About the Trench

Audio editing expressly for dance– our mission is to create flawless music for dance routines, especially the ones destined for competitions.

Squirrel Trench Audio is the creation of Morriss Partee, musician and music editor. Morriss brings decades of music experience to create seamless song edits for all types of dance routines, including jazz, tap, contemporary, lyrical, character, acro, hip hop, modern, and musical theater, and understands what dancers need when it comes to the music for their routines. In addition, he creates new and unique song medleys for dance routines.

When you need a song that’s perfect for your next fantastic routine, email Morriss at: morriss@squirreltrenchaudio.com. Doesn’t your next routine deserve perfect music?

Contact:
Morriss Partee
email: morriss@squirreltrenchaudio.com
phone: 413-535-0621
twitter: @squirreltrench
Facebook: Squirrel Trench Audio

For first time visitors to the Trench, Welcome! There are three main areas of this site that may be of interest to you.

1.) Our Services: We do song edits and music remixes for dance competitions. If you are a teacher or studio, check out our services here.

2.) Editing Tips: We know that many dancers and dance teachers do their own music editing. Check out our tips on how to avoid awkward fade-outs, which is the most common music editing mistake heard at dance competitions.

3.) Song selections: Every now and then you might need some song ideas for choreographing your next dance routine. We have lists of great songs for jazz, tap, lyrical,contemporary, musical theater, and hip hop.

Check it all out and best wishes for a successful dance competition season! See you at Nationals!

What in the heck is a Squirrel Trench?

A squirrel trench is what we call a bad music edit… an obvious hiccup, glitch or scar in the music for a dance routine. Next time you are at a dance competition, count how many squirrel trenches you hear! Hopefully they are in other studio’s music, and not your own!

More about Morriss’ music career:
Morriss has been playing music since he was about 6 years old, and would invent soundscapes on the piano, which his mother dutifully attempted to transcribe in notation form. From there he graduated to performing the Beatles in “air guitar” format, using the garage door opener to make a dramatic curtain rise, and from there it was a natural progression to perform Kiss as an “air band” in the attic, complete with stage makeup and platform shoes created by nailing 2x4s to the bottom of an old pair of basketball sneakers. Oars and tennis rackets were the air-guitars of choice.

After mastering air guitar maneuvers at an early age, Morriss quickly moved on to the real thing and has played guitar and keyboards in a number of bands, including Too Many Notes and Stark Raving Naked. His guitar teachers include Mitch Chakour and Keven Johansen, and Morriss has studied jazz guitar, music theory, and electronic music at the University of Utah. He learned studio recording and editing techniques under the able guidance of Rusty Annis at Shoestring Studios, who in turn was watched over by the ever-present Velvet Elvis.

Morriss got into editing music for dance when the incomparable Mitch Chakour asked him to edit a couple of songs for his daughter’s dance routine while Morriss was assisting engineering at Shoestring Studios, which he happily did since Mitch played keys on several of his band’s tracks.

More than a decade later, Morriss’ girlfriend, Lesley Lambert, asked him to create an original remix for a character dance called Pixie Hollow, which includes spoken word and parts of several different songs. After Morriss realized that nearly all music for dance competitions, recitals, and performances could be improved with professional-calibre audio skills, Squirrel Trench Audio was born.

As of May 2016, Squirrel Trench Audio has created music edits and remixes for more than 250 dance teachers and studios in the United States as well as internationally. More than 1000 custom music edits and remixes have been created for those dancers, and additionally, roughly 2000 music edits and remixes have been purchased from the Squirrel Trench catalog on Legitmix in the past 18 months.