Ack! It has to be something you can do some sort of ballroom dance to, which limits it a lot. I’m not saying these limitations are universal, just that they are the requirements that we, personally, want and are important to one or both of us.
(I should note here that my fiancé used to be part of a ballroom performance group and stuff and is pretty good. I’m not experienced at ballroom, but I can learn choreography decently well.)
I don’t want it to be boring. We don’t need it to be traditional. Rather not, actually.
I want it to be dramatic so that we can choreograph a really interesting dance to it and not just box step in circles for 3 minutes.
I want it to be meaningful and appropriate. I mean, I can think of awesome songs to dance to, but the lyrics would be unsuitable for the occasion (for example, the Rufus Wainwright version of “Hallelujah”)…
It would be neat if it had a hint of Eastern something to it, as I’ve taken belly dance and belly-dance-esque stuff is my normal style of dancing–which is not to say I’m going to belly dance at my wedding, just that it may be possible to work in some movement elements like that into it or something. I like progressive rock, “goth” type stuff, um… actually my taste is seriously eclectic and hard to describe.
The kinds of groups I keep thinking of are like… Dead Can Dance… Loreena McKennett… Enigma… but I can’t think of any specific songs or anything.
A far-flung mix of ideas that have crossed my mind:
Depeche Mode’s “World in my Eyes” is a song I love to dance to, but could you choreograph the right kind of dance to it?
Collective Soul’s “The World I Know” is really pretty and I think the rhythm could work, but is it too depressing?
What about Duran Duran’s “Come Undone”? Love that song, could you do a ballroom style dance to it?
Edith Piaf’s “Non Je Ne Regrette Rien” is an awesome song… but it’s really short and does it have enough music?
And then there is stuff like “Adiemus” which I’m not even sure what it is (I know it’s not words), but it’s pretty…
Or heck we could just play “Fish Heads” and leave it at that! AIIEEEE!!!
Look around the iTunes store for shared playlists (iMix) with wedding music. We did that when picking out music for our anniversary party last summer (got a few good ideas from there). Trouble is, it can be hard to find imixes on the itunes store - I can’t recall how we got to them last summer.
Itunes sure does not make it easy to find the “search iMix” page :mad:
but I finally found this page, which contains a link that will cause your iTunes app to bring up the search page (click on “Visit the iMix page in iTunes”) http://files.widgetbox.com/www-content/mixit/
The SDMB thread with the songs for Mama Zappa’s and my 25th anniversary is [thread=473162]here[/thread]. I’m sure there are some dancable tunes in the list, although I’m the last person to judge.
BTW, Mama Zappa and I are right next to each other, and I did not know she was replying to your thread at the same time I was searching for our old thread. Marriage is no guarantee of good communication
Congratulations OpalCat!!11! May you be at least as happy as me and my bride are! Even if we don’t talk.
I recommend asking this question in the ballroom forum at http://www.dance-forums.com. My tastes in music don’t run well with yours, so I can’t give you a great suggestion myself, but there are a lot of ballroom dancers there who have more eclectic music tastes. (I will say that “You’re the One That I Want” from Grease is one of my favorite quicksteps ever, and the lyrics are appropriate.)
Go to any ballroom dance competition anywhere in the country, and there’s at least a 75% chance that you will see that song played for at least one heat of chacha. It’s a great song, but hardly unusual. (Toni Braxton also danced to it on Dancing with the Stars.)
I’m not sure if this is ENTIRELY appropriate for a wedding, but I’ve always thought a choreographed dance to “Female of the Species” by Space would be awesome. It certainly could be fun, that’s for sure.
making a list to look up tomorrow
I’m so excited about this, really! At my first wedding, we didn’t dance at all. My husband didn’t have much interest and I had an almost phobic fear of dancing. Since then I’ve worked as a dancer for a living so I got over it, and have taken classes and stuff and now love it. I’m half tempted to ask my ex-husband to take a class or two in some simple ballroom dance so that he and I can dance at least one song at the wedding. OK, more than half tempted. I’ll probably bring it up with him at the very least and see if he has any interest. (nothing choreographed of course, but just to be able to dance with him during one of the regular songs that people are dancing to.)
Wait, not only is your ex-husband invited to your wedding, but you’re requesting that he take a couple of classes so that he can dance with you (something he would not even do at your wedding to him?) Wow!
No, it’s not like that. You say “he would not even do at our wedding” which is innacurate. He had no special interest in dancing at the time, and he knew that I had a MASSIVE phobia of dancing, so he just went along with my strong desire not to dance at our wedding. I don’t think he has anything particularly against dancing, he just doesn’t do it often. He was totally willing to take dance classes before our wedding so that we could do it, but I chickened out.
Of course he is invited to the wedding–he is one of my best friends in the whole world! He comes and stays with us regularly and it’s always a good time. I mean think about it. I married one guy because I loved him that much. After 15 years we divorced, but it wasn’t because we no longer liked each other, it was more complicated than that. We have never stopped caring deeply about each other, and we’ve never stopped getting along extremely well. I only wish he lived closer so I could see him more often. Now I’m in love with a guy (we’ve been together 4 1/2 years) and want to get married. Given the circumstances, it seems to me logical that chances are high that these two men would have enough in common that they’d probably form a friendship fairly readily. What’s really nice is that he and my fiancé get along well. In fact, they along with my son have gone off to do activities together where I stayed home. You know, boy stuff that I’d have been bored by. When he visits he stays at our house and it’s just one big family.
If you are serious about DCD, let me suggest “The Spider’s Stratagem” from “Into the Labyrinth”. It has a mild melody and a fast rhythm, which gives you some flexibility. It also has those eastern riffs at 1:40 and 3:30 that you could belly dance to. I have no idea about the lyrics, but I don’t think anyone in your family can get too offended at “meloleloidaralalalalele”. At 6:42, it might be too long, but it is all too easy to edit if you have a DJ. Plus, there are plenty of dance mixes of it around if you feel like breaking into more modern music afterwards.
ETA: Pity that it is not the third song of the album.
It’s a great song, but hardly unusual. (Toni Braxton also danced to it on 