About The Music at 5Rhythms Classes

It can be a rich and rewarding experience to dance a 5Rhythms wave without any music, just the sound of you breath and your feet!

At most classes though you will find teachers using music to inspire the dance. Sometimes they’ll choose music on the fly, sometimes they would have spent hours beforehand deciding which tracks to play for each rhythm.

Teachers also invariably spend huge amounts of time finding and listening to music, much money buying the music and then testing it out on the dance floor. Often dancers say, “Wow, the music was fantastic, what track was that in Staccato?”

Gabrielle Roth has created music especially for the 5Rhythms. Here are a few recommended suggestions (available through amazon.com):

Creating Your Own Playlist

Here are some suggestions about creating your own 5Rhythms playlist. You don’t have to go to a class to have a great dance! Useful resources are the Auckland Libraries, and for buying and downloading music in New Zealand, we recommend amplifier.co.nz or digirama.co.nz.

Bear in mind, you can dance to anything, and the whole wave can be of any length of time. Creating a 45 minute wave though can give you the music for an ongoing personal practice.

To start with, the music for flowing should be slowish, grounded, internal – allowing you to let the dance in and connect with yourself. For staccato, find something with a beat that will let your hips groove and the breath out. For chaos, the top of the wave, something faster, something to shake out to and let it all go. In lyrical the music could be light, joyous, trancey. And ending in stillness…its a moving stillness so choose music that has the spirit of stillness within it – sometimes classical music can be beautiful to dance too.

Have fun creating your own 5Rhythms wave. Invite your friends round – have a 5Rhythms party!

Playlist Suggestion: 5Rhythms Around The World

1. 1 Giant Leap – The Way You Dream
2. Deva Premal – Gayatri Mantra
3. Jai Uttal – Ganesha Windmix
4. Faithless – No Roots
5. Gotan Project – Differente
6. Drala – Maula
7. 1 Giant Leap – Passion
8. Baka Beyond – Bounaka
9. Radio Tarife – Oye China
10. Malouma – Nour
11. James Asher – Earthsong