Decent Ice Dance Music?

[katz in boots]

Why is ice dance music so awful ??? I would've thought funky music might attract more to the discipline.

I managed to find reasonably good versions for Dutch Waltz and Canasta Tango, but as soon as I heard the music for Swing Dance, my heart sank.
How can I subject my fellow skaters to that dross while coach & I work on it? I don't want to be subjected to it. 8O

Surely there must be decent music out there that is correct tempo for these dances? Where can I find it??? I may be 49, but I am not ready for nursing home sing-along music yet.

[BatikatII]

Why is ice dance music so awful ??? I would've thought funky music might attract more to the discipline.

I managed to find reasonably good versions for Dutch Waltz and Canasta Tango, but as soon as I heard the music for Swing Dance, my heart sank.
How can I subject my fellow skaters to that dross while coach & I work on it? I don't want to be subjected to it. 8O

Surely there must be decent music out there that is correct tempo for these dances? Where can I find it??? I may be 49, but I am not ready for nursing home sing-along music yet.


I so agree. I nearly gave up dance for good on account of the music.
I asked my coach to come up with modern music at correct tempos for an exhibition dance the club's kids were doing last year and she used (if I remember right) Justin Timberlakes 'Sexy Back' for the Canasta Tango and a Gloria Estefan song ( I forget which one but it was out at the same time - might have had something about a fridge in it??????) for the Riverside Rhumba. I cant remember the dances and songs from this year.

I seem to remember Annabel (Mrs Redboots) had some ideas for songs that worked for dance. Sometimes CDs designed for aerobic workouts will have the beats per minute listed alongside the titles so you can find ones which match the tempos you need, else you have to check the beats yourself with a stopwatch - count beats for 6 secs and multiply by 10 for an approximation.

[fsk8r]

Why is ice dance music so awful ??? I would've thought funky music might attract more to the discipline.

I managed to find reasonably good versions for Dutch Waltz and Canasta Tango, but as soon as I heard the music for Swing Dance, my heart sank.
How can I subject my fellow skaters to that dross while coach & I work on it? I don't want to be subjected to it. 8O

Surely there must be decent music out there that is correct tempo for these dances? Where can I find it??? I may be 49, but I am not ready for nursing home sing-along music yet.

I've always thought of it as music to hang yourself to. However there's enough dance done down my rink, that it's a like it or lump it approach for the other skaters so we're all subjected to it (I figured that if I'm lumping it I may as well do dance).

A couple of coaches have some alternative dance music, with some reasonable christmas songs for doing the basic dances to, I'm not sure where they got it from, but it's slightly more bearable.

[jenlyon60]

The music for the lower level dances seems to be the most dire. I think to some degree it's because they've done something so that the beat is more obvious for "new to dance" skaters to find.

OTOH, if you can survive the lower level (USFS) music, it gives you an incentive to work hard to get to the higher levels where they often rely on the "official" ISU tracks.

[Bunny Hop]

My theory on why compulsory dance music is so dire used to be that it had been chosen by people who hadn't listened to the radio since about 1955, but then I realised that even when they did choose a decent tune, they still manage to murder it in the process of making it into dance music. Not sure which of the UK compulsories uses Eidelweiss (whatever dance it is, it's too advanced for me), but whoever adapted it turned a pretty tune into something virtually unrecognisable.

Love ice dance. Hate ice dance music! And the tune for the Dutch Waltz always gets stuck in my head. Drives me mad!

[RachelSk8er]

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 (a kid on one of my sessions skates to that music for her basic skills program so I was playing around one day...the steps actually go really well with the lyrics, but truthfully this is worse than the "real" silver samba music, which I tend to like!)

The music for lower levels is pretty bad, but it gets better.

[Rob Dean]

Contact the Skating Club of Wilmington...the Program Dance (mostly adult social) group uses a lot of variant music. Some of it's better than the standards; some are a little hard to hear the beat. But, call the office and they can put you in touch with the right people.

Rob Dean

(oops...checking back I see that you are in Australia, which would be a bit of a phonecall. Email should work as well.)

[Mel On Ice]

I was always partial to the 14 step version that sounded like Monty Python's Flying Circus.

[sk8_4fun]

sorry guys but I LOVE the ISU dance music!8O:P:P

[RachelSk8er]

I was always partial to the 14 step version that sounded like Monty Python's Flying Circus.

