2023-2024 Rhythm dance

[VGThuy]

Speak of the devil, this showed up on my Instagram feed:

Freestyle Festival on Instagram: "The 80s ❤️ Break My Stride Song by Matthew Wilder - 1983"

85K Likes, 2,016 Comments - Freestyle Festival (@freestyle_festival_) on Instagram: "The 80s ❤️ Break My Stride Song by Matthew Wilder - 1983"

www.instagram.com

 

[Frau Muller]

…..Big hair, scrunchies, neon outfits-- all is good by me.

Big shoulder pads too. Epitome of tackiness.

 

[Spikefan]

Fast Times at Ridgemont High program with Go-Go’s We Got the Beat and Jackson Brown’s Somebody’s Baby.

 

[Cachoo]

There are the obvious soundtracks: Fame, Footloose, Dirty Dancing, Purple Rain….but there is also some gorgeous music from Mark Knopfler (Local Hero, Princess Bride) Tangerine Dream (Risky Business) and plenty of soundtracks that soar (Out of Africa for example.) It can be big hair and shoulder pads…but there are other ways to do this.

 

[Yuri]

Maybe a Cyndi Lauper medley including Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Time After Time, and...She Bop!

Russian website sports.ru has a lengthy interview with Shawn Rettstatt, ISU Dance Technical Committee head, on the RD theme.

«80-е – время прекрасной музыки. Мы хотим, чтобы трибуны подпевали». Интервью главного по танцам в фигурке

Каким будет ритм-танец и что с судьями из России?

www.sports.ru

- There is a feeling that when choosing a theme for rhythm dance, you are more and more oriented towards the audience: musicals and street dances are much more understandable to the audience than waltzes and paso dobles.

- Yes, sure. We have to make rhythm dance and free dance different from each other. That is, the first should be built around technical requirements, and it should have a clearly defined theme. This year it's Latina, last season we had street dancing. But in the free dance, you are free to do what you want - from Lady Gaga songs to classical compositions.

The theme of the next rhythm dance, we think to announce the music of the 80's. This is a whole decade of cool music - fun and danceable, the audience should especially like it.

 

[BlueRidge]

Okay if we're going to do 1980s, let's really do 1980s. Like this.

 

[gkelly]

plenty of soundtracks that soar (Out of Africa for example.) It can be big hair and shoulder pads…but there are other ways to do this.

But are they "dance" music?

Remember this is the Rhythm Dance. Soaring is probably more appropriate for a free dance.

 

[Former Lurve Goddess]

Okay if we're going to do 1980s, let's really do 1980s. Like this.

The best OSP evah!

 

[BlueRidge]

The best OSP evah!

I can assure the Ice Dance powers that be that people in the 1980s didn't know anything about the Paso Doble anymore than they do now, but amazingly a brilliant dance is a brilliant dance and people, not just ice dance fans, appreciate it!

(Not that there's going to be another one of those ever but you get the point)

 

[Former Lurve Goddess]

I can assure the Ice Dance powers that be that people in the 1980s didn't know anything about the Paso Doble anymore than they do now, but amazingly a brilliant dance is a brilliant dance and people, not just ice dance fans, appreciate it!

(Not that there's going to be another one of those ever but you get the point)

I wonder if there were any Paso Doble fads after the movie Strictly Ballroom came out in 1992?

 

[BlueRidge]

I wonder if there were any Paso Doble fads after the movie Strictly Ballroom came out in 1992?

Maybe not, but people can appreciate all kinds of things if given the chance as the popularity of that movie shows.

The PTB of ice dance need to expand their minds and have more respect for ordinary people.

 

[Former Lurve Goddess]

Maybe not, but people can appreciate all kinds of things if given the chance as the popularity of that movie shows.

The PTB of ice dance need to expand their minds and have more respect for ordinary people.

We do variations on the Paso Doble in my Zumba classes (as well as salsa, rhumba, samba, tango, hip hop, bhangra, old school rock'n'roll, K-Pop, etc.) and the 20somethings are totally into it.

 

[myhoneyhoney]

Bananarama, GoGos…. All of them. This is gonna be fun!

 

[Cachoo]

Bananarama, GoGos…. All of them. This is gonna be fun!

Maddy and Evan "Walk Like the Egyptians?"

 

[MacMadame]

I’m trying to think of 3 count songs from the 80’s…

Eternal Flame by the Bangles
Against All Odds by Phil Collins
Almost Paradise from the Top Gun soundtrack
Come on Eileen by Dexy's Midnight Runners
Cruel Summer by Bananarama
Purple Rain by Prince

There's more than a few of them. But I endorse @CantALoop 's recommendation for You Spin Me Round

Don't forget Open Arms by Journey. This was VERY popular at weddings in the 80s.

Maybe a Cyndi Lauper medley including Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Time After Time, and...She Bop!

This would actually work very well. I might switch She Bop! and GJWTHF but it follows the peppy to start, slow section in the middle for the pattern steps and end with a banger format that so many dance teams use for their RDs.

The PTB of ice dance need to expand their minds and have more respect for ordinary people.

Word. The problem isn't that Chris Ordinary Person doesn't understand waltzes. It's that most teams pick a lot of boring, done-to-death music written long, long ago. There are plenty of contemporary songs that are waltzes.

And Paso is so dramatic that people love it when it's done on Dancing with the Stars and it gets a good response at competitions regardless of how contemporary the music is.

 

[BlueRidge]

Word. The problem isn't that Chris Ordinary Person doesn't understand waltzes. It's that most teams pick a lot of boring, done-to-death music written long, long ago. There are plenty of contemporary songs that are waltzes.

