Musicality is a noun that means sensitivity to, knowledge of, or talent for music. The word also refers to the quality or state of being musical (aka melodiousness.) A musical person has the ability to perceive differences in pitch, rhythm and harmonies. One usually differentiates between two types of musicality: To be able to perceive music (musical receptivity) and to be able to reproduce music as well as creating music (musical creativity).

Musicality may also refer to fitting a dance

Dance

Dance is an art form that generally refers to movement of the body, usually rhythmic and to music, used as a form of expression, social interaction or presented in a spiritual or performance setting....

 to the music

Music

Music is an art form whose medium is sound and silence. Its common elements are pitch , rhythm , dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture...

 being played, with the goal of relating the dance to the music's rhythm

Rhythm

Rhythm may be generally defined as a "movement marked by the regulated succession of strong and weak elements, or of opposite or different conditions." This general meaning of regular recurrence or pattern in time may be applied to a wide variety of cyclical natural phenomena having a periodicity or...

, melody

Melody

A melody , also tune, voice, or line, is a linear succession of musical tones which is perceived as a single entity...

, and mood. Dancers usually step on the beats

Beat (music)

The beat is the basic unit of time in music, the pulse of the mensural level . In popular use, the beat can refer to a variety of related concepts including: tempo, meter, rhythm and groove...

 of the music, and may vary the size of their movements with the volume of the music. This is especially true in choreography

Choreography

Choreography is the art of designing sequences of movements in which motion, form, or both are specified. Choreography may also refer to the design itself, which is sometimes expressed by means of dance notation. The word choreography literally means "dance-writing" from the Greek words "χορεία" ...

, where dancers plan a routine of dance moves, sometimes with a specific song in mind.
This is also a key characteristic of improvised swing dancing. Unlike most ballroom dances which tend to use the music as a metronome to guide the dance, Lindy Hop and West Coast swing view matching your dancing to the spirit/mood of the music is the highest goal achievable.

See also

• Lead and follow
  Lead and follow (dance)
  In partner dancing, the two dance partners are never equal. One must be the Lead and the other will be the Follow.The Lead is responsible for choosing appropriate steps to suit the music , and leading the Follow by hand pressure and signals to complete the chosen steps smoothly and safely...
  
  
• Connection
  Connection (dance)
  Connection is essential to all partner dancing and is the primary means to communicate synchronized dance movement between the lead and follow. It is especially important in Argentine Tango, Lindy Hop, Balboa, East Coast Swing, West Coast Swing, Salsa, Contra dance, Modern Jive and other styles of...
  
  
• Dance theory
  Dance theory
  Dance theory is a fairly new field closely related to music theory and specifically musicality used to describe the nature and mechanics of dance. While musicality deals with finding a particular matching pair of dance and music that fit each other in various respects, dance theory is a broad term...
  
  

External links

• AABA: The Map to Swing Music (Rusty Frank
  Rusty Frank
  Rusty Frank is an American tap dancer, producer, writer, choreographer, lindy hopper, historian and tap-dance preservationist.-Early life:...
  
  )