Tag Archives: cover

Fresh interpretations of Stairway to Heaven

Song choice for a dance routine is often undertaken with the greatest of care. The song instantly sets the mood for choreography that accompanies it. Many dancers enjoy dancing with songs that they are already familiar with, and thus popular songs are often a great choice for dance.

While Led Zepplin’s Stairway to Heaven is widely acknowledged as one of the greatest rock and roll songs ever written and recorded, it is also one of the most over-played songs of all time as well. Kind of like what the Mona Lisa is to paintings. We’ve seen the Mona Lisa reproduced thousands of times, and we’ve heard Led Zepplin’s Stairway to Heaven thousands of times.

So if you are considering Stairway to Heaven for dance song choice, a wonderful route to take is a cover version of the song. In a competitive environment, this can do wonders for making the music, and thus the routine, feel fresh, new, and exciting, while still using a popular song. Here are three fantastic and fresh alternatives to Led Zepplin’s original version:

Stairway to Rock version (featuring a wonderfully funky beat)

Rose Reiter version (very moody and intense)

The Insurgency version (female singer)

Enjoy! And as always, if you need one of these songs, or any other, cut, edited, or remixed for a dance routine, shoot me an email.

Songs for lyrical dance routines

Below are 15 songs that could be great for your next lyrical routine. If you have other great song ideas, leave them in the comments below and I’ll add ’em! If you want to use any of these songs and need them edited perfectly for competition, we’d love to serve it up for you. We also have song suggestions for Jazz, Tap, Contemporary, Musical Theater, and Kid Friendly Hip Hop. If none of these songs grab you, here is Lyrical Songs Part 2, and the complete list of lyrical songs here.

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Blackbird (jazz cover) – Kathleen Grace
Blackbird (jazz cover) – Eve St. Jones

Hello World – Lady Antebellum

Timshel – Mumford & Sons

Candlelight – Imogen Heap (sample choreography)

Unlike Me (A capella) – Kate Havnevik

Colorblind – Natalie Walker

Porcelain Heart – BarlowGirl

Innocence – Avril Lavigne

River God – Nichole Nordeman

Miss Invisible – Marie Digby

Come Down To Me – Saving Jane

You Belong To Me – Ben Taylor

Happiness – Riceboy Sleeps

With or Without You/Where the Streets Have No Name – Emiel Van Dijk (acoustic guitar cover of U2)

If you didn’t find something that tickles your ears in the list above, we’ve got a bunch more lyrical songs here. And whether or not you wind up using one of these songs, we’d love to edit it to the correct length perfectly for you!

Fresh takes on classic dance songs, part 2

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. There is NO excuse to use the same old worn out songs when selecting music for your dancers. Classic songs are wonderful, and they are even MORE wonderful when you choose a fresh new version of them. These cover songs are usually at least as good, and often better, than the original, and have the added benefit of KEEPING THE AUDIENCE INTERESTED in the dance performance they are watching. (Judges too will be more perked up by something FRESH and NEW.)

To aid you in this quest for music FRESHNESS for your dance routines, here are a number of outstanding covers of classic songs:

I’ve Got The Music In Me – Sing Off Contestant Ensemble; Boogie Pimps; Jump 5; Paul Cacia; Le Freak; Miguel Olivares-Alvarez

Footloose – The Bacon Brothers (live); The Madison Project (a capella)

It Don’t Mean a Thing (If it ain’t got that swing) – The Hula Honeys; Bubbling Brown Sugar; Randy Greer & Robin Nolan Trio; Lisa Ono; Joscho Stephan (fast!); Real Group

In an earlier post, I link to some fresh cover alternatives to It’s Raining Men.

Check out more Antidotes to worn out hits. Also, there is a set of pages on this blog devoted to giving you song ideas for dance competition, grouped by dance category: Jazz, Tap, Lyrical, Contemporary, Musical Theater, and Kid-Friendly Hip Hop.

What alternative cover of a popular dance song have you enjoyed using? Post your favorites here in the comments!