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May The Fourth Be With You

Sapphire Ballroom News - May 2021

May The FourthI was once asked to name something interesting that I like about the people I work with. I said, we are all nerds in some way. We have science nerds, computer nerds, and (of course) music nerds. We have Star Wars nerds, Doctor Who nerds, SciFi nerds, Urban Fantasy nerds, and several MCU nerds. We all have things we're really into, in addition to dancing. In your next lesson, ask your instructor about what they're into and share your interest in return - it is after all social dancing.

This month, in honor of May the Fourth, we are embracing the nerdy side of dance with a wonderfully nerdy playlist and an article that really gets into the science of musicality. Think that musicality is art not science? You might be right, but read on anyway - I promise you will get something out of knowing the nerdy details.

In this issue...

- Highlights and Headlines

- Use the Force, or the power of measured musicality

- Forever Nerds Playlist

- Upcoming Dance Classes and Events, online and in-person

Lyric Quote of the Month:

Because I’m all about that base, ‘bout that base
No Rebels.
Because I’m all about that base, ‘bout that base
No Rebels.
Because I’m all about that base, ‘bout that base
No Rebels....

     -    "All About That Base " by the folks at Nerdist
(Star Wars Parody - Meghan Trainor's All About That Bass)
 

Highlights and Headlines

party

Parent-Child Line Dance Party on Saturday, May 8 at 2:30pm.
There is still space in our first ever Parent-Child Line Dance Party. This dance party is intended to be a fun-filled change for you to spend an afternoon with your child, parent or grandparent learning a few classic party dances (like Cha Cha Slide) as well as a few fun line dances to favorite dance music. Join online for only $6 for your whole gang or come in person for $12/adult &$6/child under 18. Dads and adult-aged children are welcome. Register by Friday, May 7 to reserve your space.
More details at http://sapphiredance.com/GroupLessons.php#186

Small What's Next Workshops

Waltz featured on Mondays at 8:00pm this month.
Experienced dancers are welcome to waltz in and join us.
Details available at http://www.sapphiredance.com/GroupLessons.php?d=3

COVID restrictions

Masks and 10ft distancing with those outside your bubble are still required in the studio. Keep in mind these guidelines are to keep our entire community safe and our studio open no matter what the evil virus does in the next months. So, even if you’ve had your vaccine, we need you to keep on with the COVID stuff.

 

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Use the Force, or the power of measured musicality

Talking about it to a few people recently made me realize that "musicality" is not a commonly defined term and that maybe you would like to know what it is and why you should care. This turned out to be a huge undertaking. After writing way too much, I have decided to split the topic up into several smaller pieces.

Umbrella definitionFirst, an umbrella definition of musicality. In my mind, musicality (in dance) is the result of dancers using steps, motions, and changes to their rhythms to reflect the unique character of the particular song they are dancing to. In buzz-words, it's their connection to the music. You're not dancing to a metronome, right?

You can split musicality into two types: structural and aesthetic. Structural musicality involves accenting the appropriate beat within the measure and reflecting the beginnings/endings of phrases. Aesthetic musicality is the act of accenting changes in the melody, frequently the vocals, and other more artistic parts of a song, things like breaks, highlights, and long notes. All these things absolutely can overlap, and it can be pretty awesome when they do. Today, we are going to talk about structural musicality - a super-tool for leaders and followers alike.

Measures or bars and accenting the appropriate beat(s)

Music is made of measures, also called bars: think of them as words in an essay. The typical piece of music, especially dance music which tends towards predictability, defines how long its measure is right at the beginning and sticks with that length for the entire song. The majority of dance music has 2, 3, 4, or 6 beats per measure.

