Child’s Play: A Lesson in Musicality
I found this video very enjoyable to watch, and I am so glad I watched it all the way through and didn’t miss the ending. To me, this is the perfect combination of seriousness and joy, virtuosity and innocence. The intensity in this young boy’s face mirrors the feelings about the dance I carry inside of me. When you love something, you engage in serious play until you collapse from joy.
On a more practical (but still playful) note, this video actually provides a great exercise for dancers. Homer and Cristina Ladas use an exercise in their classes called Tai Chi Tango, in which partners face each other with their palms touching and take turns leading the hands in movement and compressions to the rhythm, syncopations, and other effects in the music. What this video demonstrates – air conducting – is a similar way to open up creativity and musicality in dancers because it removes judgment of right or wrong moves and focuses instead on serious play that can unlock our ability to hear and interpret the music in bodily form. Who ever said practicing isn’t fun?
Thank you to Ms. Hedgehog for sharing this video!
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Cadencia: Surfing on the Waves of the Music
“If you have to ask, you will never know.”
- Louis Armstrong, when asked ‘what is jazz?’
Simba Tango prefaced her blog post on that mysterious, elusive concept called cadencia with the quote above. No one can give you your definition, but I find it truly enjoyable to consider how others define cadencia and reflect on how it resonates with my own experience.
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The Test of Sudden Silence: Dancing in the Now of the Music
Imagine a few scenarios that are not uncommon in the dance world: The instructor stops your practice session mid-song. The DJ’s equipment malfunctions, causing a sudden stop in the music. A song finishes at a place you weren’t expecting.
In each of these scenarios, how long does it take you to respond with your movement?
If the time lapse between the music stopping and you responding is so immediate that you can’t really quantify it, then you are connected to the music in a way that all dancers should aim for. If you are not in this category, it is definitely something you should think about. How can you connect with the music more so your body naturally stops its movement when the music is no longer breathing life into it?
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