I know this has been brought up recently but..

I am competing in Solo Dance. It is my understanding that the skater does not know what the 'musical variation/selection' will be until the warm up at the event. For Ex. Skater is competing the Cha Cha. There are several different 'songs' that could be played for the Cha Cha. Coach says the IJS has a CD with 6 different 'selections' for EACH dance. And that we will work with each 'selection' so that it is not a shock the day of the competition whichever one that they choose.

Here is my dilemma. I have been speaking w/ a rep from USFSA. There are two CD's available for purchase. One has the lower level dances through Bronze with 3 different variations per dance. BUT the other CD with 32 dances has only 1 selection per dance. The lower level one is great for NOW. But next year...useless when I move up. Ok, not the point.

Does anyone know about this CD my coach seems to think exists with 6 variations for ALL the dances? And if so how can I get my hands on it.

Can I piggy back on this question? Is the CD that USFSA sells the one that must be played for tests?

I'm working on the first 3 dances now, and the music for the dutch waltz (it's organ music) doesn't match anything I've seen on youtube. Is there a way to know that this is the music a potential test session would play? (I'd call a test chair- but well that potential is a long way off). The canasta tango and rhythm blues seem to match what youtube has on tests.

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of course you can piggy back...I ''think' the one being sold can be used during tests. I have two different versions of the lower level dances and I believe they were from USFSA. BUT..just as a word of caution, every time I've tested they used the opposite one that I practiced with. So it does pay to have and work with both/as many versions as possible. And I say I 'think' because a friend of mine copied her cd's for me. So, I'm not sure where she got hers from.

My coach has actually requested which track be used for a specific test. I don't think they really care, so long as it's an 'official' track. It makes more difference for competition - they need several different options, depending on how many competitors there are. The track they use for the warmup isn't used in the competition at all, and then they alternate between two or three tracks (so if you're late enough in the skate order, you can figure out which one you're going to get).

I have both CDs available through USFS - the beginning one and the one with all the dances. I also have one my dance partner gave me, which has three selections for each of the dances - I'll have to ask him where that came from. There are CDs available from the ISU, but I've never ordered those because I get all confused with euros.

ISU sells complete CD set as per their website

http://www.isu.org/vsite/vcontent/pa...m-item,00.html

ID2 Ice Dance Music Rhythms (CD and booklet) M 35 SFr

ID3 ISU Official Dance Music recorded for the 22 compulsory dances (produced in 1998, 4 CDs) and Midnight Blues + Rhumba d'Amore CD M 120 SFr

Hope this helps. These are the same ones used for local and international competition.

Yeah, that's it. If somebody could explain to me exactly how to place the order, I would appreciate it. I admit to being a little thick in terms of negotiating web sites, but I can't find an order form anywhere on that one, or see any directions as to how to order.

Clarice? Are you kidding me? They play a track during the warm up but don't use that one for all the competitiors? That sounds INSANE!! lol

Thanks sk8dad, I saw this b4 on the ISU site. Anyone know how to convert francs to dollars? And doesn't this seem extreme...having to send away to Switzerland for a friggin CD? Isn't there a location in the U.S. to get this?

Ok, I think I'm losing my mind over this and I should just 'wing' it when I compete. Too much trouble.

Nothing wrong with you at all. You can't order online. The instructions for ordering are at the bottom of the page:

"All the above prices are listed without postage costs.

Ordering:

Orders can be made by e-mail, fax or mail. Please give us the list of reference numbers and quantities and let us know the delivery address in full (including country). We will usually send the order and an invoices separately, which can be paid by bank transfer or by personal check in Swiss Francs (CHF) or US Dollars (USD).

Unfortunately we cannot accept Credit Cards payment.

For the exact CHF/USD exchange rate please check with your bank or on the internet.

INTERNATIONAL SKATING UNION
Chemin de Primerose 2
CH-1007 Lausanne
Switzerland"

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Again...doesn't this seem extreme?? Shouldn't these products be available in the U.S.?

Well, maybe! I guess the idea is that nobody wants to keep hearing the same track over and over again for all the competitors, and they don't want to give anybody an advantage because they got to skate to the same one that was used in the warmup. So the warmup track is eliminated from the competition rotation.

Thanks, dbny - if I'd ever noticed those directions, I'd forgotten they were there, and then didn't see them again because I was too busy looking for an online order form. Now all I have to do is convert Swiss francs to dollars so I know how much I'm spending before I order. Seriously, would it hurt anybody to make this stuff more easily available? Why couldn't USFS offer these through their web site? And why can't we use credit cards? That would be so much simpler. Argh.

Yes, it should be available in the U.S. I converted to U.S. dollars - the 22 dance cd- it's about 96 bucks. Don't quote me on that though.

I think I'm just going to wing it. I can't afford that right now.

The 22 dances plus midnight blues + rhumba d'amore is 120CHF (Swiss Francs) which is 115.97 USD.

