Tag Archives: finale

Prince tribute for dance studios

Purple-RainIt is with great sadness to learn that the amazing musician and talented artist, Prince, has passed away. For many of us, his music is an integral part of the soundtrack of our lives.

It has been my honor to edit and remix some of his amazing music for dance studios and dance teachers. If you are interested in using a Prince song for a dance routine, here is an edited version of one of his songs that has amazing funk, yet is not very well known. It’s popular with the kids these days to say “Werk it!” but more than 30 years ago, Prince was already singing “Let’s Work!”. Enjoy this edit!

Here is Let’s Go Crazy from the movie Purple Rain. This version has all objectionable lyrics omitted, has been remastered, and edited specifically to be optimized for a jazz or tap dance routine:

And for dance studios interested in a mix that pays homage to “The Purple One”, we are pleased to present this 3 minute mix that includes five of Prince’s more popular hits:

This 4:55 production mix starts with Let’s Go Crazy, and includes Let’s Work:

This 4:45 production mix is similar but starts with Purple Rain:

You can get ALL of these Prince edits and remixes for an amazing bargain price in this album:

Get more Squirrel Trench remixes at Legitmix

Wizard of Oz Production mix

wizA few years ago, I created a custom, 6-minute Wizard of Oz mix for Kimberly Houli’s Dance for Joy studio in New Jersey. This mix includes munchkins, movie dialogue, sound effects, and more. She used it as a grand opening piece for her recital, and you can see a video of it below.

Because it’s been several years since this piece was originally created, Kimberly has agreed to let this soundtrack become available for purchase by other dance studios. Take a listen and see if this is right for your next Wizard of Oz recital or competition production!

Listen to and purchase this remix here on Legitmix:

Get more Squirrel Trench remixes at Legitmix

Put a button on it

button48221navyDefinition of Button, from a Broadway Glossary:

Button: The payoff moment in a song; the moment when the song is “buttoned up” and finished.

On Broadway, music composers know that nearly all of the time, they need to deliver a button on their songs…. that point in the music when the audience knows the song is over, and it’s time to applaud. The same concept applies when editing music for performance dance routines. When a song fades out, your audience is robbed of the routine’s button. That’s why Squirrel Trench Audio retains the ending of the original song so that the button is delivered to your dancer. The audience knows the routine is over and it’s time to clap.

There are times when a song might have a big musical finish that lasts 20 seconds or more. These type of endings, while great in a music performance, are too long for a dance performance. In such cases, we will edit down the big finish into an appropriate length for the dance routine.

If you need your music edited to retain the button, either look through our catalog on Legitmix, or fill out a custom music edit request form.

For further reading, here is an earlier article that describes how to avoid awkward fade-outs. And here is more information on retaining song structure when editing music.

Dance for Joy’s Opening Number

Dance for Joy, in New Jersey, has for the second year in a row utilized a Squirrel Trench-created remix for their opening number. Last year’s theme was the Wizard of Oz, and this year’s number is Dancing Through The Ages. Enjoy!

(Click here to view last year’s Wizard of Oz)

Great feedback from Dance for Joy

Kim Houli, studio owner of Dance for Joy had some feedback recently about her Squirrel Trench remix for her studio’s opening recital number, Dancing Through The Ages:

Just wanted to let you know that our opening number is AWESOME!!! The music is perfect! I’ll be sure to post it on you tube when the DVD’s are in this summer 🙂 thanks again!

— Miss Kimberly, dance studio owner at
Dance for Joy, Brielle, New Jersey
April 14, 2013

To listen to and watch Kimberly’s studio’s opening routine from last year, a Wizard of Oz theme, you can view it here:

If you want to have this kind of reaction to hearing music that is created just for you, we’d love to deliver it for you. Check out our Music Editing/Remixing Services.

And now, you too can purchase and use this remix, thanks to a new service called Legitmix. Preview and purchase this mix here:

Get more Squirrel Trench remixes at Legitmix