Dance vs. Music

[Hornbein]

I've made hundreds of videos pairing together dance and music. Today I did one where I thought the tempos were completely unrelated but it appeared bang on, just about perfect. When I corrected the tempo to be the same it looked completely wrong. Amazing! I've seem this kind of thing before but never to such an extreme degree.

On examining this mystery I found out that the tempos were not as unrelated as I had thought. There were seven beats of dance to each four beats of music. That's seems pretty farfetched but it worked. While slowing down the dance to eight beats for each four of music didn't work at all. Wild!

 

[jedishrfu]

There's a Dave Brubeck piece called Take 5 that has an unusual tempo, 5/4 time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Five

I wonder how it could be associated with a dance routine.

 

[morrobay]

7/4 :

 

[Hornbein]

I've made hundreds of videos pairing together dance and music. Today I did one where I thought the tempos were completely unrelated but it appeared bang on, just about perfect. When I corrected the tempo to be the same it looked completely wrong. Amazing! I've seem this kind of thing before but never to such an extreme degree.

On examining this mystery I found out that the tempos were not as unrelated as I had thought. There were seven beats of dance to each four beats of music. That's seems pretty farfetched but it worked. While slowing down the dance to eight beats for each four of music didn't work at all. Wild!

This was so weird I checked into it later. I must have made a mistake. The synced up version was inferior but OK, passable.

I have learned that the mind is pretty tolerant when it comes to matching up dance and music. Often completely unrelated tempos of dance and music look better than the synced up version. As far as odd times go, it doesn't matter at all. You can dance in one time signature while the music is in another and this is not a problem. Dance is an abstract art form so synchronization details don't matter all that much. What does matter is that when the music changes mood the dance usually should too. But sometimes you can get away with contrast. The music speeds up and the dance slows down, that kind of thing.

Recently I saw pianist Riyoko Takagi play the Mission:Impossible! chords with her left hand and Take Five with the right. Clever, eh? She also did a mashup of a Latin standard with a sophisticated jazz reharmonization of Smoke On The Water. I wish I had a recording of that.

It's amazing that anyone can improvise such complex things on the spot for hours and never bobble anything. Such is complete command of the music and instrument. I'm lucky if I can make it through a minute of simple music without some mistake.

 

[Hornbein]

There's a Dave Brubeck piece called Take 5 that has an unusual tempo, 5/4 time.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_Five

I wonder how it could be associated with a dance routine.

Here is dance in 4/4 with music in 5/4. It looks pretty natural. Dance doesn't have measures or bar lines so there is no problem with mixes like this.



I witnessed the premier of Mission : Impossible!. It made a big impact on twelve year old me. I recall the first episode was about using a computer to beat a roulette wheel.

Producer Barry Crane was a candidate for World's Most Self-Centered and Annoying Person. He pissed off the wrong guy and was murdered in his home.

 

[Hornbein]

Here's an example. I'd swear that they were right in the groove together but actually the tempos are unrelated. Even knowing that, I can't see it.