Let's play "name that Dance tune"

I've started to get a few dances under my belt, which means I always want to play "name that dance" every time any song comes on.  My friends are quite patient with me and haven't busted my chops too hard for playing a quiz game nobody else can play.  Or wants to.  Or even wants to watch me play by myself...  One friend encourages me and actually asks questions occasionally - if he's not careful he's going to end up in a dance class...

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'.

The Lull and the Jitterbug

Well, I'm feeling a bit of a lull in my dancing and enthusiasm. Just part of the life of a dilettante, I suppose. I do know that there's a fairly frustrating phase in any learning process where you can do the basics (poorly, and non-automatically, in my case), and you can start to see what's going on with people who REALLY know what they're doing, but you can't *do* it. Unfortunately, I still don't feel confident enough in my dancing to "take it on the road" - I'm too vain to dance anywhere except the studio, surrounded by my fellow students.

For the most part.

I've been working on the jitterbug a lot lately, and it's starting to feel natural. Of course, the footwork is dead simple, almost as easy as merengue, and the music is fun. I only know three or four "tricks" (my term for anything other than the basic steps - spins, etc), but I'm fairly able to fire those off at the right time, and I am starting to feel which spin or move "works" right now, based on our hand positions, etc. I still occasionally fire off the "wrong" spin or whatever, but it's actually fun in that it feels SO wrong. Which is huge for me, because it means that most of what I'm doing feels pretty right - that's new.

My other point of pride with the jitterbug is that, despite the pace, I'm rarely late making up my mind and leading my dance partner. In most of my other dances, I'm often firing of a lead cue just a fraction of a second too late for my partner. The fact that I have a feel for the right thing to do and the right time to do it with jitterbug makes me happy.

And I'm not so much thinking my way through the dance, I'm just dancing.

Cool.

Music you can dance to (Part 2 - Latin)

As I began exploring in part one, learning to dance is making me approach music from a new direction - What dance is this? For a band nerd that's used to being behind the music stand, this is a new and fun thing.

This time I'll explore Latin dances and rhythms. I've always enjoyed Latin music, particularly where it crossed over into Big Band - Bossa Nova, etc (there's that Band Nerd thing again), but I ended up not listening to it all that much. I'm beginning to suspect that what I needed was a context, specifically, a context of dance. I'm getting one.


Tango - another favorite dance, and one that also has music distinctive and dramatic enough for me to recognize easily. I love that passion and the sexuality of this dance, and seeing "Scent of a Woman" didn't hurt one bit, either. I'm not sure I'll end up with a rose in my teeth at any point, but so far, I'm having fun with Tango and looking forward to more. Of course, this dance, more than any other, sacrifices my social goals for total passion. The only people I'm going to meet tangoing are going to be people in the tango club, and it's not something you just go out and do. In the US, it's a niche dance. Oh well, Art for art's sake, I suppose. Tango tunes: Nothing that's ever been played on Pop Radio in North America that I can remember or imagine (see? There's that niche thing again!), but the other night I danced a Tango to a piece with Lyrics in German, but I don't know the name of it. Funky. The Internet claims you can tango to "Roxanne" by The Police And "I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)" by The Proclaimers, but they both feel like they're a big stretch to me... What do I know.... The whole POINT of tango music is dancing to it - since I haven't danced, is it any wonder I don't know any Tango tunes?? Edit - "Whatever Lola Wants (Lola Gets) by Sarah Vaughan" is a tango.


Rumba - One of the many uses of the box step, I think of this as the slow, sexy end of the Latin dance continuum. But there's a lot of Rumba music out there that you've heard, and a lot of it doesn't sound Latin to me - "And I love her" and "In My Life" - The Beatles (which have a bit of a latin feel), and "With or Without You" - U2, "You've got A Friend" - James Taylor, "Stand By Me" - Ben E King, "One of These Nights" - The Eagles, "Let's Stay Together" - Al Green. The large menu of musical choices and the obvious social possibilities of a slow dance make it a serious contender for the Dance short list.

