The Casual Dance Teacher's Podcast

Welcome to the Casual Dance Teachers podcast. I'm your host, Maia. I have a fun episode for you today all about choosing music for your dance classes. Let's talk about it.

Welcome back, everybody. Thanks for joining me today. I see a lot of questions online in different forums and groups that I'm part of with dance teachers asking for music recommendations. A lot of times that is referring to music recommendations for choreography, but today's episode is exclusively about choosing music for your dance classes. So, I do think that there's a different process in choosing music to choreograph to versus choosing music for your everyday dance classes. I personally am obsessed with music. I listen to music constantly. I love all different styles of music and choosing fun and unique music for my dance classes is a huge passion of mine.

So, I just wanted to make a fun and informative episode where I share some of the ways that I find new music to keep my dance classes fresh. A lot of this might be very straightforward to you, but remember that we also have the Casual Dance Teachers Network on Facebook, and I'd love for you to join me there where we can use this episode just as a jumping-off point to share some of the things that you're interested in. So the first question that I want to get into is what should we be looking for when we're choosing music for our dance classes? Of course, I think number one thing that's going to come to mind is that when we're working with students, the music has to be appropriate.

I personally would say I even take it a step farther than most where I am very, very intentional about not even having too much music in my dance classes. I'm not going to be doing too much music in my dance classes, for any of my classes, regardless of the genre, that centers around themes of romantic love or relationships. Because no matter what the age of your students, I just don't think that we need to be perpetuating this myth that that is the end-all be-all of artistic expression or what life or dance or art is all about. There are so many songs out there that are about other themes like family, friendship, going to a new place, and so on. So I want to get into that a little bit.

Exploring new things, feeling confidence. And then, of course, there's a huge range of instrumentals in all genres that you can access. So we don't even need to use music that has lyrics all the time. We don't need to teach our students that the lyrics are what's going to motivate them to emote or perform something that has a really deep intention to it. So one of my biggest goals when I'm putting together playlists for my dance classes is to make sure I have a broad range of music. I'm not going to be doing a lot of music, but I'm going to be doing a lot of music. I'm also too focused on any themes that are too mature for my students or that might encourage them too much towards those romantic themes over and over and over again, hitting them over the head with that.

The second thing that I pay close attention to is making sure that I use a variety of tempos, rhythms, and time signatures in my music. With younger students, I might try and steer more towards traditional 4-4 time. However, as the levels of the music change, I'm going to be the students progress. I try and incorporate more and more weird and different time signatures, polyrhythm, different tempos, really fast, really slow, making sure that they understand music and they understand how to perform to music. For younger students, again, even though I might go for a 4-4 time where they can count one through eight, I do like to make sure that they're introduced to the rhythm being kept in different ways. So for example, songs might have a very strong rhythm section with percussion.

So it's really, really easy to hear those notes. One, two, three, four. Other songs might use the piano as the primary way of keeping the rhythm or a string section. And I like to make sure that the students can recognize different instruments, keeping the tempo and keeping the rhythm. So making sure to always go back to my playlist and listen back to the music to make sure I'm not only utilizing percussion, for example, as the primary rhythmic tool. And last, as far as what I'm looking for in the music for my dance classes is introducing students to new concepts. Personally, I've had quite a few students that have looked at me funny and had quite a big reaction when I used any music in a different language other than English.

So I do try and make sure that I'm representing other countries, other cultures, and other languages. If I am using music, just to give the students exposure to that in case they don't have it elsewhere. I also love instrumentals. I am huge on doing as many instrumental pieces for both choreography and in my dance classes as possible. Because again, I want the students dancing to come from within, not to come from the external factor of being told what the song is about or what the dance is about. So I utilize a lot of instrumentals. And again, I'm not talking about just classical music for ballet. I'm talking about all genres. There are so many wonderful instrumentals out there that can be used in all styles of dance.

You may be wondering, how do you find this music? If you're not someone that listens to, for example, foreign language music regularly, how do you find that and find something that you like and connect with enough to actually use it for your class? We all know if you're listening to this podcast, that we have it really hard to find. So if you're listening to this podcast, we have a really hard time finding. All the streaming platforms that are out there, you don't have to have CDs and buy them. You don't even have to download full albums or individual songs. There are so many different ways that you can build playlists and even use other people's pre-built playlists.

So yes, I am all about using other people's ideas and other people's music within platforms like Apple Music and Spotify to just go out there and search for music. And if you're listening to this podcast, listen to as much as you can and take the things that you like. The algorithm will really start to work for you once you do a few searches. And you could even say French instrumental pop. Just see what comes up. It might not be what you expect, but something fun might come up. And then as you listen, the algorithm will say, oh, okay, maybe I should throw a few additional suggestions their way that fits within that same genre. So you can always go to things like the recommended for you, discover weekly new emerging artists playlists, and you're guaranteed to find something new there.

I also often forget, even though this seems like such an obvious thing to go back and check my old playlist that I used 10, 12, 15 years ago. Some of you may have even been teaching longer than I have, which is only about the past 10 years. And you might have some really great music that you used long ago, but you're not going to be able to find something new there. So if your own style and tastes have changed, so your playlists have changed, but there are probably some really good songs that you can go back and use that your students have never heard before that will be fresh and new to them. And you can just recycle those old playlists, those old tracks and CDs that you may have forgotten about.

Another one of my very favorite ways to find new music for dance is through movie and TV show soundtracks. I find that this music that's been designed to already have music for dance is really good. And I find that it's really good. And I a visual element played along with it translates beautifully into movement. And again, this could refer to choreography, I have certainly used songs from movies and TV shows for choreographic purposes, but also can be really good for warm-ups for going across the floor or for combinations that will motivate your students to dance full out, but still allow them to focus on the steps and the technique. And last but not least, I have a song that I've been using for a long time, and hopefully you can use this one.

