Syncopation

Syncopate; syncopated; syncopa: A musical term adopted by dancers and used in a way which is technically incorrect musically and leads to endless arguments between dancers and musicians Musically it refers to an unexpected or unusual accenting of the beats in a measure such as the two and four beats of swing music rather than the more common accent on the one and three beats Dancers have come to use the term to describe cutting the beat or stepping on the half-beat which annoys musicians all to heck Maybe if they could dance the tango we would pay more attention to them