Eli5: Why do dancers start with a “5, 6, 7, 8” count?

Question

Why is this and what’s the point? Why not just start at 1, 2, 3, 4?

P.S. I’m a ballerina

In: 468

Answer 1

Professional tap dancer here. Out of all the styles of dance, I’ve heard rhythm tappers count in bars of four way more than the others. My guess is that because we are closer to jazz musicians than ballerinas, we co-opt the language of jazz musicians more than we co-opt from other dancers.