holds it all together and that we need to follow. Then, you have the melody line which very often has the syncopation and phrasing that colors the music. Music should never be just a means of keeping time for the dancer and each movement should be related to what is happening in the music. If students constantly dance to the same music they stop listening and consequently stop paying attention to the details.
Beginner dancers certainly need a very regular beat to dance to as anything that veers off the beaten path may just confuse them and make them forget what they are doing with the steps. However, it is important, even for beginners to recognize different rhythms so that they become accustomed to different styles. They need to be taught the difference between a ¾ and a 4/4 time signature. With younger dancers you can use tambourines or maracas to have them mark the rhythms. They also need to master speeding up the tempo of a slower music so that their brains will react quickly with the choreography.
For more advanced students get them to clap rhythms so you are sure that they are feeling it musically. Help them to understand syncopation and how it is used in everything from Ballet to Hip Hop to Tap. As their technique becomes more advanced they need to understand that if the music is fast they must stay with the rhythm without neglecting their technique. In fact, they need to focus even more clearly on their technique to hold it together despite the speed of the music. Accuracy should not be forfeited for the speed of the movement.
When setting an enchainment in Ballet or a Jazz combination for example, pay special attention to the phrasing that you want your dancers to use by the timing of your words and the inflection of your voice. I always tell my more advanced students that when I give them a combination of any sort I am expecting for them to listen carefully to the music and use the phrasing that they feel is appropriate. It is always interesting to watch young dancers find their way in the movement. Sometimes the end result is not as good as you would like it but it is the same with anything. If you never give the dancers the opportunity to use their own minds and brains and sensitivity they will always feel constrained and insecure about just doing what the music is telling them. It is really exciting when a more advanced dancer who has been dancing to the main beat suddenly takes off with the music and the expression and looks fabulous.
Another good way to help your dancers develop their musicality is to give them a piece of music and tell them to choreograph it and come back to you with a finished product. I tell my dancers that when I am working on choreography I keep the music in my car and wherever I go I listen to it over and over until I hear every little nuance and rhythm so that I feel that I am inside of the music and that I am part of it. This helps me tremendously when I start to put the actual steps together and it generally doesn’t take me very long because I know the music so well.
Another tool you can use is to give the dancers a piece of music and then ask them to make up a story using the music to lead them in the direction that they want to go in. Sometimes it is really interesting what they come up with!! It also helps us to remember what Dance is really all about and reminds us that the technique and vocabulary is just the vehicle to be used to express ourselves.
It is truly a joy to work with students who are musical and use their musicality in their work. Developing that musicality is not a once in a while proposition, it should be worked on and emphasized in every class.