I don't think its a problem for some teams to pick a classic Strauss waltz. But the PTB could choose waltz and encourage teams to pick other music so you have a variety. One waltz I was thinking of--its old music but not Viennese was this from 2010 Was 2010 a waltz theme? There was also this that is probably not recommended Is that the last time we had a waltz for short dance?

And Paso is so dramatic that people love it when it's done on Dancing with the Stars and it gets a good response at competitions regardless of how contemporary the music is.

Exactly!

 

[jmtfti]

I don't think its a problem for some teams to pick a classic Strauss waltz. But the PTB could choose waltz and encourage teams to pick other music so you have a variety. One waltz I was thinking of--its old music but not Viennese was this from 2010 Was 2010 a waltz theme? There was also this that is probably not recommended Is that the last time we had a waltz for short dance?

The Ravensburger Waltz was used in 2015-16 and teams chose a variety of styles, including FB/S using "Never Tear Us Apart" as far as tying this back to the '80s theme goes. There were also more classical approaches, ballroom styles, ballet-themed waltzes, and of course H/D's Hallelujah and G/P's Beatles deal.

 

[Aussie Willy]

I have to say that after the last couple of years which had musicals and street as the themes, I find I am the most detached from the Latin rhythms. And that is also after doing the ISU Ice Dance Seminar in December. While it was really informative and when it comes to what couples are bringing to the ice in competition, I get it. But I don't relate to it as much as the others.

So I think there does need to be more variety in themes that couples can do.

I have no doubt that it is going to be a fun season.

 

[BlueRidge]

The Ravensburger Waltz was used in 2015-16 and teams chose a variety of styles, including FB/S using "Never Tear Us Apart" as far as tying this back to the '80s theme goes. There were also more classical approaches, ballroom styles, ballet-themed waltzes, and of course H/D's Hallelujah and G/P's Beatles deal.

So is it just that the PTB in ice dance have no better memory of these things than I do? Really they don't have a reason to treat a waltz theme as though it was all going to be 1850s as they know its not.

ETA: Of course I do remember this one from 2015-16 because it is one of my favorites.

 

[morqet]

@BlueRidge

The last waltz SD was the Ravensburg waltz in 2015/16, it had to be combined with march, foxtrot or polka. Some teams tried to go with more modern interpretations but I think they mostly weren't received well:

W/P started the season with Elvis: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s_aKV1T7Fk but were told by the judges after Finlandia that it wasn't "waltzy" enough, so just went full Strauss for the rest of the season: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=itp_dZ98FXU

I/Z did Queen and lost all the advantage they'd had the previous season over S/K, who went with Swan Lake: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TjCH0W9MU_4

Shibs re-established themselves after a lost couple of seasons with a very traditional Coppelia dance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWuHL6ro2_k

F-B/S did INXS, & had middling results: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gg2KG2VYVd8

G/P did make a bit of a splash with their Beatles SD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVR6lnGLM58 which they only skated at Worlds

But if you look at the top 10 teams at Worlds, it was mostly very traditional, lots of "performed by Andre Rieu" arrangements. Of the teams that tried to choose more modern music, I think only FB/S had the driving waltz rhythm that the Ravensburger needs (although the extra bit added in for the march section is heinous).

 

[Former Lurve Goddess]

So is it just that the PTB in ice dance have no better memory of these things than I do? Really they don't have a reason to treat a waltz theme as though it was all going to be 1850s as they know its not.

This Waltz Music List has tons of different waltz songs from all kinds of eras, including the 80s.

 

[once_upon]

I'm not good at identifying waltz dance music or if all of these suggestions are 80's music

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I see that @Former Lurve Goddess and I posted at the same time

 

[Former Lurve Goddess]

I'm not good at identifying waltz dance music or if all of these suggestions are 80's music

Quite a few of them are including "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles.

 

[screech]

@BlueRidge
G/P did make a bit of a splash with their Beatles SD: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XVR6lnGLM58 which they only skated at Worlds

G/P actually skated to Beatles all year, IIRC it was just that the march section was different until Worlds, when they changed it to Ob La Di. And the march was so well received that it's been (being?) adapted into an official ISU march pattern (not that patterns are being used anymore...)

 

[morqet]

The first version was a weird Beatles/Mozart mash up, with the Beatles really just bookending the substantial content of the dance. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zce2niUl870 The revised SD they did at Worlds was much more coherent.

Anyway, another option for an 80s waltz from Kate Bush: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOZDKlpybZE

 

[overedge]

Quite a few of them are including "Eternal Flame" by the Bangles.

I'm a huge Bangles fan, but I have to admit I can't stand this song.

And if any team does a "blender edit" of any Kate Bush tracks, I will hate them forever.

 

[Theatregirl1122]

TBH I think the only choice is for us to go back to the WANGO.

 

[sus2850]

Well, if the 80s hype really has something to do with Netflix and „Stranger Things“, I assume we will hear more Bauhaus. Netflix recommended to watch “Lockwood & Co“ and it is very 80s. I managed only 3 episodes so far as I am frightened by ghost stories (i know…) but Bauhaus were featured heavily.
This was my favourite song of them. Not very danceable though

- YouTube

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

m.youtube.com

 

[skategal]

Bananarama, GoGos…. All of them. This is gonna be fun!

I hope someone does Cruel Summer.

I Love the backbeat on that one.

 

[Orm Irian]

Well, if the 80s hype really has something to do with Netflix and „Stranger Things“, I assume we will hear more Bauhaus. Netflix recommended to watch “Lockwood & Co“ and it is very 80s. I managed only 3 episodes so far as I am frightened by ghost stories (i know…) but Bauhaus were featured heavily.

The Lockwood & Co. soundtrack should provide a ton of inspiration for any team that wants to go to 80s goth territory next season. It's fantastic!