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By Michael Remson, author of Music Education for Dancers Online Course
In my last post, we explored a few musical concepts that could be incorporated into the beginning dance curriculum for students ages 4-7. By discussing musical instruments and, as appropriate, changes in dynamics (or volume) in music and how that might shape physical presence, dance teachers can start the process of creating a consistent musical vocabulary and an aligned musical dialogue that all teachers can share (Note that this vocabulary should be shared by all teachers for consistency).
As students learn some initial concepts, you might begin to add the concept of pulse and meter. This can be a tricky topic — dance teachers and choreographers like to count everything in eight. But I would ask you to consider that it’s OK to count our movements in eight but that students need to understand that all music is not counted in eight. I’ve observed countless studio classes where students become confused with a given combination because the count of the movements and the actual pulse of the music either aren’t aligned or fully explained. I’ve also watched teachers demonstrate a combination and then just play the music, without giving students ample time to connect the two. How might we begin to understand the differences between these two vitally important concepts and build alignment and understanding around pulse/meter and choreography?
In beginning classes, as a series of steps is demonstrated, the teacher might play the music and then either demonstrate or ask students to show the pulse. By pulse, I mean the underlying beat of the musical material. Then show how the steps or combination (or count of 8) matches up to the pulse. Some combinations have the same number of pulses between counts but some don’t. This can send an inconsistent message to young dance students about how to understand and interact with music and how rhythm and meter work. If we show students how to feel the pulse, and ultimately how to count music using a meter, then the combinations and steps can be overlaid in a way that ensures students have more rhythmic confidence. In my advanced classes, once I explain how to count the music, students rarely miss an entrance. This is because they have been empowered with the tools to understand the music and align their movements with that understanding.
In a beginner class, simply demonstrating the pulse with younger students can begin the process of building greater rhythmic awareness. Taking 10-15 extra seconds with beginner students to demonstrate the pulse and have students clap along or do some simple movement to the pulse begins the process of aligning physicality and rhythm. As students demonstrate the ability to find the pulse on their own, you might begin to demonstrate where the strong pulse is, e.g., that recurring strong downbeat that helps us to hear pulses in groups. This begins the process of introducing meters to students. (For those more musically advanced readers, we won’t even think about simple or compound meters at this time, just strong and weak pulses.) Then as teachers, you might ask students to begin a step or combination on a strong pulse or “the next strong pulse” and give young students the tools to identify, hear and count rhythms for themselves while you add the eight-counts of combinations and steps.
Along with the practices mentioned in Part One of these posts, these three items can take no more than 3-5 minutes out of every class but should yield immense rewards as young dancers develop early skills.
Learn more about incorporating music into dance programs with Music Education for Dancers Online Course by Michael Remson.
