Dear Dance Teacher,

One of the most powerful things you can teach a dancer is to listen to the music, not just move to counts.

Steps matter, but great dancers understand the character of the song. Encourage them to hear phrasing, accents, and emotion, then match their movement to those moments.

When dancers do that, they stop performing a routine and start interpreting the music. Musicality is what turns good dancing into memorable dancing.

As Martha Graham said: “Good dancers move, great dancers move people.”