Time to get silly with your family with this fun playlist! This music provides great inspiration for creative dance parties, outdoor family fun, or an upbeat game night. So put on your dancing shoes and let the laughs ensue! For more playlists, check out our online library of themed playlists here.
Pytor Ilych Tchaikovsky – The Nutcracker: VII- Dance of the Reed Flutes
The Nutcracker is chock full of wonderful music, and this piece is no exception. This piece of music is, in fact, meant to sound like dancing flutes come to life. The piece uses only pizzicato strings (which means the strings are plucked with the player’s fingers and no bow is used) and three flutes. This makes it buoyant and delicate.
Johann Strauss II – The Blue Danube Waltz
Strauss was known as The Waltz King and this is maybe his most famous waltz of them all. Float and dance all around your family room as though your floating on the waters of the River Danube, the river this piece was composed about.
Sergei Prokofiev – Romeo and Juliet: Dance of the Knights’
This piece is perfect for imaginative play. Ask your kids what they imagine could be happening in the music. Do they hear stomping giants? Big dinosaurs? Have them act out the scene while the music is playing.
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart – Oboe Quartet: Movement 3
This piece features a non-traditional group of instruments: an oboe, violin, viola, and cello. It’s silly and playful. We think it sounds like sneaking around playing hide and seek and could even be a great song to play to inspire kids to action during toy cleanup time.
Jacques Offenbach- Orpheus in The Underworld: Galop Infernal
It’s basically impossible not to bounce or dance during this famous melody!
Aaron Copland- Rodeo: Hoedown
Copland wrote this piece to portray scenes of the Wild West and he certainly accomplished that goal! Pretend to be adventurers on the open plains, riding your galloping horses into the sunset.
Johann Strauss II– Tritsch-Tratsch-Polka
Another well-known piece by Strauss, though this one isn’t a waltz (waltzes always have three beats per measure). You won’t be able to sit still during this piece.
Nikolai Rimsky Korsakov – Flight of the Bumblebee
This piece is a classic for frenzied movement. Fly around your house or yard like quick bumblebees while you listen to it.
Scott Joplin- The Entertainer
Though this song definitely falls more into the jazz category, we couldn’t create a list of fun music for the family without it. It’s catchy melodies and fun syncopation will have everyone bopping along.
Modest Mussogorsky- Pictures at an Exhibition: Ballet of the Chicks in their Shells
This piece is about little chicks breaking out of their shells to hatch. Have your little ones pretend to be baby chicks making their entrance into the world.
Sergei Prokofiev- Suite from The Love for Three Oranges: March
This is a modern orchestra take on the classic march genre. Marches generally feel patriotic or are military-inspired, but Prokefiev really got creative and broke from that mold with this march.
Enjoy the music and fun!