I teach 11-19yr olds, American style, and I am always looking for contemporary music.
Mostly what I do is work for a Foundation, going into Public middle schools and teaching 60-160 kids/class in school gyms as a 2week PE unit. It helps to keep their interest if I have music they can relate to. And of course it must be CLEAN not just words, but content.
I am looking for Merengue, Salsa, Samba, Hustle, Waltz, Foxtrot, Tango, Rumba,
Cha Cha, Swing... and i need slower Swings, Hustles and Samba's.
And I admit it... I need a little variety too. I am tapping all resources.
Any help would be appreciated. and yes I do ask them, but they don't know about tempo's and timing and often their suggestions are "inappropriate"... Cat Daddy doesn't Cut it... while the Dougie is an "acceptable" SLOOOOW Samba.
Thanks for your help.

Miss Molly. It might be of some interest to point out that once upon a time music was written not only for a Broadway Show but also to dance to. This is why even today you will find that songs by Jerone Kern or Richard Rogers and many of those other composers whose music is still being used to this day, their music is eighty years or so old. And it is safe to say, will still be danced to in another eighty or so years.
Take as an example to dance a Quickstep to. " 42nd Street ". or
" Singing in the Rain " . or a little younger. " The Lady is a Tramp " from
" Pal Joey ". Whos toe would not want to start tapping to Al Jolson singing . " I'm Sitting on top of the World " .To quote Natalie Cole who said also The words in those old numbers were like poetry.

Contemporary and clean are a difficult mix these days. I am sure you already know that plenty of Lady Gaga and Pink tunes lend themselves to the cha-cha, while many of the current country western tunes are workable for the waltz. I would suggest watching Dancing with the Stars and making a note of the songs that those routines are being danced to. I am not positive about this, but it seems to me that the DWTS website has a place where you can see what songs were played during the routines. I think they are doing the "instant dance" thing this Monday night, where they get a tune and have about 20 of fewer minutes to put together a routine. They always mention the name of the song during those dances. Listen to a current music radio station, or go online and Google Top 40 and see what comes up. You should be able to listen or You Tube all of those songs. Take a listen to songs by Adele. They are on the jazzy/bluesy side, but could be OK for certain dances. They are always "clean" though from what I can tell.

I would temper the suggestion to watch Dancing With The Stars and see what music they play with this observation: While there are some exceptions, much of the music on DWTS is very poorly suited to the style being danced (and unfortunately this results in low judges' scores, though the choice of music isn't the contestant's fault)).

You can say that again. Dancing With the Stars is a great show but they select weird music. I know they danced a waltz to a 4/4 song once and their Paso Doble songs are horrible.

Hi Miss Molly,

Try looking up the artists, "Secret Garden." They write beautiful music, and a lot of it works for Waltz. It's a little harder to find ballroom music that instantly appeals to teenagers, but some of these songs really are very lovely and there are no lyrics, or very benign lyrics, so you don't have to worry about appropriate content. Here are a couple of song titles:

Song from a Secret Garden, Sleepsong, Nocturne, Dreamcatcher

For Tango, look up, "Gotan Project." They mix argentine tango sounds with electronica, so it also might appeal to the kids. Here are some song titles:

Santa Maria (del Buen Aire), Whatever Lola Wants, Vuelvo Al Sur

For Foxtrot, look up Richard Cheese. He takes a lot of hard rock songs and treats them as jazz standards. Good music, and for anyone that recognizes the original songs, it's pretty funny too. That being said, because he is taking rock music, I would listen to the songs in their entirety to check for content. Look for the album, "Dick at Night," as the songs are all deemed, "clean." That album has all kinds of theme songs from movies, like the Darth Vader theme, and the Spider-Man Theme.

I hope this helps! Once you get them excited about the dancing, you can start introducing them to more classic songs that they will then be able to appreciate.

Best of luck!

Lorena

Dianebdic. Secret Garden. Beautiful Waltz's. But unfortunately not phrased as dance music should be. Which is strictly eight bar phrased.
" She walks through the Fair " by Boyzone which is great to listen to but not good for dancing. In other words we cannot just play any track off a disk. One give away that a disk is not phrased is in the introduction. It may go on for some time with no particular rhyme or reason before starting the song proper. I have on a tape from Europe where the six finalists all stood still for twelve bars of music before they could pick up the count. One of the comentators , a former World Champion, said this is entirely inappropriate music. It belongs in a Broadway Show and not on the dance floor. On a disk by any of the leading strict tempo orchestras. We should be able to pick out the four bar introduction followed by 64 bars of music which is in groups of eight.

