Of course, when I say "a few dances", I mean it. Nearly everything sounds like a cha-cha (which I don't even dance at all, really, but it's a very versatile and common rhythm), or an east coast swing, or a salsa or a rumba. Except the waltzes, of course. Anyway, I definitely need more breadth of dances. Of course, I really want to get a lot better at the dances I actually do dance. More lessons!
One of the instructors mentioned how useful cha-cha was with rock and pop songs, and I started hearing that (and couldn't stop...). I'm also loving Jitterbug and east coast swing - I come closer to getting out of my head with those than any other dance, so I'm hearing those a lot too. Cha-cha and East Coast swing cover a similar range of tempos and both have a triple step in them, so a lot of the time I hear both. Sometimes I think of East coast swing as a pair of Siamese cha-cha twins joined in the middle. That probably is a 100% private joke... As well as politically incorrect.
For me, the distinction between a cha cha and and East coast swing comes down to feel - the more latin a song feels, the more likely it is to be cha-cha; if it's got a straight-ahead rock swing it feels like East coast swing. My current examples are "Moves like Jagger" by Maroon 5 is a cha cha, and "My Body" by Young the Giant feels more like an East Coast Swing. Lots of songs feel like they might be either one. Of course, if it REALLY swings (and it's a bit slower), now we're talking foxtrot. But you don't hear many of those out in the world, or at least I don't. Maybe I ought to hang out with the hipsters, they appreciate Sinatra, right?
Salsa and rumba overlap a lot in tempo too, I'm somewhat surprised to notice how fast a rumba can get and still fit. The classic rumbas are "And I love her" by the Beatles, or "Stand by me" by Ben E King, but I just heard "I kissed a girl" by Katy Perry and it seemed like I could rumba to it (though I did not rumba around the restaurant and test it out...) But most of the overlap here, for me, is tempo. In rhythm, syncopation, and feel, songs are either rumbas or salsas. "black horse and cherry tree" by KT Tunstall is playing right now, and it feels much more like a salsa than a rumba.
OK, they followed that up with "Party Rock Anthem" by LMFAO which reminds me that all house and techno everywhere ends up being a merengue. Probably not the most appropriate dance, but it's the dance I know. Every Day I'm Shufflin'.
