Bronco Schottisches

Bob and I are teaching the Bronco Schottische at Faster Polka tomorrow night (Roble Studio, Stanford University, 9PM). If you don't know what that is, it's kind of like redowa for schottisching. As in, you get to go faster and it's fun. I learned it from Ryan and Monica at Waltz Weekend 6 years ago, but haven't encountered it much since then. Which is why we're sharing the fun tonight.

So, to make sure you all have something to practice with, here are a few schottisches that I like for the Bronco. They're all about 150 bpm, which seems to be a good tempo for it. You don't want to go too much faster, since Bronco is trickier than regular schottische, but you don't want it too slow either because then you lose the energy.

Rockapella - Zombie Jamboree

The iTunes link is to a live version; I don't know how that is for dancing. I have the version from this CD. You can also watch a performance on YouTube.

Joe Diffie - Third Rock from the Sun

I've also heard this one called a west coast swing, but I like the bounce it has for a schottische. You can hear the full track on last.fm.

Geoff Byrd - Elusive Butterfly

Disclaimer: I haven't actually danced to this one yet, but that will be rectified on Friday. It sounds like it should be fun, though. (Thanks to Rowyn for the recommendation.)

Nothing downloadable I could find, but there's a sample, a video, and a CD.

Ingrid Michaelson Waltzes

Ingrid Michaelson is a talented young singer-songwriter. If you watch television, you may have heard the song "Keep Breathing" in the Grey's Anatomy Season 3 finale, or her hit single "The Way I Am" on Old Navy Commercials. Apparently after Grey's Anatomy ended there was a rush to find her song on MySpace, which catalysed her rise to success. Her songs are melodious and catchy, her vocal style is clean, and her lyrics are clever and introspective. At her concert in San Francisco last month, I found out that she is also quirky and unpretentious.

A number of Ingrid's songs are in waltz time, though not necessarily very danceable. Having never actually tried dancing to any of these, I'm listing them all because they're nice songs. Most of them are at a good tempo for rotary (moderate to fast) waltz.

Potentially more danceable
Breakable (full preview on last.fm)
Masochist (full preview on last.fm; tempo is borderline cross-step/rotary)

Potentially less danceable
Highway (full preview on last.fm)
Men of Snow (unfortunately not available for purchase anywhere that I could find)
Keep Breathing (not for individual purchase, but only as part of the Grey's Anatomy Soundtrack; full preview on last.fm)

Some Silly Swings

Silly swings were on my mind when I got invited to join this blog, so silly swings is what I'll start out with. I'll do some more normal stuff once I get this out of my system. (Though just wait till I put together a silly polkas post....) Here we go:

Louis Jordan & Louis Armstrong - Life is So Peculiar

A nice, relaxed swing, considering the perplexing mysteries of life. "When I get up each morning, there's nuthin' to breathe but air / And when I look in the mirror, there's nuthin' to comb but hair."

Groucho Marx did a recording of this with Bing Crosby as well, with some different verses. Not danceable, though.

Hot Cat Jazz Band - She Looks Like Helen Brown

(I sadly can't find any downloads or samples, but it's on this CD. Part of another rendition of the song is here though I don't care for it as much.)

There are only a couple puns in this one, but they get a lot of mileage out of them. I first encountered this song when I needed to do a (very impromptu) swing performance for a family gathering. My partner and I grabbed the nearest CD, found something at a decent tempo and not too long, didn't really listen to it, then went out and danced. Of course, I often miss lyrics entirely when I dance, so I had no clue why the audience was laughing so much. Once I figured it out, I was delighted.

Ray Stevens - Clucking Chickens singing "In the Mood".

I believe this one stands on its own without commentary.

New Songs - 24 February

Below are a number of songs I've found and enjoyed in the last few weeks.

If a song is available for legal download, a link is provided. I always pick Amazon over iTunes because it's DRM-free and higher bit-rate. Unfortunately there's a lot of music not available for à la carte downloading, and in those cases I'll try to give other purchase suggestions. If you're stumped finding a song and/or really don't want to spend $15 for a whole CD, drop me a note.

Rotary (fast) Waltz:
Graham Colton - Best Days
Roxanne Potvin - La Merveille

Polka
Zucchero - Per Colpa Di Chi Note: this is the live version; the original, which I recommend, is available on the CD The Best of Zucchero Sugar Fornaciari's Greatest Hits

Polka/Hustle
Mika - Love Today

One Step
Benoît Charest - Belleville Rendez-Vous (from the soundtrack of Les Triplettes de Belleville)

First Post

I spend a lot of time thinking about, collecting, organising, and editing music for social dance. I also enjoy sharing my discoveries with other dancers, which is the reason for this blog. My collection is currently over 1000 songs, and there's no good way right now to share information about a collection that large, so I'm just going to post about bits and pieces as they occur to me.

To get started, here are some good online resources:

• Richard Powers' Discography of Social Dance Music


• Music recommendations from Persephone in Berkeley


• Susan's discography of slow and fast waltzes


• Music list from Portland Waltz Eclectic


• Elm City Waltz's sample program