What Is an 8-Count in Dance?

Short answer

An 8-count is eight beats numbered 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, after which you start again at 1. It's the basic unit dancers use to learn, teach and remember choreography. In 4/4 music that is two bars of four beats, so one 8-count is one short phrase of the music, and "5, 6, 7, 8" is how a teacher counts you in.

How an 8-count is counted

Most pop, hip hop and jazz music is in 4/4, which means four quarter-note beats in each bar. Dancers do not number the bars. They number the beats, and they keep going to eight. Bar one is 1 2 3 4. Bar two is 5 6 7 8. Then the next eight starts at 1 again. Dance counts most often use 8-counts, a grouping of eight beats that represents one complete phrase.

Written the way you would say it, one 8-count looks like this: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.

The 1 is the one to find. It is the first beat of each set, and it is usually the strongest. One teaching site notes that count 1 carries a stronger accent than count 5. Listen for the heaviest beat and call it 1, and the other seven fall into place after it. In Count Studio that is the big number on the tape, and the 8-count in the count library gives it the thickest accent on 1, a lighter one on 5.

Why dancers say 5, 6, 7, 8

Musicians count a bar in as 1 2 3 4. Dancers say 5, 6, 7, 8. The reason: many dance styles take eight beats to get through the steps, so the count-in is the last four beats of an eight. To save time, choreographers say only those last four.

You hear 5, 6, 7, 8, and your first step lands on the 1 of the next eight, together with everyone else in the room.

5, 6, 7, 8, then 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8.

Where you'll hear it

Photo by Pavel Danilyuk on Pexels

Eights are the everyday count in hip hop, jazz, contemporary, commercial dance, K-pop, musical theatre and tap, and they turn up in swing too: Lindy hop, for one, is an 8-count dance. If you are in a studio class and the teacher says "from the top of the second eight", this is the count they mean.

Eights also stack. A group of eights makes a longer phrase, and the most common major phrase is 32 beats, which is four eights. Counting in eights lines your choreography up with the blocks the music is built in. Count Studio shows this as a phrase number, such as "eight 3 of 8", so you always know which eight you are in.

Some combinations need finer counting between the beats. Teachers add an "&" to split a beat in half, so the count becomes 1 & 2 & 3 & 4 & 5 & 6 & 7 & 8 &. That is useful for hits and quick footwork, and the 8-count with & in the count library writes it out beat by beat.

Not every dance is counted in eights. Waltz is the usual exception: it is counted in sixes, two bars of three. Traditions such as Kathak and flamenco have their own cycles and their own words for them, and they are worth learning on their own terms.

Common mistakes

• Starting on 5. The count-in is 5, 6, 7, 8, but the first step is on 1. If you step on 8, you are a beat early.
• Counting the count-in as part of the eight. The 5, 6, 7, 8 you hear is the end of the previous eight. The new eight begins right after it.
• Losing the 1 in a long song. If the music has a quiet intro, the 1 can be hard to hear. Listen for the heaviest beat or the start of a new musical phrase, then count back from there.
• Counting bars instead of beats. Saying "1, 2" for two bars sounds neat, but you need the beat inside each bar. Keep going to eight.
• Forgetting which eight you are on. In a 32-count phrase it is easy to lose track. Say "eight 2" under your breath, or let the tape do it for you.

Practise it

You can drill an 8-count in a few minutes with any song you know.

1. Clap it. Put on a song with a clear beat and clap 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, over and over. Make the clap on 1 a little louder.
2. Count in, then move. Say 5, 6, 7, 8 out loud, then step on 1. Do it ten times until your first step lands without thinking.
3. Find the 1 by ear. Play the song again and tap the 1 only, the heaviest beat. Then count to eight between the taps.
4. Feel four eights. Count eight 1, eight 2, eight 3, eight 4 and notice how the music changes around eight 5. That is a 32-count phrase.

Count Studio does the same job in your hand. It counts a song in 8s, shows each beat as a strip of floor tape with a big number and the 1 marked, and shows the phrase number so you can see "eight 3 of 8" at a glance. You can read more about counting music in the blog, and the full list of counts is in the count library.

Bottom line

An 8-count is eight beats, 1 to 8, two bars of 4/4, repeated. Find the 1, count in with 5, 6, 7, 8, and step on the next 1. Once you can hear the eights, choreography stops being a pile of steps and starts to follow the music.