Waltzes, for example, have 3 beats per measure, where the first beat is the strongest and so your first step should be the biggest and most dramatic (usually, there are always exceptions). Over the course of my dancing life, I've seen many people dance waltz using a chasse step (step-close-step), which naturally puts a pop on the middle beat (when you bring your feet together) or a settling on the last beat. Both of which are out of sync with the music, and really set my teeth on edge. I'm not saying you can't chasse in Waltz, but you can't really use it as your 1-2-3 without a lot of work to change the natural motion of the chasse. Listen to this song for a clear example of a hefty 1 in a Waltz: https://youtu.be/HWE5Mo0ik2I

Umbrella definitionLatin music typically has 4-beat measures where, like waltz, the first beat is the strongest. Sometimes it's the third beat. Sometimes the first and third are duking it out for who's strongest, giving us dance nerds something to argue about: should Rumba start with quicks or slows?!? One nice thing about Latin dances, is that they almost all have a 4 beat structure, making it easy to fit the dance to the music. Getting musicality in your Latin dances is frequently a matter of getting to, holding, and milking slows. Here's an example of a non-Latin song with a Latin-style emphasis: https://youtu.be/aJOTlE1K90k. And a great Cha Cha that illustrates the highlighted 1 nice and clear: https://youtu.be/gcIOVt4J8po

2 & 4 rule the swingSwing music also has 4 beats per measure in spite of having a 6 beat basic. Unlike Waltz and most Latins, Swing emphasizes the second beat. So, you should hear 1 -2- 3 -4- when listening to a swing song, giving you two 2-beat pairs, each with a light beat and a heavy beat. To reflect that in your dancing, you want to accent the second beat in triple steps and delay slows in single time swing. This is why little-little-big is a thing and you can get away with little-little-little or big-big-big, but if you do a big-little-little you're doing more of a polka than a swing. Here's some swing music with a clear emphasis on the 2s: https://youtu.be/Wh__udyczFM

I could go on and describe the measure structure of every dance style I know: Tango, Nightclub 2-Step, Fox Trot, etc, but let me say this instead - they all have unique characteristics and they are sometimes subjective. Some music makes use of multiple structures making it possible to dance multiple styles to that track. You and I could be standing together in the same room and listening to the same song and disagree Vase faceabout which beats are strongest because I'm listening to the base line and you're listening to the drums. I actually love watching people doing a good job of dancing a style that I didn't think of to a song that I thought I had pegged. It feels like that moment when you start seeing faces instead of the vase.

Why does it matter?

If you are accenting the wrong beat, you will consistently look and feel off beat, even if you're actually dancing at the correct speed. You will probably try to dance faster than you need to in order to fix that wrong feeling, which makes the dance more work. Or you might shuffle a step or two, messing up your weight changes which in turn will mess up other things. Instead of helping you, the music will end up feeling like it is working against you.

I got a bunch of my early partner dance experience at a country dance place called the Round Up, just outside of Harrisonburg, Va. The partner dances there were limited to Swings (East and West Coast), Cha Cha, Waltzes, and Two-Steps. At the start, I couldn't tell the difference between a Cha Cha and a Swing or a Two-Step and a Swing. In fact, I probably thought that everything that was not a Waltz was a Swing, because Swing was what I knew how to do. It took months for me to realize some of those songs were harder to swing to than others. Once I did, dancing got so much easier.

Finally, most of the patterns and moves in these dances are based on their particular structure. Although it may be hard to get the techniques at first, many more advanced moves really depend on them for success. If you don't learn this type of musicality at some point, your dancing will eventually get stuck. Do you need to master it right now? No, you really don't, but you would really benefit from starting to work on it along with your other goals.

Reflecting the beginnings/endings of phrases

Phrases, verses, and choruses are groups of measures that go together - think of them as sentences or paragraphs. They can be various lengths within a single song, which can seriously make your eyes cross if you get too hung up on analyzing them. But a couple of structures are common and ready for you to use as a starting point.

MeasuresOne very common grouping is of two measure pairs. This is why you can (and maybe should) count to 8 in a lot of songs that have a 4 beat measure. It's why we almost always count to 8 in Salsa, why Line Dances are written in 8 beat units. And it's why you can hear the difference between a 1 and a 4 in some waltzes even though both 1 and 4 represent the starting beat of the Waltz measure. Measures come in pairs. If you can hear the difference between the first and the second measures, and your partner starts you half way through the pair, it can seriously drive you crazy. This is why dancers count in 5-6-7-8 instead of 1-2-3-4.

Another common group is 8 or 12 measures long. Most songs use this structure for their verses and choruses. If you can figure out the length of the verse, you'll hear the same build within that phrase several times over during the course of the song, making the end of the phrase predictable without having to count all 8 or 12 measures. You'll get to hear a lot more about this structure in part 2 of this musicality conversation, coming in June's newsletter.

