Phrasing in music is a little
like paragraphs in writing. The music flows to a point and then gathers itself
for another flow. The simplest example is the verse and the chorus parts of most
songs. The verse is a phrase (which may have phrases – sentences inside
the paragraph – within it) and the chorus is another phrase.
This sometimes gives choreographers
problems because the phrases aren’t always the same number of counts… or sometimes the artist adds a few measures
here and there which changes the phrasing in parts of the song. Music
that has the same phrasing throughout is called “evenly phrased.”
Music that has phrasing that is not the same number of counts throughout or has extra measures thrown in willy nilly
is not evenly phrased.
To better understand
what is meant by phrasing, listen to the song “Dance Above The Rainbow” by Ronan Hardiman (from the CD
titled "Feet of Flames"); it is evenly phrased in sets of 32 counts starting after the 16 count intro. (For our students, the line dance we typically do to this song is called “Stealing The Best.”)
Music that is not
evenly phrased sometimes leads to dances that have “tags,” “breaks,” “restarts,” and/or
“parts.”
A tag is
an extra set of counts introduced into a dance to match the phrasing of a song. The
tag can be one count, two counts, eight counts, or more. Some choreographers
like to call these “bonus steps.” That way the glass is half full.
A restart
is where the choreographer starts the dance pattern over in the middle of one pattern.
So, for example, the first 16 counts of a 32 count line dance are executed, but then, instead of finishing with the
last 16 counts, the dance starts over from the beginning of the pattern. Again,
this is to keep the dance phrased with the music.
A break
is where the music stops, with a few counts of silence, and then starts in again. Or
sometimes the artist will speak and the music stops during that time. Some
examples are the Shania Twain song, “That Don’t Impress Me Much,” the song “Love Shack” by the
B-52s, or the song "Brand New Girlfriend" by Steve Holy. Usually, a break requires
a hold, or a pose. Sometimes the choreographer will make up some ‘business’
for dancers to do that goes with the words, if the artist is speaking during the break in the music.
Sometimes all of these --
tags, restarts, and breaks -- are generally referred to as breaks, meaning any change in the pattern.
A part is one of several different patterns within the same line dance that go with different parts of the music
that are phrased with different numbers of counts. For example, often the chorus
and verse have different phrasing. The chorus might have 32 counts and the verse might have 48 counts. So the choreographer might choreograph Part A to go with the verse and Part B to go with the chorus, and
maybe even a Part C as a tag. Then the dance might be done in the following order:
A A B C B A B. (These dances are sometimes called “AB Dances” or
“ABC Dances”.) The pattern means to dance Part A twice (perhaps to
go with two verses), then Part B once (chorus), then Part C once (tag), then Part B (chorus), Part A (verse), and Part B again
(chorus). These dances were very popular for a time, but some of the luster faded
as dancers became tired of the extra work required to remember the different parts.
However, many of these dances are fun to do -- once learned -- since they fit the music so well.
Some artists have recorded
songs that are evenly phrased throughout because they understand it is easier to choreograph line dances to them. Scooter Lee and Rick Tippe are two such artists.