1 USD = 1.03471 CHF

So yes, quite expensive for 5 CDs (4 for the 22 dances and 1 for MB and RDA)

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Well, if it's 5 CDs it's not THAT expensive- isn't that only a bit more than $20 each? The CDs from USFSA are $20 each.

Now the process to get them- that's ridiculous.

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-Jessi
What I need is a montage...
Visit my skating journal or my Youtube videos (updated with 2 new videos Sept 26, 2009)

I presume there is no competition for the ISU CD so they wouldn't bother making it easy.

My 6 1/2 year old did a competition (in house) a couple of weeks ago and was so startled by his music being a different Rhythm blues he started on completely the wrong beat.....

I wonder why more coaches don't have all the variations of the music.

Have you heard some of the 14-steps - some sound much more march like than others.

I agree with you Cazzie, coaches should have all the variations. Yes, it is expensive (to pay out all at once) but it is thier career after all. They could burn copies to thier students to practice and charge them a small fee if they wanted. Not saying they should charge students but just a thought. Don't want to upset anyone over this.

Like I said, I'm not going to send a personal check to Switzerland. I'm going to wing it and practice to the two versions I have and hope for the best. Unless someone has this CD and I would gladly pay them to burn it for me. Not $100 bucks though.

My coach does dance and moves so he said he doesn't have the CD's because he hasn't had anyone yet to compete in dance. Mostly his students test dance but I guess I'm the first to compete.

Another alternative to help you get used to different music would be to find entirely different music at the correct tempo. For example, if you are doing the Fiesta Tango, which (I think) is 100 beats per minute, you could also skate to "La Paloma", "Hernando's Hideaway", or any other tango as long as it was also 100 bpm.

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Yeah, you are right dbny. I've calmed myself down over this. I'm pretty good at picking up the beat as it is. In fact my coach and I skated the Hickory Hoedown to one of Lady GaGa's songs. Don't ask me which one, lol.

It may be different where you are. My DD has competed in several competitions over the last 2 years in solo dance. Whatever the warm-up music was, was the music they competed to. Everyone had the same music. Same thing with testing. When I hold Dance tests as the test chair, I always used the main coach's CD for the dance tests. Now that he's gone, I will be using the USFS CD with all the dances on it.

If you are in the US you would actually use an International Postal Order not a check--just in case anyone reading wants to order these.

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Are the US lower level dances included on the CD from ISU? I seem to remember reading or hearing that the ISU music starts with the pre-silver or silver dances.

Here in the UK, the ISU music is used for all our test dances, with the exception of the Riverside Rhumba, and NISA has issued standard music for that. I think some of our tempi are slightly different to the USA, though.

Herniated, it's the beat that matters, not the tune that covers it. Don't listen to the music, just to the beat.

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Thanks guys for the suggestions and your experiences. And Pinklaces, your experiences are the same as my coaches and he competed for a long time in many different areas. Hope it will b the same for me. But I'm just going to listen for the beat as Mrs. R said.

mdvask8r I think ALL the dances are on the cd. Check out sk8dad web site that he posted.

Hi everyone.

I was wondering if there's any way to find specific tracks from the ISU dance music collection? There are one or two songs I'd love to listen to during my spare time (I absolutely adore one of the versions of Silver Samba) but sadly my club doesn't own a copy of the ISU dance music. Is there anywhere I can go to find it, or at least find the title of the track?

Thanks a lot!

For tests, you can bring your own music (or if you're testing at your club and know the music they have, you can request which track you test with). I generally do this, just because there is always a track or two for each dance I can't stand (either it's harder to find the beat, I don't like the intro, it "feels" too fast/slow even though it's the correct tempo, etc). I don't lilke things that I can control throwing me off when I test. I'm pretty sure what you're using has to be an ISU/USFS version and not something off a program dance CD though, although I've heard Hickory tests use some Kermit the Frog song. (Maybe that's an official version?) When I test the Starlight, maybe I'll show up with Piano Man and see if it flies

I've had competitions where we warmed up to the track we all competed. I've also had competitons where they played a random track or two and you didn't know what you were getting to compete. With my luck, I always end up with the track for a particular dance that I hate the most out of all of them.

I suggest getting as much music as you can to practice to (even if it means a program dance CD with non-traditional or more popular music). The more you practice a dance with different music, the better you'll be able to handle having mystery tracks you've never heard before thrown at you. This happened once at ANs when I was competing...my former partner and I got a mystery track I'd never heard for that dance when we competed. It was really hard to figure out what was going on in the first few bars for the track, it was hard to find the beat, and our intro got messed up because I had no clue when to start and we ended up on a down beat the whole dance. And it was a song we both recognized and spent most of our 2 patterns trying to figure out what it was. (I say this, yet my own dance CD only has one version of each dance, luckily I have a few program dance CDs that I've made or accumulated and there are dance CDs with other tracks at my rink.)

If you're cool like I am, you rock out to compulsory dance music in your car while in rush hour. (Yes, I have issues.)

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