Why does it matter?

DipThere is a very real feeling of closure in music as it comes to the end of a phrase - a build up, climax, and resolution. And an upswing build at the beginning. It's the uppercase letter at the beginning of a sentence or the indentation at the beginning of a paragraph. You can totally ignore these feelings and keep right on dancing through the transitions, but it looks and feels fantastic to bring your pattern to completion at the same time the music brings its phrase to an end. If you can't do that (most of us don't plan that far ahead), just acknowledging the milestone you passed with a bit of extra energy will make you more in tune with the music.

Finally - who doesn't like to add a bit of flair to the end of a dance? If you can train yourself to hear the coming end of a phrase, you will also be able to hear the end of the song coming in time to set up that signature dip or perfect picture line.

Can you ignore it and dance right through those transitions? Yes, absolutely, we all do it some of the time. In fact, it's way better than stopping completely. But, the more you think about them, and understand the significance, the better you will be at using the phrases to get what you want out of your dance.

Why should followers care about any of this?

Hmm. I'm going to stick to the nice way of answering this. When you are in a couple, you are quite literally in a partnership. It is almost ridiculously hard for a leader to implement any of these techniques if the follower is not on board and pulling their own weight. Not only that, but you can help make your leader aware of phrases, measures, and other spots that deserve emphasis on a visceral level.

followerThe biggest complaint I hear from people learning to follow is that it's hard to give up control - this is one place where you can have input in the outcome of the dance. Take a look at this video of Nino and Dawn (from May I Have This Dance) dancing a 3-Count Hustle and try to guess how many of those moments where Dawn held the shape a little bit longer than necessary were created by her seizing the opportunity. That doesn't happen with a follower who's just along for the ride.

In next month’s newsletter, I’m going to go into more depth on the showier side of musicality where the dancers hit breaks, accent swoops, and highlight trills in the melody. It’s super exciting and not easy to do. If you want more information about any of these concepts, ask your teacher or contact us on Facebook (Facebook.com/SapphireBallroom/). Some things are really better in person, though. So, if it’s confusing, think about signing up for some lessons: we'll make it make sense.

If you have anything to add to this, I would love to hear it! Email me your thoughts or comment on our facebook page - let's have a dialog. :) But keep in mind, part 2 is coming out next month: half the story is still coming!

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Forever Nerds Playlist

This playlist was challenging in a way I didn’t expect. On one hand the parody channels ASAP Science and A Capella Science both have too many great options to choose from! The same goes for the They Might Be Giants channel, which doesn’t have parody but instead features bunches of science oriented songs. On the other hand, when I tried to find the video game songs and TV show themes I like to dance to, I realized most of them are (1) Viennese Waltzes and (2) turn wonky somewhere in the middle. So, I want you to know that there are tons more nerd-tastic songs out there that are fun to dance to! I tried to gather a good variety of styles, speeds, and minimize the wonkiness (yes, that’s a technical term).

To see the full Playlist (there's more!), visit us on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGEmFFdzKkkZ9CMsrCv8zx3DaaXaAVbsS

See all of our YouTube Playlists at https://www.youtube.com/user/SapphireBallroom/playlists
These playlists are always changing, so come back frequently. If you have a suggestion, I’d love to hear it! Send me a link at info@sapphiredance.com.

Entropic Time

Entropic Time (Backwards Billy Joel Parody) by A Capella Science

https://youtu.be/i6rVHr6OwjI
Dance Style: Single Time Swing

A Red Dwarf Star

A Red Dwarf Star is Born by ASAP Science

https://youtu.be/U5WvH_UylBU
Dance Style: Bolero

Word Crimes

Word Crimes By Weird Al Yankovic

https://youtu.be/8Gv0H-vPoDc
Dance Style: Cha Cha

Habanera

Habanera by the Muppets

https://youtu.be/jXKUb5A1auM
Dance Style: Tango

Merry Go Round

Merry Go Round of Life (Howl’s Moving Castle) covered by Grissini Project

https://youtu.be/J6qIzKxmW8Y
Dance Style: Viennese Waltz (at least mostly)

