Understanding Music Timing

Understanding music time signatures and rhythms, is important for dancers.  Part of dance is just learning and accomplishing the movements of the dance; but a more important part is executing those movements to the music.

But if you're having trouble understanding how music is structured, and how to find the beats, the rhythms and the phrasing, it can be tricky to put the movements and the music together.  Natalie Orr gives a really nice dancer's explanation of how to understand music and move with the beats and rhythms, in ballet class.

Your ultimate goal in ballet is to physically "become" the music.  You're not just moving around in space, while music happens to be playing at the same time.  In ballet, the dancer becomes a visual manifestation of the music.  Think of it as turning sound it into something that the audience can see.

When you're really "in tune" with the music, it can start to feel like the music is coming out of you, as you move.  This is part of what makes dance, in general, so enjoyable and much more fulfilling than just doing mindless, repetitive exercises.