Let’s Face the Music and Dance – Mark Parkin

Great dancing is more than keeping time. It is about understanding the music, recognizing its character, and using rhythm to bring movement to life.

Why does Samba feel faster than Rumba, even when the musical beats tell a different story? What makes the rhythm of Jive so distinctive? And how can a better understanding of musical phrasing help dancers and choreographers create more expressive performances?

In Let’s Face the Music and Dance: The Fusion of Music & Dance, internationally experienced dance coach and musician Mark Parkin explores the musical principles behind International Ballroom and Latin dancing.

Published by Supadance, this illustrated music theory guide connects musical notation, rhythm and timing with familiar dance examples. Rather than teaching step patterns, it helps dancers understand the musical structures that give those steps their timing and character.

Understand the Music Behind Every Dance

The book begins with essential musical concepts, including rhythm, pitch, time signatures, accents, rests, dotted notes and syncopation. These principles are explained in the context of ballroom and Latin dancing, making the material particularly relevant to dancers who want to understand more than simply counting steps.

Parkin also examines an important distinction that can cause confusion in dance training: musicians often describe tempo in beats per minute, while dancers frequently refer to bars per minute.

Through musical examples and notation diagrams, readers can explore how rhythmic subdivisions, accents and different ways of counting influence the character of dance movement.

Discover the Rhythmic Character of Ballroom and Latin

Dedicated sections examine the music of all ten International Standard and Latin dances.

From the rhythmic structure of Rumba, Cha Cha Cha and Samba to the distinctive musical character of Paso Doble and Jive, the Latin chapters explore how musical timing relates to the movements dancers perform.

The Ballroom chapters consider Waltz, Viennese Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango and Quickstep, highlighting their individual rhythmic identities and musical conventions.

The book includes dance-specific examples such as the Foxtrot Feather Step, Rumba Basic Movement, Waltz Chassé and Samba actions to illustrate how musical beat values can be applied to familiar movements.

Move Beyond Counting into Musical Interpretation

One of the book’s most valuable discussions concerns the difference between counting the music and understanding how it is constructed.

Parkin explains how musical phrases, rhythmic accents and subdivisions influence the way dancers interpret a piece of music. His approach encourages a shared musical vocabulary between dancers, partners, teachers and choreographers.

For competitive dancers, this knowledge can support more informed timing and interpretation. For teachers and coaches, it provides a framework for discussing rhythm and musical structure more clearly.

The book also includes a discussion of Spanish Gypsy Dance (España Cañí), a familiar musical reference in Paso Doble, along with a music notation legend.

Written by a Dancer Who Is Also a Musician

Mark Parkin brings together two areas of experience: an international competitive dancing and coaching career, and a background in musical performance and education.

A Fellow of the International Dance Teachers Association, Parkin has also studied music, performed with bands and taught music and guitar. This combination gives the book its distinctive dancer-and-musician perspective.

Let’s Face the Music and Dance is a valuable reference for Ballroom and Latin dancers, dance teachers, competition coaches and choreographers who want to develop a clearer understanding of rhythm, timing and musical expression.