You need to dance on the beat and if you are dancing in a group you need some way to how you altogether. Many teachers use counting for this. Some use other methods - I mix counting with phrasing in the music.I was wondering if it's necessary to count beats while dancing a routine? I haven't learned how to count beats yet. Does every dancer do it?
You need to dance on the beat and if you are dancing in a group you need some way to how you altogether. Many teachers use counting for this. Some use other methods - I mix counting with phrasing in the music.
There are also a number of different ways to count. You can count like a metronome - ie steady beat. If using this with most Middle Eastern music you need to hear through the drum - if the count goes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, the drum might go 1 2 5. You need to hear (and account for) the spaces. Or you can use just the heavy doms - dom dom ..... dom.
Then, after ypu have learnt this (through many, many hours of listening) you have to let it all go once you step up onto the next level of dance.
everybody dancing is counting the rythm, even in an unconscious way.
Actually, there is no possibility to play music or dance without counting.
I am sorry I cannot give you an academic answer to your question and the few things I know about cognitive psychology do not bother about those questions. Why don't you do that research yourself?
But, I feel like answering your question the way I understand it, even if my answer might be nonsense:
And, if what we seek in dance is beauty, we do not seek to creat linear things, like 1-2-3-4 and the rest. So, I trust the ability of an artist to feel the structure, or even better to become one with it, instead of counting 1-2-3-4 and lose all other information given by the simplest beledi-drum-play. This is why I can see and hear "counting" in music and dance but I can assure you that the better the music and dance, the less the counting is obvious and the more fun the artist and the audience have!
This is why I love middle eastern rythm patterns - they are not simple 4/4 etc, they are more than that. This is why, one cannot learn them by studying on paper only. We need to see them danced! And then dance them ourselves, too.
Thank you all for the replies
So far I don't count. Like I said I am not familiar with counting beats yet, but I would like to learn. I was practicing a choreography with some students in my class and I didn't count the beats. I just knew the part of the song was coming and was able to time my moves without counting. Although, if I was performing by myself to this particular song counting the beats wouldn't be necessary, but since it was a group, a few seconds off here and there made a difference and can really throw the whole thing off. So counting beats while performing with other people, I believe is really helpful.
Right now I'm just going to concentrate on the core movements of Raqs Sharqi so I can build upon that. One thing at a time, lol, I don't want to overwhelm myself, which I have a tendency to do!
If you can follow the beat precisely without counting, you don't need to count, ever.
I don't count, I just know where the beat is. If I lose the choreography, I know exactly where the start of the next phrase is. Truth is, I'm probably counting subsconsciously, but it's so automatic I honestly am not aware of it. I've been around music since I was tiny.
If you relate to that, you will probably never need to learn to count.
First, I wish you the best for finding the funding for such a research!
Second, I avoided the term "feeling", because I want to avoid any hint that would lead argument towards emotions. But yes, feeling is the right term for understanding rythm. But is not that one is not counting exactly - it is EXACT counting on the rythm, which has more information than 1-2-3-4, and if we keep counting 1-2-3-4 while dancing we will miss the beat! You can try it for yourself!
You may like to read this thread
http://www.bellydanceforums.net/instructors-students/8125-do-i-need-learn-count.html?highlight=count
The conclusion reached was that there are different things to count and different ways to do - but it is often useful.