Music And Dance Analysis

Dancing is the freedom of movement to music which ultimately leads to freedom of emotion, allowing an individual to express themselves in their own unique way by moving to a certain piece of music or songs and melodies that are multi-dimensional. It serves as a powerful form of communication and gives choreographers the opportunity to drive the creative process by experiencing and developing movement and sequences to famously composed musical pieces. Therefore, this explains why music and dance often go hand in hand with each other, working together to tell a beautiful story.

Famous Composers. Without reservation, famous composers have descriptively illustrated through their works the reasons why they must be able to understand that music and dance are two separate languages, but yet still have the willingness to absorb basic gestures from a dancer. This is because music for dance has a very special character as both can speak at once telling the same story. To illustrate, the

Nutcracker is as American as leaving cookies and milk out for Santa and is always on dance companies’ calendars during the holiday season. The music to this ballet was originally created in 1892 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, making him the most popular Russian composer in history. His music compositions have led the Nutcracker Ballet to become dominant in the ballet world and in the dance calendar primarily because it exposes children to both ballet and classical music for the first time, as well as enables choreographers to get creative due to the familiarity of the music (Begley, S., & Lull, J., December, 2014.). Tchaikovsky has also influenced the way people dance or perform on stage in a personal manner. For example, Myriam Frederick, professional artist at Brandon Ballet, said that her dancing has always been influenced by Tchaikovsky in a positive way because she grew up listening to classical music and going to orchestras. Tchaikovsky and Swan Lake was all she wanted to dance. (M. Frederick, personal communication, November 29, 2015).
Musicality. On the most basic level, musicality is how a dancer expresses music through his or her body, which is the key ingredient in a dancer’s display of artistry (Lewis, K., January, 2010.). However, every dancer has a slightly different definition of the word “musicality.” For Myriam Frederick, her definition of musicality is, “when somebody dances naturally to the accents of the music. Sometimes people are just born that way, meaning they can understand the music better than others. It is not complicated to become musical though because all you have to do is learn how to count the music and learn differences between certain pieces of music (M. Frederick, personal communication, November 29, 2015; this quote has been changed for grammar purposes). This is why in order to become more musical, an individual must first understand musical phrasing, or the way music is organized within measures.
Simply put, it is important to pay attention to the choreographer because they will sometimes specify the way their steps should be phrased. To illustrate, Myriam Frederick recently performed in Dracula and danced the role of Mina. When asked if she felt like she would interpret the music differently if expected to dance the role of another character her response was, “No, because most of the time the music you dance to just tells the story but not necessarily changes the role you are playing. The music has nothing to do with the character you are portraying. The music might be slow or fast but you have to interpret your character. For example, being Mina is always either an allegro, adagio, or waltz, but regardless you have to act that role. Then when Mina becomes a Vampire, the role and the acting changes completely, but it doesn’t matter what music you are given. What matters is the role they assign you (M. Frederick, personal communication, November 29, 2015; this quote has been changed for grammar purposes). Even so, every dancer has their own opinion about how to become more musical. This is why, when it’s allowed, it is crucial to experiment with the phrasing because it can give you multiple ways to dance a piece.
Dancing Without Music.

Dance can be to any music, noise, silence, or words, which simply means that dance does not need sound but counts which often can just be the dancer’s breath or the rhythm of a spoken word. According to Myriam Frederick, “if music didn’t exist then there would probably be different ways of dancing and they might be called different things, but the need of expression with the body would remain as a necessity in the human race (M. Frederick, personal communication, November 29, 2015; this quote has been changed for grammar purposes). For other dancers, there is a competition between music and the dance, which is why they believe dancing without music eliminates any and all distractions with the focus being totally on the dance for both the performer and the audience. However, a dancer’s body is their instrument and dancing to music is one of the most prominent ways in which dancers are able to express themselves as well as convey their emotions to the

audience.
Conclusion
On the whole, while some people would look at the relationship between music and dance as being a work in progress, for others, it defines their very existence. These two art forms have been present since the dawn of man and as a result, are a driving force in society. With many cultures around the globe having a great heritage of traditional music and dance, many regions have formed their own style of dance which has continued to develop extensively over the years, primarily because of the prominent role music has played in regards to binding a country together in some form of common identification. As has been mentioned, dance involves an interaction between music and movement allowing individuals to express themselves through facial expressions, certain movements, and the lyrics of a song. In other words, the music speaks for a dancer and that is a beautiful thing to watch. For these reasons, it is imperative to note that the evolution of different genres of music have undoubtedly influenced and will continue to influence certain styles of dance, both now and in the future.