Miss Molly, I, too, teach in grade schools and it is VERY difficult to find appropriate music. Here is what I have found (after many hours of searching lyrics):

For Salsa (these are NOT great) Hasta La Vista by Jordan Fancise, Camp Rock album; from La Vida Mickey Album, Livin' La Vida Mickey, Disney Mambo #5, Enrique, Ricky, And Mickey. More Latin sounding: Perdoname by Gilberto Santa Rosa; Yamulemau by Joe Arroyo, No Me Hace Falta by Victor Manuelle.

For Merengue from La Vida Mickey Album, I Like to Move it, Conga-Rhythm Is Gonna Get You, Mickey's Cup of Life.

Hustle: Holiday by Madonna; Y.M.C.A. by Village People; Everybody Have Fun Tonight by Wang Chung; Something About the Sunshine by Anna Margaret; Born To Be Alive by Patrick Hernandez; When Smokey Sings by ABC. Everything I could find that was current was too suggestive, but there are lots of current songs. You could try Kidz Bop for clean versions but I can't use them; parents object because the kids sing the popular version in their heads when they hear them.

Rumba: Corre y Ve Con El by Jose Jose; Never Knew I Needed by Ne-Yo; Stand By Me by Ben E. King; Quando, Quando, Quando by Michael Buble; Havana by Kenny G.

Tango: La Cumparsita by Julio Iglesias; Perfidia by John Altman; Senor Gonzales by Beautiful Tango. And of course the Tango by Gotan Project.

That's all I have so far. Best of luck.

Forgot Foxtrot. I use the Michael Buble, Call Me Irresponsible and Rod Stewart's Blue Skies. (The kids REALLY love Blue Skies for some reason.) I also found decent danceable versions of Mellow Song, New York New York, and What A Wonderful World on Itunes. There is always Don't Worry Be Happy. :)

Hi Miss Molly,

Wikipedia lists all songs used on Dancing with the Stars--check out each seasons' individual page, e.g. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dancing_with_the_Stars_(U.S._season_13) and then look halfway down the page under each week's chart & at the bottom under guest performances--it shows the couple, the dance, and the song used...

I also host a "rock ballroom" night at my ballroom & have been collecting songs off the radio based on rhythms & bpm. For some--e.g. Lady Gaga--I downloaded the "radio version" or "clean version" as an MP3 from Amazon.com. However, I'm only a social dancer, so don't have the expertise of the other post-ers & I don't do all the dances you mention. Good luck!

CHA CHA--Lady Marmalade [Moulin Rouge soundtrack:110]; We'll Be Together [Sting:117]; Bad Romance [Lady Gaga:119]; Supermassive Black Hole [Muse:120]; Firework [Katy Perry:124]; They [Jem:130]; This Love [Maroon 5]

EC SWING (SLOW)--Bubbly [Colbie Caillat:126]; Bloodletting [Concrete Blonde:126]; Love Song [Sara Bareilles:126]; Uprising [Muse:128]; SOS [Rihanna:140]
(FAST)--Zoot Suit Riot [Cherry Poppin Daddies:184]; Jump Jive an Wail [Brian Seltzer Orchestra:201]

FOXTROT--Sunny Came Home [Shawn Colvin:]; Lucky [Jason Mraz w/Colbie Caillat:130]; Bad Day [Daniel Powter:140]; Smile [Uncle Kracker:141]; I'm Yours [Jason Mraz:151]

RUMBA--Ordinary World [Duran Duran:140]; Represent, Cuba [Heather Headley (Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights soundtrack):99]

SAMBA--Cup of Life [Ricky Martin:127]; Misery [Maroon 5]

SALSA (SLOW)--Do You Only Wanna Dance [Mya (Dirty Dancing 2: Havana Nights soundtrack):160]; The Lazy Song [Bruno Mars:170]; Price Tag [Jessie J:170]; The Remedy (I Won't Worry) [Jason Mraz:190]

TANGO--Whatever Lola Wants [Gotan Project w/ Sarah Vaughan:122]; Rolling In The Deep [Adele:105]; El Tango de Roxanne [Moulin Rouge soundtrack:106]; Dance With Me [Debelah Morgan:115]; Asi Se Baila El Tango [Bailongo (Take The Lead soundtrack):118]

WALTZ--Sad Songs & Waltzes [Cake:]; Darkening of the Light [Concrete Blonde:101]

WC SWING--Tell Me Something Good [Pink (from Happy Feet soundtrack):83]; Black Velvet [Alannah Myles:93]; Tangled & Dark [Bonnie Raitt:99]; Something To Talk About [Bonnie Raitt:102]; Lie To Me [Jonny Long:113]; Man! I Feel Like A Woman [Shania Twain:125]