Winter 2009 Playlist

I am posting a portion of the playlist from the Jan 18 Waltz Eclectic Brunch with links to Amazon for those interested in downloading any of the music. The brunch playlist is pretty typical of the music we have been playing over the last several months. For the those of you who are reading this and not familar with Waltz Eclectic, we are a group that dances to a wide variety of music with the waltz being a focal point. Think of one of our dances as having the variety of a ballroom dance with the dance rhythms that include blues, various styles and tempos of waltz, swing, two steps plus some latin, a polka and some tangoable music thrown in. Hope you enjoy the music. I will post playlists on a somewhat regular basis.

Name	Artist	Genre	Album	BPM
When winter comes	Chris De Burgh	waltz slow		117
Late Night Swing	Casey MacGill & The Spirits of Rhythm	Swing EC slow	Jump	134
Sweet Forgiveness	Susan Tedeschi	waltz blues	Hope And Desire	138
Crazy Love	Emiliana Torrini	Night Club Two Step	Croucie d´oú lá	72
Lucky Penny	Larry Unger & Ginny Snowe	Waltz medium	Waltz Time II	129
Mar Desconocido	Pink Martini	waltz fast	Hey Eugene!	160
Its Alright	Seal	Blues West Coast	Soul	112
Les 'Tites Yeaux Noirs	Jambalaya Cajun Band	waltz cajun	C'est Fun!	120
Deep In a Dream	Catherine Russell	Night Club Two Step		69.4
Si Volvieras A Mi	Josh Groban	Waltz medium	Closer	130
Up A Lazy River	The Jive Aces	Swing Lindy	Recipe For Rhythm	126
More Than You Should Know	Annett Louisan	waltz slow	Teilzeithippie	115
Il vecchio e il bambino	Carla Bruni	waltz fast	Comme si de rien n'était	153
Knock On Wood	Seal	Swing west coast	Soul	117
Capriccio Irreale	Mary Lea and Friends	Waltz medium	Between Two Worlds	147
Mariposa en Havana)	Si*Se	Rhumba	Latin Lounge	97
It Makes No Difference	Lizz Wright	waltz blues	The Orchard	136
Richland Woman Blues	Maria Muldaur	Blues swing		132
Junk	Sara Gazarek	waltz slow	Return To You	117
I Idolize You	Lizz Wright	Blues slow2step		68
Never-Ending Road (Amhrán Duit)	Loreena McKennitt	Waltz medium		128
Wish I Didn't Miss You	Angie Stone	Swing west coast	Mahogany Soul	125
Angel	Sarah McLachlan	waltz slow	Surfacing	120
Erin Shore	The Corrs	waltz fast	Forgiven Not Forgotten	154
Shout, Sister, Shout!	Maria Muldaur, Marcia Ball, Angela Strehli, Tracy Nelson	Blues swing	Shout, Sister, Shout: A Tribute To Sister Rosetta Tharpe	141
Its A Mans Mans Mans World	Seal	waltz blues	Soul
The Closest Thing To Crazy	Katie Melua	Night Club Two Step		70
Das schlechte gewissen	Annett Louisan	waltz fast	Teilzeithippie	160
Love That Girl	Raphael Saadiq	Swing west coast	The Way I See It	124
Love Is The End (edit1)	Keane	waltz slow		120
La mar⁄e haute	Lhasa	waltz fast	The living Road	160
Real Emotions	Los Lonely Boys	Cha cha	Los Lonely Boys	123
The Light Was Worth The Candle	Eric Bibb	waltz blues	Painting Signs	127

Obama Tandas

Name	Artist	Genre	Album	BPM
Imagine	Etta James	Night Club Two Step		76
Hope In A Hopeless World	Eric Bibb	Blues		112
The times they are a changin'	Blackmore's Night	waltz folk	The times they are a changin'	170
Battle Hymn Of The Republic	Joanna Smith	waltz folk		116
Amzing Grace	Blind Boys of Alabama	waltz blues	Spirit Of The Century	162
This Land Is Your Land	Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings	Swing west coast		107
Joy (Album Version)	Ruthie Foster	Blues	Runaway Soul	138
Happy Days Are Here Again	Tiny Tim	Polka		134
Let The Good Times Roll	Louis Jordan	Swing west coast	No Moe! Louis Jordan: The Greatest Hits	109
Rainbows	Ruthie Foster	waltz blues	Crossover	122
Somewhere Over The Rainbow	Israel Kamakawiwo'ole	Night Club Two Step		85

Yes We Can

Here are some selections from an Elections Celebration Dance I did. Some of the songs were edited for dancing. Enjoy.

Here are selections from the October 26, Waltz Eclectic Sunday Brunch Playlist

A Personal Prospective on DJing

All DJs no matter what genre of dancers they are relating to have a perosnal bias that they bring to the DJing. I have thought a lot about what my own peronsal bias is. My start in DJing came basically from playing music I liked to dance to and as my dancing evolved the music I selected changed. Of course to call oneself a DJ the choice of music must respond to the character and skills of the dancers for are DJing for. So the question that I needed to ask and find answers for is what is it in music that makes people what to dance.

The short (cryptic) answer:

Music is condensed passion.
Dancing is feeling that passion and allowing it to be expressed through one's body and their connection with their partners.

So with this bias, what I look for primarily in music is the emotion it expresses. Next how acessible it is to hear that passion in one’s body and then what is the character of the dance that flow out of the passion contained in the music.

There are all kinds of passion expressed in music. Waltz alone contain a kalipscope of passions. The simple, longing feeling of a country waltz, the communal strands and rhythms of a folk, the flowing, erobic tempos of viennese waltes, the passion, angst with joy, energy with reflection of tango vals, the flowing, smooth seductive character lyrical waltzes with melodies sung from a longing soul. Good waltzes are delightful combinations of rhythms and melodies, movement and feeling, that reflect a whole culture or moment of an individual’s life but can be felt and danced by us all.

In other entries I will attempt to explore the feelings contained in other dances: swing, latin dances, tango etc

Another bias, no matter what the passion is, whether is it is dark, comtemplative, longing, joyfull, opening, assertive, seductive, playful, ..... the expression of that passion (feeling) through dance can leave one in a heightened state, more open more engaged, more connected. The key is recognizing the passion and committing oneself to expressing that passion- playfully, openly and with a contineously flowing connection to ones partner.

These are two perspectives through which I DJ, there are others. Stay tuned.

Introduction

The purpose of this blog is to provide an area for me as a dancer and a DJ to express by ideas about social dancing and to engage in conversations with others about social dancing and how it can be more of a mainstream cultural activity. It will include thoughts about partner dancing, djing for partner dancing, music lists, dance communities, and ideas promoting partner dancing as one of the most healthy wholistic activities we can participate in. Feedback is always welcomed to anything on this blog

For five years I have been DJing dances for Waltz Eclectic, a community of non--competive social dancers who enjoy dancing as social activity and expression of joy in movement to music. As a dancer I enjoy the wide variety of dance genres that include swing dancing- (west coast, 50's rock and roll, lindy hop), the communal spinning and patterns of contra dancing, roots of the bluesy down and dirty Zydeco, the calculated variety of ballroom, the hips movements of latin dancing (although my musical ear has trouble with the more complicated rhythms), tango with its express language and dancing as a way of life philosophy, waltz with its aerobic tempo and revolving embrace and the versatality of the one step, its both the basic step of most of the other dances plus a dance in its own. As a DJ this variety of dances I enjoy is reflected in the music I select.