All my dances have been to done to music that I love. The sources for these songs have been my two sons, who on finishing high school, went to Israel for a year and returned with loads of wonderful music
When I started choreographing dances, I observed that there were obvious cases where music used for dances had been edited. I took the same path. There were songs that I liked and wanted to make a dance to, but there were certain parts of the song that didn’t “fit the pattern” of my dance– it was simple to just remove or rearrange those parts and my dance was born. I was meticulous with editing. It required repeated listening and my pointing out the edits for others to pick them. I was proud of my efforts and happy that I could create a dance to the song that I wanted.
It was only when my sons started producing their own CD’s that my ideas changed. I video all their jazz gigs as well as a number of their rock gigs, so I know and really enjoy their music. I was thinking one day how upsetting it would be if someone edited their music without their approval – just took out part of this solo or that chorus – no doubt they would be outraged, as would I. Just imagine someone buying a Picasso painting, then painting one of the trees green simply because they don’t like purple trees!
A song exists for it’s own sake, not as possible material for a dance. If the two can meet, well and good, but it is important to realise there have been songwriters, lyricists, singers, arrangers, musicians etc. who have all contributed to this particular piece of art. If music is written especially for a dance, or if there is agreement between the choreographer and recording artists, then there is no problem in making mutually agreed changes. But to devalue their work by imposing our own perceptions on the song and changing it to our liking is an act of desecration. If the song is too long, choose a shorter one. If you don’t want instrumental solos, choose a piece without solos. If it’s a bit fast, choose one that’s a bit slower. If I expect someone to accept my dances as they are, there must be reciprocal acceptance on my part.
Once I came to this understanding, it changed the way I listened to music. I went back through my dances and was able to change one so that it used the original music. The rest that used edited music have been left as they are, but are no longer included in my list of dances. Since then, I have only used unedited music for my dances.