FLYING STEPS ACADEMY X AVENTHO Y
When Music Becomes Movement
Music moves us. Sometimes only in our minds. Sometimes through our entire bodies.
Together with the Flying Steps Academy, we demonstrated at the Backyard Battle how sound, movement and personality come together. At the heart of the event was a special challenge: the dancers listened to music through the AVENTHO Y while the audience could only see their movements. The question behind it was as simple as it was intriguing: can you tell which song someone is listening to if all you can see is their dance?
The idea perfectly reflects what the AVENTHO Y stands for. Music is more than entertainment. It accompanies emotions, shapes identity and becomes part of personal moments. At Flying Steps, this becomes visible: what music triggers is translated into movement.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
When music shapes everyday life
Music does not only play a role on stage at Flying Steps, it accompanies every aspect of daily life.
beyerdynamic Blog: What role does music play in your everyday life?
Flying Steps: Music is essential to us. Without music, there is no dance. Especially in our three Flying Steps Academies in Berlin, music is the foundation of everything we teach and live. Music is playing in the morning, at lunchtime, in the evening and sometimes even at night. It takes up space throughout the entire day, just in different ways. In our private lives, it accompanies us, inspires us, motivates us or puts us in a certain mood. Professionally, it is the basis for almost everything we do: creating choreographies, developing concepts, bringing shows and projects to life. You could say that we quite literally dance our way through life.
beyerdynamic Blog: Is there a song that instantly gets you moving?
Flying Steps: There is no single song for us. Flying Steps is made up of too many different personalities, dancers, coaches and our entire team, and everyone brings their own musical background. But each of us has that one sound that makes the body react before the mind has even had time to think about it.
beyerdynamic Blog: What does music mean to you beyond dancing?
Flying Steps: Music accompanies virtually every emotion. Joy, sadness, anger, motivation. Sometimes it helps you process things, sometimes it gives you strength and sometimes it even points you in a direction. There are moments when you cannot find the words yourself, and then suddenly a song comes on that expresses exactly what you are feeling.
When sound becomes visible
Music is heard. Dance is seen. In between, something emerges that people interpret in very different ways.
beyerdynamic Blog: How does movement emerge from music?
Flying Steps:Through rhythm, emotion and energy, but also through the theme or message of a song. As a dancer, you do not simply hear music, you translate it. Suddenly, something that can normally only be heard becomes visible through the body.
beyerdynamic Blog: Can you “see” or “dance” a sound?
Flying Steps: Both. A sound creates images in your mind, and those images can become visible through movement. What is exciting is that ten dancers can hear the same sound and still create ten completely different interpretations of it.
beyerdynamic Blog: How important is individuality in dance?
Flying Steps: Individuality is a central part of hip-hop and street dance culture. This culture was not built on everyone wanting to be the same. Quite the opposite. In the cypher, the idea was to step into the circle and say: “This is me. This is my style.” People wanted to make a name for themselves, earn respect and show something that others had never seen before.
That is why hip-hop is not just about executing steps perfectly. Technique can be learned. But personality, attitude, musicality and the way you express yourself are what ultimately define your individual style. At its best, you can recognize a dancer purely through their movement, without even seeing their face.
The silent dance challenge
This very connection between music, personality and movement was at the heart of the collaboration during the Backyard Battle activation.
beyerdynamic Blog: What appealed to you about the silent dance concept?
Flying Steps: Above all, we found the question fascinating: can you recognise which song someone is dancing to, even though you cannot hear the music yourself?
With some songs or well-known choreographies, you will probably make the connection straight away. But it becomes really interesting when it comes to free interpretation. When a dancer translates a song in their own unique way and the audience tries to work out what they are listening to based solely on their movements, it almost turns into a guessing game. For us, that is where a great deal of the entertainment value lies. At the same time, it shows how differently music can be made visible.
The reels from the challenge capture these exact moments: music that nobody except the dancers can hear, and movements that still tell stories.
Backyard Battle: The special moments
Anyone who has ever experienced a dance battle knows that the most powerful moments are often the ones that cannot be planned.
beyerdynamic Blog: What was the most surprising moment at the Backyard Battle?
Flying Steps: At the Backyard Battle, there are always these moments when the music and the dancer come together perfectly. A beat, a movement, a reaction, and suddenly the entire crowd feels that moment at the same time. An energy emerges that cannot be planned or choreographed. Those unpredictable moments are what we love most about a battle.
Hear your WHY
The AVENTHO Y was developed for people who see music as more than background noise. People who use music to feel, express themselves, focus or simply be fully present with themselves. That is why the campaign motto is: “Hear Your Why.” Every person’s “Why” is unique.
beyerdynamic Blog: What is your personal “Why” when you listen to music?
Flying Steps: Our Why is probably the feeling music creates within us. We do not only listen to it in order to dance or create something. Sometimes it gives us energy, sometimes inspiration, sometimes peace, and sometimes it is simply the soundtrack to a particular moment in our lives.
Music also has something spiritual about it for us. Within seconds, it can change something inside you without you being able to explain exactly why. It connects us with emotions, memories and people, and sometimes with something greater than the moment itself. That is probably our Why.
beyerdynamic Blog:What colour would your Why be?
Flying Steps: Our Why would not have a fixed colour. It would constantly change, just like music and the emotions it creates within us.
Music can be heard. Music can be felt. And sometimes, music can even become visible.
Our collaboration with the Flying Steps Academy for the AVENTHO Y product launch demonstrated exactly that: every person experiences music in their own way. And every person moves in their own way.
Or, as Flying Steps put it:
“As a dancer, you do not simply hear music, you translate it.”
AVENTHO Y
HEAR YOUR WHY
- Signature beyerdynamic Sound
- More than 90 hours of battery life with fast charging
- Multipoint Bluetooth® 6.0, Active Noise Cancelling
- Available in four different colors: Liquid Black, Soft Jade, Peach Blush, and Blue Fusion