Let’s dance! – some great songs to get into the groove

Song and dance are inextricable, or as the saying goes, joined at the hip; thick as thieves.

Well, that is unless you come from Glamoč, the birthplace of my dad’s parents and world-renowned for its tune-less “deaf circle dance” or “Glamočko gluvo kolo”.

Despite my Glamoč genes, I need me a tune to move. So I decided to compile some of my favourite dance songs here (10 to be exact because that’s usually how these lists go).

Now, they are not all “dance songs” in the sense that they make you dance. Some of them are ballads about dancing. But even if not really boogied, I’ve certainly swayed to each and every one of them.

Here is my list (in no particular order apart from the numerical one):

10. Bailando
Gente de Zona featuring Descemer Bueno

The version of this song with Enrique Iglesias made the “top-10 clicked on songs on You Tube” list this year. I personally love the version with Descemer Bueno (he has a cameo in Iglesias’ ‘remake’ too) because I like his voice and his playful presence a bit more than Iglesias obviously sexed-up delivery (OK, I sound like a doofus right there). Whatever my preferences, this song has it all: Havana, nice sevillanas choreography, gorgeous dresses and a steamy yet innocent love affair. What more can a girl want?!

9. Mariposa en Havana
Sí Se

This song is about  freedom to dance until the sun comes up. I stumbled upon it shortly after coming back from Cuba where I spent a month doing research during college. I was preparing a spoken word show with some of my friends and needed a song to accompany a poem I had written. It seemed like a perfect match for these words:

we were born for greater things
warless worlds and wooden floors
high-heeled shoes.
we were born in perfect prayers
those hands above the tightened skin of the drum
for salvation in sweat
of sabor.

in Cuba
we danced along the water’s edge
contemplating swimming
or drowning
or finding a dingy to get to the other side
pero tenía papeles yo
y tu
solo el Malecón bajo los pies
y un sueño mojado del dolor
por no haber nacido alado.

So we settled on this thought
it is not fair to be born without wings
‘cuz we were born for greater things

remember the time when we were free
without oceans between us?
anticipating dawn at the threshold of the sea
esperando, with arms and knees, que no venga
suplicando
immigrant Gods, their tongues heavy with warnings

“you were born for greater things!”

for this new language of resistance
existence in the beat
hip to hip, hop along the water’s edge
feet following faith in search of salvation
swimming?
or drowning?
we settled on this thought
“it is not fair to be born without wings”
‘cuz we were born for greater things
warless worlds and wooden floors
high-heeled shoes.

8.  She’s a maniac
Michael Sembello

This song was originally about a serial killer who stalked his victims in New York City. The original chorus

‘He’s a maniac, maniac that’s for sure
He will kill your cat and nail him to the door’

was not an ideal match for the movie “Flashdance,” which would later make the song in its reworked form famous. I’ve seen this movie like a gazillion of times (even saw a musical rendition of it last year in Washington DC’s Kennedy Center!) and love it. In short, it’s about being possessed.

7. Beautiful Tango
Hindi Zahra

Simple. Beautiful. It is romantic, it is dangerous, it is goosebumpy gentle. The video is just stunning with all its gorgeous colours. Hindi Zahra’s voice is mesmerizing and you cannot help undulating whatever party of your body will acquiesce.

6. Dance Magic
David Bowie

Four words: David Bowie in tights. Show me a girl who was not at least a little bit in love with the evil Goblin King. This song is playful and the video features a score of Jim Henson’s fantabulous puppet creatures bobbing about to the beat. ‘Nuff said.

5. Boyfriend
Dana

Dance floor priorities, eloquently outlined by Dena:

“We start to move, I’m getting kinda confused
It would better for you if I tell you the truth.
I’m with someone else, I’m with someone else,
I’m with someone else, yeah, I’m with someone else
He’s also in the place, and he is name is rhythm
All I came here for tonight is to dance with him!”

4. I wanna dance with somebody
Whitney Houston

This song holds a special place in my heart. It is the backdrop of one of my first-ever performances that took place in my best friend’s living room. Yes, we made a “choreography”. Yes, it involved (if I can remember correctly) going around in circles and waving our arms in what in retrospect looks like a desperate drowning motion. And no, no one saw us (for which I am eternally grateful). But these were the 90s and desperately flailing your arms was in.

3. Yo quiero bailar
Ivy Queen

I like dancing reggaeton – alone. I have no problems with dropping it low, with perreo (a super sexual move imitating the mating of perros, or dogs in Spanish – basically doggy style 🙂 – but on my terms. And this song is about exactly that. And the beat is gooood!

I hope to later on write more about different dance styles I am learning, including the cultural debates surrounding them. It will be serious. Very serious.

 2. Mi plesemo
Prljavo Kazaliste

This is a standard at any ex-Yu party. Contagious little number that sees even the most hard-core wallflowers getting into the groove.

1. Rock me Amadeus
Falco

As an ode to my (current) hometown of Vienna, here is an Austro-pop classic. This one does to Austrians what “Mi plesemo” does to ex-Yu peeps. If you are unmoved, well there’s something wrong with your dance genes.

What are your faves to get into the groove?

Oh and remember – dance like everybody is watching!