The process of retrieving meaningful information from rhythm responses to music imposes several methodological challenges. For one side, the indivisible connection between body actions and the musical action confines the musical phenomenon in a closed action-perception cycle. For another side, attempts to examine internalized rhythm descriptions require a sort of action and body movements generally mediate actions. In this study, we propose strategies for the analysis of movement responses that are capable to retrieve emergent rhythmic and metrical structure encoded in free movements, which are less constrained by experimental designs and less prone to assumptions. The first proposed technique processes zero-crossing events across velocity patterns to uncover directional changes in the movement trajectories. The second technique uses local accumulation of instantaneous velocity to describe the profiles of metric engagement abstracted from the morphology of the movement trajectories. The techniques help to trace comparisons and build new representations of emergent embodied metrical structures. The paper discusses the possibilities and new perspectives using case studies of free spontaneous movement responses to Argentinian chacarera and Afro-Brazilian samba music.