HOW TO MAKE ACCENTS VISIBLE?
Not all songs have clearly differentiated accents but, if they do have them, it would be interesting and attractive to visually mark them, to make them visible in our dance.
Some dancers tend to do this by movements with their arms or head, changing the expression on their face, or different body postures; but what most dancers do is express accents with movements of their legs and feet, either by kicks or a move that fits the accent. This has a certain logic because the body and arms are used to lead our partner and this makes it much more difficult to use them to express things. It is also possible that we do not have as much facility or resources when using body or arm variations simply because what we tend to practice in dance classes are variations of our footwork.
Watch this video where William Mauvais and Maeva Truntzer dance to a song they choreographed. There is no doubt that they have an advantage. This is not a social dance; they have been able to study the music and look for the most interesting details they wanted to express in their dance. However, we believe it is a good example of accent based musicality. Note how the accents help make the dance more expressive.
Take a look at this other video of Dax Hock and Ria DeBiase. This time it is an improvised social dance and so it is not always as easy to detect the accents and understand how they mark them. Moreover, it is possible that we have sometimes understood that the leader or follower is emphasising a certain accent and, in fact, this is pure chance, wishful thinking by those of us making this website.
0:15 Dax timidly points out the accent by flexing his elbow, bending his left arm, and closing his hand.
0:18 They accompany the accent with a Dax's kick and Ria's twist.
0:20 New Dax's kick.
0:27 Both emphasize the accent by bending their knees and doing a short stop. Dax, in addition, also points it out with his left hand.
0:30 Elegant arm movement of both dancers following the accent.
0:36 This accent is not pointed out. Possibly it is because it catches them when the step they are doing does not allow for many variations. However, it is also possible that they were not able to anticipate (predict) or, even, that they decided that they do not want to reflect it in their dance (not everything that happens in music is necessary evident in the dance).
0:45 Both make a kick to express the accent.
0:47 An asymmetric twist of both of them reproduces the accent very well.
1:12 New kicks to point out the accent.
Accents are often a very obvious part of a song. This makes them very attractive as elements to base our musicality on. But we think that basing musicality essentially on accents also has some small drawbacks. On the one hand, if a dancer tries to emphasise all the accents in a song piece and it turns out that the song is full of accents, this can be quite overwhelming for both the leader and follower. On the other hand, if one tries to highlight all the accents in a song the chances of error (pointing out an accent that was not there or not emphasising a very obvious one) are very high and, consequently, so is the possibility of frustration. Obviously each dancer must decide what and how they want to dance; but we think that it would be a good idea if, when dancing, we analyse these aspects and learn how to find a point of comfort for ourselves and our partner.
If you want, now you can see our proposals to improve your accent-based musicality.