Here’s an astonishing, informal, improvised piece of dance from Melissa Rutz

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk_17vLycV8

This is a couple of ex concert ballet dancers doing ballet in a Swing environment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hDtypBWJeUA

Delicous choreography

The dancer is taught different repeating rhythm structures, Samba, Salsa, Cha-Cha, Waltz, etc.

Then they are taught non-repeating rhythm structures, a good question is why does Lindy Hop look so different from the Quickstep, but the music is the asme.

What is syncopation, and how does the Swing dancer use it?

Then you move onto polyrhythm – why does the Argentine Tango look so very different from Ballroom Tango?

And so on. . . . .

Simple heartfelt musicality can be a pretty great thing to have. I have yet to get it myself, but enjoy seeing other dancers with it – and interested in seeing what ways there are to teach and learn it. I’m coming from a beginner salsa dancer position – Maybe in different dance fields musicality is taught in different ways/different ideas on it, and that others from different dance fields would have input on the wider discussion on teaching musicality effectively

I really believe that musicality can be taught, and similiarly to Nichelle’s theory I think there is a continuum of musicality–how far the dancer can move up on that continuum depends on how much experience and practice the dancer has, how the instructor teaches and how they utilize feedback, genetic predispostions, and the role of the environment (i.e. musical family members, exposure, extracurricular activities, etc.).

I love how deep this has gotten!

By the way, concerning ambidextrous-ness, I heard a story on public radio about a guitarist/song writer who developed dystonia and re-taught herself the guitar with her non-dominant hand!

Now try and do it with your non-dominant writing hand’s index finger.
Now put use bring both index fingers up in front of you, so there a couple of inches apart, concentrate on the dominant finger to spell.

Does one need to comprehend how to play a piano, to play Mozart? Or how to play a guitar, to play guitar?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r76MLCmAHOg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xd3E8zgqJM4

Do you need to have musicality to perform musicality?
Do you need to understand musicality, to enjoy musicality?

Maybe it’s in part how it’s taught? If a teacher has got a negative mindset of
“you won’t be able to do it”
“it’s too hard for mere beginners to pick up on their own”
“you’re just not good enough”
“You’re too old”
“You don’t have the genes for it”
“Well, you can’t do it now, so you obviously won’t be able to learn how”

then that’s going to pass to the students.
Who is to pass judgement on who might or might not be able to learn. To say who can pass through the elite gates of musicality, through divine posession of “the gift”? I think saying a prediction of level of musicality is one thing, but to say someone can’t learn at all is another.

(ok, i’m being slightly devil’s advocate/stirring the debate here!)

For me, a title like “Musicality in dance… can it be taught?” sounds a little like linkbait, as the simple answer is yes. You show one case of musicality being taught, and you disprove an argument that it can’t be taught (at all). Then you’re on to shades/standards of musicality.

Can cooking be taught? Can movement, e.g. walking be taught, learnt, re-learnt? Do I have to have the skill to make a full 5 course meal for 6 before I can cook? It’s a continuum, not a binary have/have not skill. Surely musicality is this too?

My feeling is that you could teach musicality much faster, to lots of people, if you got the teaching and interaction during teaching, and the practise improved.

Can you teach musical concepts like rhythm, tempo, phrasing and mood?
Yes, yes, yes and yes.
Can you teach interpretation of music, in progressive steps? Yes.

Maybe some will have a less developed palette of musicality – but there is in the area of dance i’m thinking of, a hell of a lot of benefit from simple musicality understanding, knowledge, and skill.

Is musicality being taught, or being taught well, or the best it could be?
Different discussion!

I think it’d be very interesting to get people involved in accelerated teaching/coaching, to look at the area.

Though I wrote “either naturally genetic or nurtured very early,” I want to acknowledge this poor word choice because I do actually feel that those who display an innate musicality have more accurately a combination of genetic predisposition and early fostering. As Tom mentioned, it seems possible to me that for some, their “musical gene” may lie relatively dormant or unused. For others, intense nurturing many never totally make up for a lack of musical inheritance.