If you have any local musicians in your area, why not think about doing a live music class if you could bring in a percussionist or a pianist or anyone that will accompany your class and might also be able to do a brief talk or demonstration of some sort to give your students a little extra help with music, rhythm, whatever it is that they are working on. Your musician friends probably also have some really great recommendations that you can use. So make sure that you do that. And if you have any local musicians in your area, you're talking to any musicians that you know, especially local ones, you might be able to get them involved in ways beyond just contributing their ideas.

Okay, so hopefully I have given you a few pointers on how to find new music if you're feeling stuck and you're feeling like you need to add to your playlists. But once you have a lot of ideas and a lot of music coming to you that you want to use for class, how do you organize it? This is an area where I have really seen it all with the teachers that I've been working with. So I'm going to give you a few pointers on how to I have worked with and worked for over the years, I worked for some what I would call personally old-fashioned teachers that are still using CDs to this day, as far as I know. And that's actually quite simple.

I think for those of you who listened to my curriculum planning class, where I talked about being really consistent with units, it's probably not a terrible idea to have could be a CD or even just a simple playlist for each unit. To keep you focused on we're going to use the same music, and we're going to use the same tempos, and we're going to use the same material for this entire unit, and then we'll move on. So that's not a bad way to organize it. I do not organize my playlists in that way. And I do use playlists personally on Spotify. And I download the music that I want to use. I organize my playlists only by the style of dance. So I have quite extensive playlists that I've organized.

A lot of music on them for the different styles that I teach, even if I teach multiple classes within that same style. Every once in a while, I'll do a breakout playlist specifically for one class. If we're working on something specific that I think merits creating a separate playlist just for that. So like I said, I listen to all kinds of music purely for pleasure. I love to always be listening to different music. I love to listen to different music. I love to listen to different kinds of music. That might not be everybody's style. But for me, I'm always listening. I'm always trying to find new stuff. And anytime I come across a song that I think would work well for a class, I just dump it in the playlist for that style of dance.

And there it sits. So I have these big music dumps for each style of dance that I teach. And I do make sure that I'm incorporating music, like I said, with different time signatures and tempos and rhythms. So that's one of the things that I'm actively listening for anytime I'm listening to music, whether casually or specifically looking for something is, is this something new? Does it offer something different than what you've already used in class in the past, then it goes in the playlist, even if it's not maybe a favorite song of mine, I will still use it in the playlist in order to give my students exposure to something different. When I am planning specific lessons, I then go into the playlist.

Just drag the songs up to the top in the relative order that I think I will use them. So for example, I'll find some songs that will work for the type of warmup that I have in mind, drag them up to the top of the playlist, then I will plan my center work. And I'll find the songs that will work for that and drag them up to the top. So I'm never really deleting from these playlists unless for some reason, I feel the song no longer will serve the class at any point in time. I am merely moving things around to keep it fresh. And this way, I don't fall into that trap, hopefully, of losing old songs that I used in the past, they will always exist on that playlist, and I can always find them.

And then I'll just drag them up to the top and I shift them around with each unit as I change out the material that we're working on. Another thing that I'm mindful of is making sure that I don't get too stuck in a box of, for example, using ballet music in a ballet class. I do think in any style of dance, the students will benefit a lot from being able to perform that style of dance, even to a song that might not be associated with that style. So in my ballet classes, I always try and throw in some pop music. But even in a jazz class, I might try and use some pop music, and also some classical jazz. So they're getting both of those styles and seeing what the progression is of the art form looks like.

I also, of course, love to have a theme. So, I have separate playlists specifically for different holidays, where I throw in holiday-themed music that again fits the bill of being appropriate, having a variety of different tempos, rhythms and time signatures, and can work with different styles. So, I have Christmas music that's really upbeat and happy. I have Christmas music that's really upbeat and happy. I have Christmas music that's slower and kind of sad. That way, I'm not only doing these happy, peppy, upbeat Christmas songs whenever that time of year rolls around. I'm still exposing the students to a variety of different music, but it fits within the theme, which just makes it more fun for both me and my students.

At the end of the day, there are some songs that I absolutely love that have a great beat that might be a really fun rhythm. And I will never use them in my dance classes. Because you don't want to fall into the trap of using all the music that you love most for your job and losing the excitement for the music. And I think we both know that this holds true for choreography as well as using music for class, but keep some songs just for yourself. I have a separate playlist literally just for this purpose, that when I hear a song that I just love so much, and I'm so inspired by, but I tell myself, this one's off-limits, you are not using this in your dance class.

Because if you hear it too many times, or if you see your students dancing to it, and it's not what you envisioned in your head, you're going to be disappointed for some reason. So I use a ton of music that I really, really love in my dance classes. But there's some things that are just for me, they are precious to me, and I will protect them and I will not use them for any dance-related purposes, because I just want to listen to them for the pure enjoyment of it. And I would encourage you to do the same. I know music is probably one of the main reasons why a lot of us absolutely love dancing, interpreting, listening to music, dancing, and letting the music move your body.

It's such a huge part of who we are as dancers. So I would absolutely love to hear your recommendations for how you choose music for your dance classes, where you find this music, what kind of music you like to use, and your feedback on my tips as well. Remember, you can do that on Facebook, and you can also find me on Instagram, and I'll see you in the next video. Casual Dance Teachers Network, or leave a review right here on the podcast. Speaking of music, GB Mystical makes some amazing music. He also wrote my theme music for the podcast. So huge thanks to him. Thanks again to my family, to my dance studio, and to all of you for listening. And I'll leave you with this beautiful quote from Hans Christian Andersen, where words fail, music speaks.