| Odd counts
I'm assuming you mean a long move, rather than one that takes an odd number of beats. I don't think there are any moves in Modern Jive that take an odd number of musical beats. The confusion occurs because jivers count their movements, not the beats. In Lindy and West Coast Swing for example, they count twice as quick as in Jive.
As far as I know, the only dance what has an odd number of beats in its moves (but is still danced to 4/4 time music) is Hustle. Virtually all the standard moves are 3 beats, and you do dance 'off time' for half the dance. However hustle music has no real emphasis on downbeats or upbeats, and so you can get away with it.
(Waltz has 3 beats, but is danced to 3/4 time music)
I agree that some Ceroc moves limit what you can do to interpret the music. A 13 count Ceroc move would take 26 beats. If you started it at the beginning of a musical phrase, you might hit the break exactly. (Breaks usually happen on either the 25th or 29th beat in the phrase in most Cerocable music.) However you have the problem of hoping your partner will react to the break after being led through a long complicated move.
A move longer than this means you dance right through the break. And you have little chance of interpreting the rest of the music if you are doing complicated moves.
If you are dancing to blues music, you have more chance to do longer moves. This is because blues has 48 beats in a phrase, compared to the 32 in chart music. So you still have chance to do a long move, do something simple afterwards, and hit the break (on the 41st or 45th beat.)
Of course not all music has breaks, and if it does they don't happen every phrase. There is nothing wrong with dancing through a break if they are there, and hitting them is only a small part of musical interpretation. But if you do want to hit a break, then you need to think in advance, and not do long complicated moves.
David |