Making Music With Dance - Singing Your Dance

In a very literal sense, the first step is not to sing your dance with your feet but with your voice. First, can you sing with the melody and then, later, can you choose to sing harmony or counterpoint or something else. Once that's reasonably comfortable (doesn't have to be public), you can start to do the same with your feet. Have the movement of your body have the same kind of emphasis, accent and rhythm that your voice might have.

Artist Name:: Kristina Olsen
Song Title:: Hey I Want That Back
Album Title:: All Over Down Under
Artist Website:: http://www.kristinaolsen.net

From a review on the website: Olsen, an itinerant troubadour who regularly graces Australian folk festivals, was at her most engaging. Such was the candour of her songs and chatty tales that it would impossible for anyone with blood in their veins not to empathise with her. Her full-throated voice and crisp guitar served up such diverse subject matter as crop-dusting and prostitution, while a revealing yarn about life-drawing classes introduced The Truth of a Woman. From her new CD came In Your Darkened Room, the title track to an album containing some of her finest work, a black frost edging her usual warmth and humour.

00:05: So, if I'm singing with this song, and I don't know the lyrics that well, so I'm just going to hum it,
00:11: Di-da, dam-bam, ba-di-da. Da. Di, ba-di-day, di-da-da-day. I want that, pa.
00:21: And so, when you dance, I want your dancing to show those accents. Day-da-ba-bam, he was greedy.
00:27: And so that you suspend, you hit. And there's a lot of this, da-di, da-da, ba-da. So, that you'll hit-and, hit-and.
00:36: If we show that. One. One, ba-da-a. Du-bam-ba-da. Du-de, da-da. Da-da-da.
00:55: And so, then, that's very much dancing to the singing.
00:59: Not just, you know, the singing that you do with your mouth, or the singer. But also, the whole of the music.
01:06: So, however you would sing, you can dance.
01:09: And, I hope, you don't sing, "Bleh, bleh". In which case, your dancing looks, "Bleh, bleh".
01:15: But, actually, what would be more typical, is you only know one song to dance with. You only know one way to dance.
01:21: So, for example, someone might always dance to La Cumparsita,
01:26: Even when they're playing a song like this. Right? So, you might get something that looks like...
01:30: Or, here's Troilo. But Troilo's not playing, even though I'm dancing to him.
01:38: I on the beat. But it's a different song.
01:42: So, listen to what you're saying, and then say, "Can I have my music?
01:45: My dancing to express my sense for the music."

Series:: Making Music With Dance
Tags:: Intermediate, Technique, Musicality, Advanced