There is one that sounds like the theme song to Barney. It gives me nightmares. With my luck, that will be the one I have to skate to @ ANs.

[flying~camel]

The last time I completed the Cha Cha (June 07), I skated it to "I Need to Know" by Marc Anthony. It was fun! :D

[sk8tmum]

We use ISU at our club ... the test day that featured 35 Dutch Waltzes, 27 Baby Blues and 32 Canasta Tangoes (I play music for test day) plus all of the warmups in between the groups ...

I still have nightmares. Have you ever noticed that Baby Blues is really Cruella Devil from 101 Dalmations? can you imagine having that song stuck in your head for 3 straight weeks?????8O

Then there's the dance sessions ... where you get to hear the same music played over and over and over and over again ... :roll:

[Clarice]

I was always partial to the 14 step version that sounded like Monty Python's Flying Circus.

That's actually the Liberty Bell March by John Philip Sousa. In his day marches were often used as dance music.

[CoachPA]

Surely there must be decent music out there that is correct tempo for these dances? Where can I find it??? I may be 49, but I am not ready for nursing home sing-along music yet.

Check out some of the songs used throughout the seasons on Dancing With the Stars (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_with_the_Stars_(U.S._season_7)#Songs). There's seven seasons of music to choose from (scroll down for the lists); just download what you like and what you think will work for a particular dance.

[dbny]

I really don't understand why ice dance music is so rigid. In roller dance, we could use any correct type of music with the correct tempo. For example, any march could be done to "Get Me To the Church On Time", if it were the right tempo for that dance. The Fourteen Step, Paso Doble, Quickstep, and Kilian were all done to march music. Any tango could be done to "Hernando's Hideaway" with the right tempo. I loved our dance music!

[Terri C]

Since there is this discussion about ice dance music.. I have a experience from yesterday that I feel compelled to share.

Our own Beccapoo was in town visiting her mother. We have been trying for years to get together and skate whenever she was in town but it didn't work out- until yesterday.
When she got to the rink, she told me that there was something she wanted to show me. That something was the Canasta Tango done to "Yeah!" by Usher. The kids at my rink had this "what is this?" :?? look on their faces when they saw Becca stroking around crossover, swing roll step- step, etc and me following behind, but man oh man was it fun! And this is coming from someone who does not do dance (or has dabbled a tiny bit with it)

[Query]

As to why, they generally alter the music so it has a perfectly even and strongly emphasized beat and tempo, and a constant number of beats / measure. Not much room for musical expression. If you make Swing perfectly even, it certainly isn't Swing any more. They do the same thing to exercise music.

It doesn't help that you hear it an infinite number of times.

There are a couple of sources of alternate music. I think

http://www.ncassociates.com/icednce/default.asp?BROWSER=ie4

stays with the standards, but

http://www.uq.net.au/~zzbarneg/sk_dancemusic.htm

has some alternatives. I haven't looked at these much, but you could also try

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Bistro/4448/
http://www.danceplus.com/
http://library.music.indiana.edu/music_resources/dance.html
http://www.skatemusiclist.com

and I've a few more under "Exercise Music", "Dance", "General Info on Ice Skating" at

http://www.geocities.com/grunes/mybookmark.html

and the like.

If you let other people (like an audience) hear the music, the copyright and license thing gets complicated. And you may need sophisticated software like

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

if you want the tempo where USFSA likes it.

[kateskate]

sorry guys but I LOVE the ISU dance music!8O:P:P

Me too. I thought I was the only one.

[mintypoppet]

Me too. I thought I was the only one.

Nah, frbskate keeps saying we need an "I listen to ISU music for pleasure" group on Facebook!

Bunny Hop: At my rink, we use Edelweiss for Dutch, British or European Waltz. And hideous it is too...

[sk8_4fun]

Nah, frbskate keeps saying we need an "I listen to ISU music for pleasure" group on Facebook!

Bunny Hop: At my rink, we use Edelweiss for Dutch, British or European Waltz. And hideous it is too...


Oh I LOVE the starlight waltz. I'd definately join that face book group lol:bow:

[abbi_1990]

i love the music for the Yankee Polka lol

[Bunny Hop]

Bunny Hop: At my rink, we use Edelweiss for Dutch, British or European Waltz. And hideous it is too...
That will be where I've heard it then. We went to the odd Sunday morning session at Oxford some time back and used to witness the end of the dance club session that preceded it. I actually think I'd prefer Eidelweiss (even the hideous version) for Dutch Waltz, as I really hate the music we usually use! I'm not likely to be going anywhere near the other waltzes for some years.