In my experience and honestly, relying upon my gut feeling about musicality, most of us sit along the scale with influences of both nature and nurture. That’s why (as in my earlier post) I consider the methods I employ in dance classes to be building awareness rather than teaching musicality. Perhaps the difference is only semantic, however all students (no matter where they are musically) can benefit from increased opportunity to focus on and build an awareness of music as it relates to dance. Also you never know what might be the “a-ha” or breakthrough for a particular student (whether we are talking music, or performance, or technique) so I’m also all for discovering and trying new ways to reach students.

Connected Movement: An Interview with Alex Krebs

Alex Krebs – an Argentine tango instructor with an emphasis on musicality. Seems like he learnt some of that…

Some musicality can be taught to anyone. For some, it’ll be harder going learning more, as they’re behind on the learning, understanding, practise that others have had. In the end, for some, it’s too much time to get depp into it. Others, with more practise at an earlier age, can relish in getting their musicality better.

Another interesting angle is Dr Dance’s take – that many do have some musicality, but that it is not known about, repressed/weak – but there for many.

I think musicality, like so many things, can be placed somewhere along a continuum, with those who really struggle hearing the music on one end, and those for whom it comes very naturally on the other (and the rest of us somewhere between those extremes). My students are currently preparing for the ABT/NTC Affiliate exams, where they will be evaluated on (among other things)–you guessed it–musicality. Some of my kids have improved over the course of this academic year, as we have worked on clapping on the downbeat of 2/4, 3/4, and 4/4 time signatures. I have also noted some improvement at times when I merely suggest that they LISTEN–it always surprises me that this comes as an epiphany to some children: the music is not background noise, but is inextricably bound up with the dance.

The question of whether or how much musicality can be taught is interesting. I currently have two enrollees–sisters–who are hands-down the most musical children in the school; their father happens to be a virtuoso trumpeter and the director of our local jazz orchestra. The children are accomplished at the piano, and the vocabulary of music is simple and natural for them. (Of course, this makes them very easy to teach.) Did they inherit a musical gene? Were they conditioned to be more musical than average in utero? Did they just pick it up from total immersion in it at home? I don’t know. But I do know that they unequivocally hear the phrases and dance with them, where some of their classmates seemingly cannot, or at least cannot with anything approaching the same degree of finesse.

For fun, go here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vhs2D7JKNdM

This is a clip of one of the most musical dancers ever (in my humble opinion), Nikolaj Hubbe, dancing a pas de deux with the amazing Wendy Whelan.

Another provocative post, Nichelle!

Deb Young

Your point about your son goes back to the most widely debated question in philosophy, psychology, biology, etc, etc, etc…..Some people believe that experiences in utero are still influenced by the mother, and therefore fall under the “nurture” category. Since we aren’t genetic researchers, it’s really hard to determine the true role of nature. There is some evidence though that genes can play a role in artistic and creative ability (see Bachner-Melman et. al, 2005)

In my opinion, any one can learn anything with a good teacher and enough practice. People with “music genes” might be more predisposed to learning musicality more easily or more quickly, but even qualitative things like musicality are just a matter of forming a particular loop in the brain through practice. By saying that it’s impossible to learn musicality, are we also saying that it’s impossible to learn how to find breath in your movement, connection with the audience, or any other qualitative aspect of dance? For me, those things are easy and pirouettes are impossible–but I believe with the right teacher and enough practice I could get better at them. Another point I’d like to make is that learning music makes you better at learning music. You see improvement exponentially once you have some degree of musical “intelligence”. So if we as teachers disregard the students who aren’t as musically inclined because we think it’s impossible, then I guess it probably is. I might recommend to that student that they take up an instrument or music appreciation class and then once they have a foundation make strides to teach them musicality. (Sorry, Catherine, but I have to disagree with you on this one!!!)

Interesting post!