What’s with the Organ Music for Artistic Dance?

“Why do you use organ music for artistic dance?”
If you’re a roller dance skater, you’ve probably heard this question a million times. And let’s be honest, the usual answers don’t quite capture the real reason we cling to this (admittedly old-school) music for our traditional skate dances.

For those of us who grew up skating in big, old rinks with a pipe organ (or those classic Rinx organ music records), that music is like a time machine. It whisks us back to our childhoods, to hours of practice and competition prep, to the familiar tunes that became the soundtrack of our skating lives. It’s hard to admit, but we’re a bit attached to that music. It’s like a cozy, nostalgic blanket that might sound a bit dated to our non-skating friends.

But there’s a practical side to it too. Artistic Dance Skating relies on music with a metronome beat. Each dance has a specific tempo and rhythm. For example, a 100 tango keeps a tempo of 100 beats per minute and has the distinctive flavor of a tango. We’ve danced to these same songs for so long that we instinctively know which moves match the tempo and rhythm.

Back in the early days of skating (both ice and roller), recorded music wasn’t a thing. Most venues didn’t have full orchestras (though some did!), but in the 1940s, the organ was cutting-edge technology. It could mimic the sound of many instruments and only needed one person to play it. Organ music became a tradition, and soon, Roller Skating and Organ Music were inseparable. Skaters knew what dances were usually played for each couples skate, and the organist could control the speed and mood of the session with their musical cues. Every session I attended with a live organist ended with “Good Night Irene,” signaling the end of the night with a final flourish.

One of my earliest memories is from the Oaks Park Rink in Portland, OR. I was about six, and I loved making an entrance. Whenever I stepped onto the floor, the organist, Don Simmons, would play an old tune called “Linda” and smile at me from his neon-lit perch. My mom had several of Don’s records, and she even played a beautiful Hammond organ herself. She proudly told everyone that her cousin was the organist at the Oaks in the 50s. Hearing live organ music still gives me chills and brings back sweet memories of growing up in the rink. Here’s a sample if you’re curious: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F-2zcOB48nI

When you’ve been exposed to this music throughout your childhood (and adulthood, if you kept skating), you learn to keep time to the music and recognize a tempo when you hear it. This music binds dance skaters together. I can hum “Quiet Village” around a group of dance skaters, and they’ll all hum along, tell you the tempo, and share stories of their own skating mishaps.

Now, with modern technology, we can identify and adjust the tempos of contemporary music, making it possible to dance to tunes that resonate with today’s audiences. I’ve been working on this project for a while and have started introducing popular songs with modified tempos into my playlist for my Thursday Artistic Social Skate sessions. We love doing the Joyce Lee Waltz to a 138 version of John Denver’s “Annie’s Song”, and “Sweet Pea” by Amos Lee is a fun 92 Foxtrot. Patsy Cline’s “Walking After Midnight” and “Crazy” are favorites, and Nat King Cole’s “L-O-V-E” makes a nice 104 Fox Trot. The key in making these tunes “skate-able” is the ability to modify the tempo without changing the pitch. There are several apps on the market that do this for a price, but my preference is AnyTune. There’s a bit of a learning curve, but just changing the tempo is a fairly straightforward process. The hardest part is converting music into mp3 format, and since I’m not an expert at that process I’ll let you research that part yourself.

Yes, I’ve heard the discussions among “old” dance skaters arguing either for or against organ music, and hopefully I’ve made a case for respecting tradition while making our sport/art more accessible and relatable to modern skaters. Once skaters understand and learn the fundamentals of dance skating using the prescribed music, they have laid the foundation for truly skating to the music, whatever the source. Even without a classical knowledge of music, skaters will recognize tempos, rhythms, and styles of many different genres and styles of music because of their training with the traditional music of skate dancers – organ music. And maybe they’ll even like it….eventually.

I’d be happy to share my own “modernized dance music” on request, and would love to know what kind of music you like to skate to? Are there any songs you think would translate well for a particular tempo or rhythm? Let’s work together to let the world see roller dance skating in a format that will be relatable to modern audiences. My bet is that they’ll want to learn more when they see the skill and expression of our beautiful dances, whether it’s done to organ music or something more current.