Dans improvisation music

April 20, 2006 9:25 AM

Looking for light music with "easy" rhithm for dans improvisation lessons.

More specifically:
Rhythm: dynamic, not to fast/slow/difficult for beginning dancers
Mood: happy, encouraging
Length: if possible 5 minutes or longer

Some examples:
St Germain – Montego bay spleen
Moby - Flower
Faithless - Muhammad Ali

Any suggestions appreciated !

posted by Akeem to media & arts (3 comments total)

How about something by Lemon Jelly? Sounds like it would be perfect.
posted by coach_mcguirk at 10:38 AM on April 20, 2006

Check out some of the stuff by Quantic (or Quantic Soul Orchestra), perhaps Orb, Orbital, (early) Prodigy, Death in Vegas, Fluke... can't come up with any track names off-hand; I'll have to have a dig through my stuff. Most of these sound like they'll fit your list of requirements, though.
posted by Chunder at 11:39 AM on April 20, 2006

Ok let's how how this goes (trying for a full A-Z, but it's not going to work!) :
(Format is ArtistName - SongTitle (TrackTime) [AlbumName] )

Adam F. - Circles (7:15) [Colours]
BT - Blue Skies (5:04) [IMA]
Chemical Brothers - Song to the Siren (3:16) [Exit Planet Dust]
Chicane - Saltwater (10:03) [Behind the Sun]
Daft Punk - Da Funk (5:29) [Homework]
Death in Vegas - Opium Shuffle (5:02) [Dead Elvis]
Elektroids - Mystery World (5:04) [Elektroworld]
Fat Boy Slim - Praise You (5:24) [You've Come a Long Way Baby] - the video was a bunch of improv. dancers!
Fluke - Thumper! (5:56) [Progressive History X]
Future Sound of London - Papua New Guinea (6:47) [Accelerator]
Goldie - Sensual (8:13) [Timeless]
Incubus - Aqueous Transmission (7:46) [Morning View]
Leftfield - Original (6:22) [Leftism]
Lemon Jelly - In The Bath (6:41) [LemonJelly.KY]
Massive Attack - Teardrop (5:30) [Mezzanine]
Moby - Rushing (3:00) [Play]
Orb - Outlands (9:03) [Live '93]
Orbital - The Girl With The Sun In Her Head (10:26) [In Sides]
Primal Scream - Come Together (10:21) [Screamadelica]
Quantic - Life in the Rain (6:33) [The 5th Exotic]


There's no doubt a bundle of other stuff you could go with - I thought perhaps some of Nine Inch Nails or Radiohead may be suitable, albeit maybe not upbeat enough! Also, some of the other tracks on the albums may be more to your liking, although I've tried to pick ones that have a nice tempo, occasional shifts and changes in the music, and are generally nice and background enough to not be in-your-face too much...

HTH!
posted by Chunder at 1:52 PM on April 20, 2006