Dancer/choreographer Bree Hafen has written an excellent article about the role that music plays in her dance life on her blog. It’s called The Mystery of Music Decoded.
I think the best part of Bree’s article is how she explains how much care she takes when selecting music to match the song to the age-level of the dancer(s). It’s also great to get her insights into how important music is since it provides the emotional foundation of the entire dance.
As has been pointed out previously, music is the foundation of dance. You can easily verify this for yourself by realizing what happens when the emcee plays the wrong music at a competition….. the dancer freezes because it’s not the right music.
If you are a high-level dance studio owner or teacher, and you regularly bring your students to regional and/or national competitions, and you want to step up your routines, where should you start? Answer: The music. If you are working with exciting music, music that gets your kids pumped up, they will naturally perform better. If you, as choreographer are excited about the music, you will bring your enthusiasm to the choreography you create. On the flip side, if you are using stale, flat, worn-out music, it’s hard to generate enthusiasm, either in yourself or your students.
What’s the answer? Try an original Squirrel Trench Mix. I’ve created many original mixes based on modern interpretations of classic songs, including train medleys, a Beatles remix, a slumber party theme, a Mary Poppins remix, a Pixie Hollow remix, and more. I also have a slate of original remixes and medleys scheduled to create for a studio in Canada that I am eager to begin work on shortly.
If you have a theme idea and you want the music to provide the foundation to help you create original, exciting choreography to break through the multitude of routines that judges will view, then contact me to find out about our editing and remixing services. I’m excited about the remixes I’ve already done for the upcoming season, and I can’t wait to create yours!
Break a leg in the upcoming 2011-2012 dance season!
As pointed out in this article on Suite 101, there are three keys to creating a winning dance routine for competitions.
1.) Start with fantastic and appropriate music. Dance is based on the foundation of music. If you don’t build your routine and choreography on wonderful music, then you are missing out on a major source of emotional impact on the audience and judges. I can help you select winning music for your next competition dance routine. I’ve attended numerous Regional and National dance competitions, and have decades of experience in music. When choosing songs, there are some songs (or versions of songs) that will leave the judges flat. I can help you pick something memorable and appropriate for your dancer. Just let me know the dancer’s personality, age and what song they’ve used previously, and I will give you a couple of suggestions for their next song. Whatever song you select, I can also edit it to the needs of winning competition routines, i.e. the correct duration, and any other minor adjustments it might need, such as a slight tempo change, or boosting the volume without clipping distortion.
2.) Choreography. I am no expert in this field, that is for YOU the dance teacher to make great. I agree with the article; great choreography nearly always tells a story. It doesn’t matter if the audience doesn’t fully understand the story conveyed, if there IS a story, then the dancer has a message to transmit to the audience, and that’s the important thing.
3.) Costume. Dance is a very visual medium. While the music provides the auditory part of the routine, the costume provides the foundation for the visual part of the routine. The above referenced article goes into greater depth on costume choices.
4.) What this article leaves out is the most important part of a winning dance routine: PRACTICE. Practice equals love. If your student loves to dance, it will manifest itself in the practice habits of the dancer. One of my favorite sayings is the difference between amateurs and professionals is that amateurs practice until they get it right, PROFESSIONALS PRACTICE UNTIL THEY CAN’T GET IT WRONG.
So now we know that music is the foundation of the dance routine. Costume is the foundation of the visual part of the dance routine. Just as you wouldn’t put your dancer on stage with a ripped or torn costume, why would you put your dancer on stage with music that contains scars, hiccups, half-beats, partial measures, jumps, cuts, awkward fade outs, or unnatural silences? I’ve heard all of these music editing mistakes at competitions. Are they enough to reduce the scores from the judges? I don’t know, but why take a chance? Since you put countless hours of rehearsal into your choreography and practice every week, shouldn’t your music reflect the same meticulous level of detail and precision?
When you are ready for your music to step up to your dance, Squirrel Trench Audio is here to deliver.
What have YOU found to be the key to creating a winning dance competition routine?
Music in the dance studio. Such an important component, yet too often neglected and undervalued.
Who handles the music editing at your dance studio? In an earlier blog post, I make the case that music editing should not be left to the dance teacher. Just as a musician has no clue about grand jétés and pirouette fouettés, dance teachers have little or no knowledge of zero-crossings and peak limiting. Yet the result of a dance teacher doing his own music editing often turns out as amateurish as if a piano player attempted to perform a changement.
So let’s take a look at the economics of putting a group number on stage, and determine whether or not it’s worth it to spend $250 on a first-class original remix, such as Pixie Hollow.
Let’s say that the routine will be performed for one year, at 4 regionals, and has 20 students in the routine. We’ll use these rough figures as an example.
Costumes: $125 x 20 students = $2,500
Entry fees: $35 x 20 students x 4 competitions = $2,800
Not taking into consideration all of the money spent on weekly lessons, that’s $5,300 being spent on costumes and entry fees alone for this routine.
Now let’s look at how this outlay compares to spending $250 for an original remix for the routine. An investment of $250 in the music represents less than 5% of the total budget being spent on putting this piece on stage. Another way to look at it is $12.50 per dance student.
And the numbers become even more compelling when you consider that many studios will repeat songs and use them for two years. This equation makes the investment equal to $6.25 per student per year, and just 2.4% of the total costume & entry fee cost over those two years.
For straightforward editing of a song to dance routine length, the numbers are even more compelling. $50 represents less than 1% of the costume and entry fees, and $2.50 per student. If the song is used for two years, that becomes half of a percent of the competition outlay and $1.25 per student. When you look at the numbers this way, there’s hardly an excuse to have dance teachers editing songs and creating flaws in the music. Especially because dance teachers don’t even know they’ve created mistakes in the music.
Music is the foundation of dance. Does the studio want to have the parents shell out $5300 on a routine with a shaky foundation? Is that a good way to go when with a modest investment you can get a fantastic and unique remix to build your choreography on?
Perhaps more dance studios don’t invest in quality music editing because dance is a very visual medium, and you can’t see music. But because the music for every dance routine will be played at high volume on a big-stage sound system, a glitch in the audio is akin to wearing stained and torn costumes. If you wouldn’t dream of putting a dancer on stage in a tattered costume, why would you put them on stage with hiccups or scars in their music?
I think this type of investment in the music is well worth it for a unique piece that will wow audiences, judges, and parents, especially compared to having a self-edited song that has hiccups, glitches, jumps, or any of the other top five music mistakes most commonly heard at dance competitions. But then again, I might be biased. What’s your take on it?
Here’s an article on Dance Moms with Tips for improving your dance music. Some of the ideas contained in it are a little dated (when was the last time you ever played music off a cassette?), but the premise is a solid one. Your dance students are paying hundreds of dollars and putting in countless hours of rehearsal, so why would you short change them by giving them anything less than stellar music to work with? It’s like building a two-story house on top of sand. The music is the foundation of dance, start with a rock solid foundation that goes down to bedrock!
We here at Squirrel Trench Audio take pride in delivering songs that are edited perfectly, optimized in a variety of ways to be the best they can be for competition! Here are just a few of the things we take into account when editing songs for dancers: Short but sweet intro, overall song structure and integrity, solid ending, buttery smooth & seamless edits, maximizing vocal verses so dancers can easily tell where they are in the song, while retaining bridges for maximum dynamic interest, and making sure the eq and dynamic range of the recording will translate well on all sound systems.