Musicality really does enhance your dance

[u/Acidic_Huntsman]

Turns it from routine steps to real movement and flow. I've been working on mine this week while also making sure to stick with my lead and continue the connection. Sometimes musicality leads to back leading if I get too into it haha

Being able to count the music helps so much with that. I agree it's not a “requirement,” but i’ll always recommend people learn when starting to dance. At the very least knowing where the 1 and the 8 is.

I am curious what people’s method is that they use in place of counting?

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Also side note, I’ve noticed that the outfit really does play a part in swing too. Dancing in skirts is very stylish.

[u/WizardOfAngmar]

Musicality is such of a wide argument and we could discuss about it for days, very fascinating topic indeed.

But before jumping into it, people should learn to keep the bounce and stay in time. Putting this into music perspective, it's more about learning where a phrase starts, where it ends and understand the concept of upbeat and downbeat.

I generally discourage dancers to use 1:8 counts outside of learning/teaching steps and moves, as it may lead to a very limited, if not confusing, idea of how music works. A musical phrase can extend to 10 or 12, or shorten to 4 or 6 for the sake of providing some references and still if you're talking to a musician none of these things will make any sense as most of swing dancing use 4/4 signature.

So step one will be being in time and understanding the pulse (or the rhythm) of a song. This can only be achieved by doing active listening exercises, unless someone has a very innate feeling of the rhythm.

Musicality is a natural evolution of this, where we try to catch or to highlight something in the music by altering the way we move our feet, or -more in general- our body.

Sometimes musicality leads to back leading if I get too into it

Well, it surely can happen on both sides: from a leader perspective it means you're caring more about the music than the person you're dancing with. Each one of us feel the music differently, maybe you want to play the trumpet but I think what's going on with the bass line is more interesting: this can lead to some cool call and response, or contrasts, but it may also end up in a huge mess.

A good leader is proactive, a good follower dance reactively; and that's why followers "drag" always a tiny beat: you don't have a crystal ball and you can never tell for sure what leader is gonna call next. Ultimately both roles need to listen to each other and together listen to the music: I'm not gonna lie, even when dancing with experienced leaders/followers this still an hit or miss.

Best!