Better compulsory dance music

[Jenna]

Does anyone know of more current song that can be used to practice any of the dances? We've had skaters skate the blues to "Billionaire" and the cha cha to Marc Anthony.  I'd like to get a playlist of more fun music to help break the monotony and give people's ears a break during freestyle.

[Elsa]

Ooh, I'd love this too!  I just started dance, but some of the music is painful, lol. 

[jjane45]

Bumping this up as I am also interested in contemporary alternative music suitable for beginner dances, with clearly distinguishable beats.

I remember reading about music choices that prove to work in various threads, but can't seem to find them at the moment.

From dance thread Bunny Hop mentioned

...Seal's Kiss From a Rose works extremely well for Dutch Waltz.

There is also an archived thread back in 2009 that had the following:

RachelSk8er 12-29-2008, 08:39 AM
A few suggestions that are very close to the correct tempo:
14 Step--Dontcha Wish Your Girlfriend Were Hot Like Me (Pussycat Dolls)
Silver Tango--Dance with Me (Debleah Morgan), which is really normal tango music that is used for the dance just w/lyrics
Starlight--Piano Man (Billy Joel)
Quickstep--Tell Her About It (Billy Joel)
Silver Samba--Under the Sea from The Little Mermaid

More from our wonderful dance community?

[jjane45]

By pure coincidence FSU has a very similar thread going since... yesterday!

[icedancer]

When I see questions like this I wonder if people are aware of the icedancers yahoo bulletin-board group list-serve thingy:

http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/icedancers/

This is an on-line discussion group for ice-dancers - there are so many resources within the group and on their web page are links to things like "how to find better ice-dance music" etc.

If my link doesn't take you to the page I can find out how you can join as I am friends with the moderator.

The only "problem"(in my mind) about finding more "contemporary" music is one's definition of contemporary.  I was amused to find that people at my rink thought that music from the 60s could be considered contemporary...

I also find that the higher up you get in the dances the more interesting the music becomes but those lower dances are always going to seem pretty stately as they are designed to make the beats very obvious.

[jjane45]

The only "problem"(in my mind) about finding more "contemporary" music is one's definition of contemporary.  I was amused to find that people at my rink thought that music from the 60s could be considered contemporary...

Thanks for the Y! group link! Will check it out. Changed my post to say alternative music. Really, anything from which beats can be easily identified, I don't mind if it's from the stone age!

ETA: OMG that's a ton of information under the files section, esp. Gerri's list! Got to figure out which has clearer beats but what a treasure!

[jjane45]

Bump up. Recently heard sway in glee used for cha cha and that song kind of stuck with me...

[alejeather]

This is not a complete resource, but at least it's a place to start:

http://bpmdatabase.com/search.php

You can search for songs by BPM. You can also look up a song to find it's BPM. I used it recently when the DJ at a public session played "Drive" by Incubus, and I found it a great tempo for working on the 8-step mohawk. I then started looking for the tempo the 8-step is supposed to be and found nothing recommended but "march tempo".

There's a video on YouTube that uses "Dimelo (I Need to Know)" by Marc Anthony for the cha-cha. I found myself humming it this morning so I think I'll take advantage of that and sing it in my head while I practice!

[nicklaszlo]

http://www.skokievalleyskatingclub.com/  Three new recordings from SVSC.