My wife and I just started a class in Latin dancing. It covers all the major Latin dances, and we need a collection of slow dances of all varieties that won't be too complicated for home practice. The best suggestion, if one exists, would be a collectio of a few CDs which have mixed dances (Cha Cha, Rhumba, Samba, etc), and easily identified dances with the music. We're talking really elementary here.

Any suggestions would be truly appreciated. Thanks.

I am not reccommending this company in particular but you can check out the items available.

In general I like the DanceLife CDs as they are fairly decent covers of original artists.

"Bring 2 Smiles To Your Feet" is fairly decent.

All songs are labelled as to what dance and tempo:

http://www.danceshopper.com/ballroom-dance-music

OB

Thank you. I'll look into it. I appreciate your response.

Go to dancevision.com and listen to the CD samples. They have the largest collection of dance CD that I know.

Ballroomdancers.com also sell some dance CDs at cheaper price than dancevision.

Some pop songs can be used for dancing. So go through your CDs and see if you can find something. For example, many songs of Marc Anthony and Gloria Estefan can be used in salsa, rumba, or chacha. But you have to figure it out yourself which is which.

Some rumba music are for american style rumba, which would be too fast for international rumba.

Thank you for your reply. I really need one or two CD's with a variation, and, hopefully, an indication of which dance it is. Sure, we can recognize what a Cha Cha is, but the difference between a Samba and a Rhumba, forget it!

You'll find them cheaper here:

Dollar amounts are Canadian.

Trouble with Vicki's site is you can't listen to the selections but you can listen to them at DanceShopper (which might be Canadian pricing too) and then order through Disctribution.

The Van Hogezandt's usually attend our competition here in Victoria in June and always bring CDs that we buy up at the workshops the next day.

OB

I'd suggest Latin Energy

It has all the international latin dances on it, plus has slow versions of the Rumba, Cha Cha and Jive, which are useful for practicing.

I think you can get this from the companies mentioned.

Sex Bomb by tom jones for cha-cha, its a great song and the beat is wicked easy to find

Abradaxis.If you want a Rumba which is slow with a very distinct beat, that nobody could possibly miss. It is not a dance disk but can be found in the mood music section. The disk is called Medicine Woman the composer is Medwyn Goodall, and the track is track 3, Temple Journey. It runs for 7.10. Track 6 is also very good for training it runs for 6.55. One of my teachers who was 7th in the world at one stage does use it in her teaching. On the front cover is an Inca woman with a pyramid to her side, that's the one with the steps.