Travel Steps Study Guide 6.2: Connecting to Rhythm

Connecting to Rhythm

For traditional styles of belly dance, a strong connection to the music is essential.  Following the beat comes naturally to many adults who had some exposure to music in their childhood play activities, but everyone’s degree of musical sensitivity is different, and the muscle coordination that translates music into movement also depends on a dancer’s physical skills and training.  If you are new to dance or still developing a sense for music, use this exercise to cultivate your musical feeling—the literal awareness of the sensations that music and rhythm create in your body.  If you are a more experienced dancer or if you repeat this lesson, you may find this exercise helpful as a way to focus awareness at the beginning of a practice session. 

Begin by walking in time to any piece of medium-tempo music with a 4/4 time signature.  (Most Arabic and contemporary fusion music for belly dance uses this time signature—if you are in doubt, choose a piece where you can clearly hear the beat, and follow musical phrases of four even counts each.  If you are still in doubt, you may need to consult a teacher or friend with some dance or music background).

Lead with your right foot.  Feel four-count phrases that definitively start with a step on the right, then evenly move through three more steps (left, right, left.)  Coordinate your steps with the music so that your leading step on the right foot falls on the first beat of a four-count phrase in the music. Switch, and lead with left foot.  Continue to emphasize the first step in the way you relate your walking to the rhythm of the music.

While the music is still playing, sit or lie down, close your eyes, and imagine that you are still walking.  Listen for the “belly” of each beat, and visualize your step landing perfectly in the bull’s eye or trough of each count.  Listen to the phrasing of the music.  Depending on the structure of the piece you have chosen, you will hear four-count phrases grouped into longer phrases of eight, sixteen, thirty-two, or sixty-four counts.  Choose to lead with either your right or left foot, and mentally walk longer phrases.  Start each long phrase clearly with a decisive and intentional first step, and subtly mark the beginning of each shorter four-count phrase within the longer phrase.

Standing once again, restart your music, connect with the beat, and “dance” through the song with walking only, walking in a way that makes the song’s rhythm and phrasing felt in your body and visible to an audience.   Practice an entrance and an exit.  Walk in figure-8 and circle patterns.  Add steps that travel backwards and sideways.  Show changes in the music by changing the direction or intensity of your steps.  Choose to lead each phrase with either your right or left foot, and step with intention into the first count.

→ Next in the Travel Steps Study Guide: Step, Step-Together & Push;Step-Together, Step & Pull; Chassé 

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