[doubletoe]

A few suggestions that are very close to the correct tempo:

14 Step--Dontcha Wish Your Girlfriend Were Hot Like Me (Pussycat Dolls)

OMG, how do we get that submitted for U.S. Adult Nationals this year? ROFL!

[katz in boots]

Surely you can't use music with vocals in competition or test for compulsory dances though? Can you even use vocal music for free dance?

A lot of suggestions here were vocal music.
One of the sites Query listed scared me off asking for more, cos it linked to exactly the piece for Swing Dance that makes me cringe:

http://www.ncassociates.com/icednce/DiskA.htm track 10

Makes me shudder just thinking about it! There must be less cringe-worthy than this. Or is there? Perhaps there is something worse ? 8O
If you know of something worse, please do post a link to a sample. I might actually start to like the abomination I've got now 8O

[RachelSk8er]

Nah, frbskate keeps saying we need an "I listen to ISU music for pleasure" group on Facebook!



Not gonna lie, I have the silvers through internationals on my iPod and sometimes when I'm driving and have the iPod going through the stereo on random and ice dance music comes on, I don't switch it right away. :lol: Especially when the Killian or Yankee come on and I have friends in the car. Ha ha.

Yesterday I was watching some really lame reality show (Inner Beauty or whatever it's called on ABC) and at one point they had the music for the American going in the background. I was excited.

OMG, how do we get that submitted for U.S. Adult Nationals this year? ROFL!

Except I have this very hideous toy soldier-looking dress from an old synchro program that I'm very tempted to wear for the 14 step (should I???) and PCD doesn't quite go with it. :lol:

[CoachPA]

Oh I LOVE the starlight waltz. I'd definately join that face book group lol:bow:

Here ya go! (http://www.facebook.com/groups/create.php?customize&gid=120275875197#/group.php?gid=120275875197) :lol: (I couldn't resist!)

[Mrs Redboots]

Surely you can't use music with vocals in competition or test for compulsory dances though? Can you even use vocal music for free dance?

ISU compulsory dance music is used for test and competition. For a test, you can prepare the dance to one of the official tunes, if you like, only you need to make sure whoever is doing the music knows which one you are using. For competition, the music steward plays one track (I think normally Track 6) during the warm-up, after one minute's silent warm-up, and then cycles through tracks 1-5 for each competitor. I mean competitor nos 1, 6 and 11 will get to skate to track 1; 2, 7 and 12 to track 2; 3, 8 and 13 to track 3 and so on.

And yes, vocal music is normally allowed for both free and original dance.

[sk8_4fun]

Here ya go! (http://www.facebook.com/groups/create.php?customize&gid=120275875197#/group.php?gid=120275875197) :lol: (I couldn't resist!)



Lmao! Thanks, I'm in!:bow::bow::bow:

[icedancer2]

Lmao! Thanks, I'm in!:bow::bow::bow:

Me too! I especially like the Starlight and Argentine music!

[JassenB]

I found this site and thread while looking for music to download to put together a practice CD. I just started working on my preliminary dances this last week. I assumed incorrectly that it would be simple to find public domain compulsory dance music already set up online and ready for download.

Based on some of the listings recommended here, I ended up up on the iTunes music store. There are a slew of different variations that have been recorded over the years for some of the "standards".

Ultimately, I ended up using song titles off of a list linked to from this thread to:

http://www.ncassociates.com/icednce/diskE.htm

and found versions of the songs I liked. I'll still end up ordering a CD for my tests, but this will get me through practice for the next couple weeks.

Thank you so much, everybody!
-Jassen

[phoenix]

Hi Jassen,

Welcome!

Just fyi--you don't have to bring your own music/CD's for compulsory dance tests--the club provides that. (in the U.S.--might be different in other countries?)

[Mrs Redboots]

Hi Jassen,

Welcome!

Just fyi--you don't have to bring your own music/CD's for compulsory dance tests--the club provides that. (in the U.S.--might be different in other countries?)
It's the same in the UK. NISA prescribes ISU music for all dances, even the non-ISU ones (with the exception of the Riverside Rhumba, but even then, it prescribes six different tunes with the same rhythm). However, other tunes with the correct tempo may be, and often are, used for recreational dance, but mostly they are even more dire than the ISU music!