Salsa - We've spent some time on this in class, in fact this is probably the dance I'm farthest along in - which is not that far! I've gotten the footwork options in my head pretty clearly, and we worked on a cross-body lead and spin combo in group class last week, which I almost got, need to drill it another 1000 times or so... The social possibilities of Salsa are quite good in New Mexico (maybe elsewhere too, I dunno...), and the music is a hoot, even if not much of it is stuff that I ever listened to on the radio (this is probably mostly a comment on my pedestrian musical tastes, rather than on availability). Salsa is all about the clave. Salsa tunes I've heard of (maybe you have too) are "Livin' La Vida Loca" - Ricky Martin, "Mambo #5" - Lou Bega and "Tequila" - Champs. Interesting (to me anyway) that Salsa beats seem not to have been adopted as widely in Pop music as Rumba rhythms, but Salsa keeps that Latin Fire even on the "crossover" hits, where as Rumba sneaks in and pretends to be pop. And as far as the dance, this is one of the more fun and energetic dances out there - I definitely get why so many people end up wanting to dance Salsa - it's fun even to watch.

Merengue - This is the first Latin musical style that I was able to distinguish from Salsa once I started dancing and it became important to pay attention. Salsa tends to be 4/4, and the characteristic Clave rhythm makes it swing, where Merengue is (or feels) much more 2/4 and more straight ahead, and it has less swing, more urgency. Merengue as a dance is so easy, even
a caveman
I can do it - we've spent maybe an hour on it, and the footwork is locked for me, and as far as I can tell, it's so straightforward that you can pretty much do anything at any time - which doesn't mean *I* can pull it off yet, it just means I'm not having to ask myself "Is this the right time for a spin? (or any other move)" With Merengue, the answer is always "Yes, it's a fine time!". This Dance feels like something you only spend a few hours learning, after that you just need practice. Lots and Lots of practice. Salsa, Rumba, Foxtrot, Tango all get basically fractally complex very fast, where as Merengue at least starts out as basic and regular as a brick wall (which doesn't mean you can't build tall and complex dances on top of a Merengue, clearly). "Hot Hot Hot" by Buster Poindexter is a Merengue, but my favorite surprise Merengue tune is "(Nothing but) Flowers" by the Talking Heads.

Bachata - Initially I had a hard time telling a Bachata tune from a Salsa (maybe I still do, let me know!), but thanks to Amazon.com, I ordered a few CD's to listen to, and I think I've got it. Bachata is slowest, Salsa is Medium, and Merengues tend to be faster. In Salsa, the Clave is the signature percussion element; whereas Bachatas tend to have (or feel) the slow, classic guiro scrape. The other characteristic of a bachata (to my Wikipedia-informed ear, at least) is that the lyrics tend to be forlorn and heartbroken. I have vanishingly little spanish, but I can hear it in the melody and delivery - understanding the lyrics is apparently optional. I've only spent about 20 minutes with the bachata as a dance, so far, but all I can say is: Hip bump. The only song I can think of that feels like a bachata to me is "Guantanamamera" (particularly the slower versions), but that's a Cuban classic, and Bachata hails from the Dominican Republic, so I'm not confident of that. (Edit - the more I think of this, the more I doubt it. Maybe a Rumba???)

Cha Cha - I've spent very little time on this in dance class, and not a lot of listening time, but to me Cha Cha music feels like Bachata's faster cousin. I often hear the same Guiro figure as Bachata, but, well, faster - though the Cha Cha Guiro can get a lot more complex, as well. The other difference from Bachata music is that there are a bunch of cha cha's you've heard, most of them feel pretty Latin, but there are a few surprises..
Oye Como Va - Santana
Smooth - Santana/Rob Thomas
All I Wanna Do - Sheryl Crow
Soak up the Sun - Sheryl Crow
Barbie Girl - Aqua
Cantaloop (Flip Fantasia) - Us3
Guantanamera - Los Lobos (this version is a little faster, feels like a slowish Cha Cha to me....)
Walkin' on the Sun - Smash Mouth
Short Skirt / Long Jacket - Cake
Spill the Wine - Eric Burdon & War - (This one feels like it's got one foot in the Cha Cha camp, and the other in Bachata...)


So that's my take on Latin music you can dance to. I'm sure I'm off base with a lot of this, please chime in, the point of all this is to help me figure this stuff out...