Weird Science

Weird Science by Oingo Boingo

https://youtu.be/W0dISPPNrqQ
Dance Style: Hustle

I See Fire

I See Fire by Ed Sheeran

https://youtu.be/_ub0Wm8UMko
Dance Style: West Coast Swing

Particle man

Particle Man by They Might Be Giants

https://youtu.be/vOLivyykLqk
Dance Style: East Coast Swing or polka

Hedwig's

Hedwig’s Theme by John Williams

https://youtu.be/wtHra9tFISY
Dance Style : Viennese Waltz

Today is Gonna Be a GReat Day

Today is Gonna Be A Great Day by Bowling for Soup

https://youtu.be/tz19bfsVlGs
Dance Style: Single Time Swing or Quickstep

Toss A Coin To Your Witcher

Toss a Coin to Your Witcher by Sonya Belousova, Giona Ostinelli, Joey Batey

https://youtu.be/waMkFIzvDpE
Dance Style: Nightclub 2-Step

Istanbul

Istanbul (Not Constantinople) by the Four Ladds

https://youtu.be/Uqnb_nU7RBE
Dance Style: Quickstep

Galaxy Song

The Galaxy Song by Monte Python

https://youtu.be/buqtdpuZxvk
Dance Style: Fox Trot

What You Feel

What You Feel by the cast of Buffy The Vampire Slayer

https://youtu.be/QMQpD8SYQfI
Dance Style: Fox Trot

Davy Jones

Davy Jones by Hans Zimmer

https://youtu.be/Tjp8cj8Vzyo
Dance Style: Waltz & Viennese Waltz

   

What songs do you think should have made this list? What would you like to see in next month’s playlist? Let us know - we’d love to hear from you on Facebook or by email.

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Calendar icon
Upcoming Dance Classes: online and in-person

Events are hosted by Sapphire Ballroom & Dance Center: online, at our studio in Christiansburg, or at the Blacksburg Community Center. Please check locations before traveling!

Taking online classes is affordable and easy, once you try it. You do not need a partner; you do not need a fancy space. You do not have to share your picture or video. Online events require a Zoom link (included below), but not a Zoom account.

All Group Lessons have a maximum of 12 people in-studio. To prevent being turned away from a full class, please register by or before noon the day of the class by emailing us at info@SapphireDance.com or contacting the Blacksburg Community Center (for Blacksburg classes).

All group events and lessons cost $6-$15/person/hour. Visit our Square Store to pay online for classes and private lessons.

More information available on our webpage or Facebook page.


party Parent-Child Line Dance Party
Dance with your Kid for Mother's Day!

     Saturday, May 8, 2:30 pm - 3:30 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.

 

 

Friday Beginner Workshops
    

Salsa and Waltz - Sassy and classic: great big attitude in an itty-bitty space
     Friday, May 7, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Waltz and Bachata - Two great dances for absolute beginners!
     Friday, May 14, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Bachata and Triple Time Swing - Here comes the sassy, swishy fun.
     Friday, May 21, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Triple Time Swing and Fox Trot - Baby, They're Classic
     Friday, June 4, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

 

Line Dance Workshops

(Great for beginner and established dancers)

Line Dance Line Dancing With Lisa
     Tuesday, May 4, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Line Dance Line Dancing With Lisa
     Tuesday, May 18, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Line Dance Line Dancing With Lisa
     Tuesday, June 1, 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

What's Next Workshops  

What's Next Workshops

(Established dancers only)

Rumba Shadow Boxing
     Monday, May 3, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Technique Exercises to Improve Balance
     Monday, May 3, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Line Dance Leveling up the Choreo
     Monday, May 10, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Waltz Fallaway Fun
     Monday, May 10, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

West Coast Swing Wonderful Whips
     Sunday, May 16, 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Nightclub 2-Step Sliding Doors
     Monday, May 17, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Waltz Shadow Position
     Monday, May 17, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Cha Cha Right Side Passes
     Monday, May 24, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Waltz Twinkles
     Monday, May 24, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Hustle Parallel Breaks
     Monday, June 7, 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

Technique Exercises to Improve Balance
     Monday, June 7, 8:00 pm - 9:00 pm
     Like, share, or invite friends on Facebook.
     Details.
    

 

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Thanks for reading; we hope you found something you liked.
Until we see you again, happy dancing!

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540-382-8782 - info@SapphireDance.com  
30 W. Main Street, Suite C, Christiansburg, Va.