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

Music tends to be grouped into sets of beats–often 3 or 4 beats to a set (known as a measure).

That winds up being too few for dancing “phrases,” so dancers tend to group a couple of measures together. They’ll often count 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 1, 2, 3…, looping back to 1 every time they get to 8.

The first step of the dance will be on a count of “1,” and the four numbers that precede 1 are 5, 6, 7, and 8.