What does it take to change the change dance music?

[Neverdull44]

I have an opportunity to get someone into ice dancing.  But, I'm sure that the test track ice dance music is not going to go over well at all.    It's elevator music of the most high.  Is there any hope that the powers that be will change the test track music?  i don't know if I'm going to be able to attract an ice dancing partner if/when he finds out that he's going to have to spend hours upon hours listening to that horrible music.

[AgnesNitt]

I thought you could test to anything as long as it meets the tempo and character requirements of the dance. I've seen on youtube the 14 step done to Bridge over the River Kwai.

[Neverdull44]

Cool, thanks for the new information.  Our rink has a dance class, and when I was in it before . . . it was the most boring music imaginable.   I wrongly assumed that that was the test music too. Thanks for the info! 

[Query]

At the tests I've seen (admittedly not that many), the clubs provided the music - and they always use the Ice Dance Music Exchange "elevator music". I don't think the skaters were allowed to provide their own.

But maybe I'm completely wrong, or it depends on the club.

[icedancer]

You can skate to your own music IF it has the requisite beats per minute required for the dance.

If you are planning to test a dance it would be very very wise to present the music to your dance test chairperson first so that your music can be timed to make sure that it meets the required beats per minute.

It kills me that people won't dance because of the music.  It is true that the early dances especially the music seems like "elevator music" - mostly these are old standards - somehow when pop singers sing them they are "cool" but when you hear them at the rink they are something that a person can't get past.  I just don't get it really.

People that really love ice-dance love ice-dance because of how awesome it is to skate with someone else, to music, on the ice.  You become part of a flow with another person and it is great - eventually you learn to love the ice-dance music because when you hear it you are reminded of that amazing flow over the ice with another person - it is totally addictive. 

Ice-Dancers often say that they enjoy listening to ice-dance music in their office-cubicles, in their cars, in their houses - it evoked the feeling of what it feels like to dance with another person on the ice.

Like I said in another post there are better choices out there for ice-dance - you just have to get involved in the ice-dance world for a while and you will find them.

[Neverdull44]

This is a macho, hockey player who is getting older who might skate.   The type of music, the dress, everything . . . he is going to be very self conscious.    The standard music just sucks.

[amy1984]

They let you do this in the US?  Skate Canada has a list every year of 'contemporary' alternatives.  We had a chuckle last year because the alternative for the keates was quit playing games with my heart

[amy1984]

Also, I wanted to mention... there are ISU versions of the music.  Some of them are better.  And I do second icedancer.  Once you get into it, the music doesn't seem so bad.

[blue111moon]

There are no ISU versions of the lower US dances.  When I competed the Prelim dances in France, they used high level music.  I think we skated the Dutch Waltz to the music for the either the European or the Vienese waltz.  Whichever it was, the tempo was wrong for me, as a beginner and I ended up doing something closer to a polka trying to keep up.

As for the guy, teach him the steps without the music first.  Or with any music that sort of fits the tempo.  Then once he knows the dances, you can switch over to the "official" music if he wants to test. 

[alejeather]

There are a handful of folks in the social ice dance community who have put a ton of work into preparing a lot of new music for ice dance. This includes choosing songs, adjusting for speed (but only within slight variations) and adjusting length (for social situations). Some songs have been hits with the ice dance community, some are not, but it provides some variety, and this is an ongoing effort. Many ice dance weekends use some of this music. I chose two of the tracks for my recent solo dance competition since a rule passed this year to allow skaters to provide their own compulsory dance music. I don't know what's allowed for testing.

I've used this music when practicing dances at the rink. Some people say, "Thanks for using something new!" Some people don't realize it's a program, though, since we don't have sashes, and that can be problematic.

As far as music distribution, though, it's a tough matter. They can't sell the music. I'm not even sure what laws really surround distributing it at all, given that they don't own it. But there's a lot of music out there and people are working on this. I think USFS contacted them at some point, but I don't know what the status of that is. I don't expect official compulsory music to change anytime soon, but you have more and more freedom to use whatever music you want, as long as it is the correct bpm and an acceptable character for the dance.

If you want to try finding your own music, here are the official beats per minute of each dance for the US: http://iceskatingresources.org/CompulsoryDanceChart.html and you can use this tool http://www.all8.com/tools/bpm.htm to tap out bpm of a song you're listening to.

I may be able to provide a few suggestions too. Ice dance with a partner takes getting used to, but it is a lot of fun!

[MimiG]

Ice-Dancers often say that they enjoy listening to ice-dance music in their office-cubicles, in their cars, in their houses - it evoked the feeling of what it feels like to dance with another person on the ice.

I may or may not use one of the Quickstep tracks as my ringtone... 

[Query]

There are a handful of folks in the social ice dance community who have put a ton of work into preparing a lot of new music for ice dance...

As far as music distribution, though, it's a tough matter. They can't sell the music. I'm not even sure what laws really surround distributing it at all, given that they don't own it.

I suspect the laws are mostly pretty clear. Without permission or license from the copyright owners (both the composers, and the performers) you can't sell it, give copies to other people (for the most part), nor can you play it in a public performance, such as at during a rink session.

But ISI and USFSA have contracts through ASCAP (and maybe some of the other licensing arbiters) that let you play some of the ASCAP licensed music in certain contexts, and there are some limitations. Rinks can get licenses too. But money still has to be payed to the copyright owners.

If you wanted to resell your modified music, you might look into sources of "royalty free music", though you may not always find the best performers there. Or talk to ASCAP and/or the artists, to acquire legit rights to distribute the music.

The truth is, people don't like the music partly because they hear it so much. Some of it really wouldn't be bad if you didn't keep hearing it.

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Many (most?) figure skating clubs have someone who functions as a "test chair", and maybe someone else as a "competition chair". Perhaps those of you who have an interest in alternative music could ask those people whether or not their club would let you substitute alternative music? I'd be curious whether most of them would say yes...

If people provide music for their own tests or competition performances, the obvious problem is that the judges or others would theoretically have to spend extra time to test the music to verify that the tempo is correct and is strictly kept throughout. Remember, these people are volunteers!

Another issue for you personally: If you practice to music that doesn't keep an exact strict rhythm (most music does not), you may learn to move with the rhythm of the music, rather than the desired strict rhythm, and that might affect your test or competition results.

BTW, it's already the case that there can be time delays between what you hear and what the judges hear, due to the finite speed of sound, about 1100 feet/second = about 340 meters/second, which may cause you to speed up and slow down as you move around the rink. For the fastest ice dance music (we had another thread on this years ago), you could literally be off in what you hear by a couple beats in extreme cases from what the judges hear, in the worst case that there is just one speaker at ground level near the judge's stand. (We had another thread on that topic years ago.)