How is an 8-Count in Online Hip Hop Dance Classes

19th Jul, 2022

Dance and music are always related to one another and are partners in crime. It is not easy to imagine dancing without music and vice versa. There would be no dance without music, and without dance, music would not have evolved into different forms; both need the other.

If you wish to understand Hip Hop dance, then you need to know things about music. In this blog, you will learn about one of the basics of music and dance choreography, known as the 8-count dance.

How to do a Quick 8 Count Dance Routine

What Embodies the 8-Count?

Dance has been an important part of human life even before the arrival of modern history and the written language. Dance has been prevalent when people used ways of oral performance to pass stories from one generation to the other. There are many historians who believe that celebratory, social and ritual dances are important factors in the ability to communicate and the development of early human civilization.

We have seen that throughout human history, dance and music have shared a good relationship. Both these forms of art are used to express emotions and evoke certain moods, and both comprise the same devices such as dynamics, tempo and duration. While there is different music for different dances, all music has a beat, and this concept of beat personifies the 8-count.

What is Known as an 8-Count?

An 8-count is the rhythmic grouping of 8 beats that are repeated. All the types of music such as Rock, Classical, Pop, Western and much more that you listen to every day are structured to repeat the sets of 8 beats. You can learn about this in online Hip Hop dance classes. In any kind of dance, a measure is mostly musically paired with another measure.

Both these measures will equal a total of around 8 counts, and this is why dancers are known to count in sets of 8.

8-counts help to keep track of the beat and tempo; they also break up a song into manageable sections. One of the sets of 8 is similar to that of a sentence, and then slowly other 8 counts begin similar to sentences that form a paragraph. The counts help to tell a story to the people in online Hip Hop dance classes.

Dancers easily find the beginning of an 8-count by recognizing the downbeat and using the 8-count to ground music for those who are new to music and young dancers. 8-counts can also support different exercises in class, including warm-ups across the floor and centre and final dance combinations.

Sometimes, dance tutors can use numbers to count the movements; in such cases, you need to dance these movements on the exact counts. This 8-count can help to make the synchronization easier by pairing moves along with a naturally repeating beat in the music.

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How to Use the 8-Count?

For you to understand the 8-count in dance, you need to know what the name indicates. In the vast world of music, most styles and songs are in something known as 4/4 time. This indicates that in one measure (bar/pattern) of music in Hip Hop dance, there are four beats, and those beats are called quarter notes.

Quarter notes can divide an entire note into proper and even quarters. If there are four of them, it will not be hard to count along like one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four. These are the two measures of 4/4 time that have four quarter beats in every measure. This is why an 8-count is a dance pattern that fills two bars 4/4 time, and the count is the number of beats in the bars.

Can You Try it Out?

If this sounds tricky or tough, you need to know that it is not. You can easily put on your favourite dance track and clap along with the beat at the start of the song. You can also start at the beginning of a pattern. If you have made it to four, that will be a measure. After this, you need to do it, again and again, to ultimately have your 8-count.

The 8-count count in online Hip Hop dance classes is important because of its versatility and simplicity. It is also because it is built from 4/4 time, and this is the foundation for any style of popular music. 8-counts are also used to choreograph several moves and styles.

It is at the very start of a dance language and can help to connect the bridge between dance and music. Now that you know what 8-counts are, you can easily start to count beats.

Contact Kafqa Academy

If you are interested in learning about 8-counts in Hip Hop dance by taking online Hip Hop dance classes, you can contact Kafqa Academy - a name in teaching dancing, singing, and performing arts. We are a reputed dance and music academy where you can learn different forms of dance such as Hip Hop and Bollywood under the guidance of expert instructors.

To know more interesting details about our Hip Hop dance classes, click here.

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