What is the Clap Rhythm of the Waltz Dance

In this video, we talk about, what is the clapping rhythm of the waltz dance. This is an introduction for beginners.

VIDEO SUMMARY:

Why does your instructor always count during your lesson?

One reason is, of course, to try and get you on the beat of the music, but another reason is that they are trying to teach you how to count time for yourself.

Some dance students find this “counting” confusing, pointless, or frustrating- especially in the beginning.

Of all the skills you must possess to become a dancer, this one is the most challenging thing to quantify and sometimes teach.

First of all, what are we counting, exactly? Each dance has its own “rhythm” or cadence within the musical timing.

To marry this dance rhythm to the music, we usually quantify our movements in terms of “Slows” and “Quicks,” where “Slow” is worth two beats, and “Quick” is worth just one beat.

When we have a long series of “Quicks,” we often count the dance numerically to differentiate where we are in the rhythm.

Cha-Cha and Swing are good examples of this. Each of the primary ballroom dances has different counts.

Waltz is not difficult to count because both the steps and the music are grouped in even counts of three.

Remember, though. You will start dancing to each new bar on a different foot because there is an odd number of counts.

Thus, it is sometimes helpful to count two bars at a time (1,2,3 – 4,5,6) to give each step a sense of completion.

If the alternation of steps throws you off, you can “count” the foot alternation along with the rhythm as well.

For example, “left, right, left, right, left, right.” until you get the alternating footwork sorted out.

Thank you for watching.

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