I keep a running playlist on my phone. It's messy, unorganized, and full of songs that made a dancer cry mid-rehearsal at some point. When someone asks me for lyrical song suggestions, I don't pull from some curated "best of" list — I scroll through that playlist and think about which tracks actually got used. Which ones made it to competition. Which ones a choreographer heard once and immediately started marking movements to in the back of the studio.
These are those songs.
The Ones That Stop a Room
You know that moment when the music starts and the whole studio goes quiet? "Skinny Love" by Bon Iver does that. It's been around for years, and dancers still choose it. The falsetto, the stripped-down guitar — it leaves so much space for movement. A student of mine used it for a solo about losing her grandmother, and I've never seen an audience that still during a regional competition.
"Turning Page" by Sleeping at Last has a similar effect. The build is slow, almost too slow, and that's exactly why it works. You can't rush choreography to this song. It forces you to sit in each moment.
The Powerhouse Tracks
Some lyrical songs demand bigger movement. "All of Me" by John Legend became a wedding dance staple, sure, but watch what happens when a contemporary dancer gets hold of it. The lyrics are specific — "your curves and all your edges" — and that specificity gives choreographers something to build around.
Adele's "Make You Feel My Love" is another one. It's been covered so many times that you'd think dancers would move on, but the original still gets picked for nationals every year. There's a weight to Adele's voice that you can't replicate.
The Dark Horses
Not every great lyrical track is a chart-topper. "Say Something" by A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera hit different when you hear it in a competition setting — the duet version especially. Two dancers, one leaving, one reaching. The choreography almost writes itself.
"Wings" by Birdy came out over a decade ago and I still hear it in studios. It's become one of those songs that newer dancers discover on their own, like a rite of passage. The piano is simple enough that it doesn't compete with the movement.
"Gravity" by Sara Bareilles is another sleeper pick. It's not flashy. It doesn't have a huge drop or dramatic key change. But the lyrics — "you hold me without touch, you keep me without chains" — that's lyrical dance in a sentence.
The Competition Favorites
If you've been to any dance competition in the past few years, you've heard "Unsteady" by X Ambassadors. The tempo shifts give choreographers natural moments to change energy. Same with "Breathe Me" by Sia — that opening cello line is basically a dancer's cue to start reaching.
And then there's "Hallelujah." Not the Leonard Cohen original, but the version by Pentatonix or even Jeff Buckley. A cappella or stripped-back arrangements of this song show up at every single competition season. It's almost a cliché at this point, and yet — when it's done well, it's still devastating.
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I don't believe in a definitive "top 10" list for lyrical dance. What works depends on the dancer, the choreographer, and the story being told. But these songs? They've earned their place in rehearsal playlists across studios I've worked in. Some of them have been there for over a decade, and they're not leaving anytime soon.
Press play. See what your body does.
