Some basics on timing, rhythm and the art of using the music to dictate choreography

All music is counted in beats and bars. Each beat is a count and always begins on the first note played, which incidentally is the most pronounced beat. All songs are split up into sections of 32 or 64 beats. This is when either a new sound is put into a song or taken out of a song.

Bpm and counting
It is not the speed, but the feel of the music that counts. Most dances feel most comfortable in a certain tempo range. This is counted in Measures Per Minute (mpm) or in Beats Per Minute (bpm). A measure contains two beats for Samba, Polka and (in most cases) Paso Doble, three for Waltz (both slow and Viennese), and four for the rest of the dances.

With jive, the important thing is that there are 4 beats in the bar (i.e. not a waltz!), there is a strong beat, about 120 to 180 beats per minute (although this does not exclude dancing faster or slowing the movement down (keeping ‘in-time’ with the music but dancing slow).
All songs are recorded in counts of 8 beats. ‘Modern-Jive (partnered-dancing)-music’ works on an 8 beat count. Country & Western dancers might refer to it as "4-beat swing".

Rhythm
Rhythm refers to the way in which sounds of varying length and accentuation are grouped into patterns. If you listen to a song, the tune itself could not be played on a table but it's rhythm could be tapped out on one. If you tapped faster or slower, the rhythm does not change - only the tempo. You can identify the rhythm by listening to where the accents are placed. Played notes, words, phrases or drum hits are loud, short, long or soft, these are repeated in a measured flow and these are what make up the 'rhythm' of the song or musical piece.

Timing
Historically, French-Jive dancing kept to a steady rhythm and, generally, maintained a continuous pace - Timing is an important part of dancing. Learning to move in time to the beat is essential for beginners. Hearing the musical notation and using ‘breaks’, ‘stops’, and changes in tempo, are all part of the process and will help you to improve your performance from Intermediate to Advanced level. The skill then, is in choosing the correct/appropriate dance moves (or combination of moves) to suit the type, and pace, of the music. It can look really ’cool’ when stops, pulsing, flurries and other forms of syncopated movement are incorporated whilst keeping ’in-rhythm’.