Correction: we will have two ALTERNATIVE rooms at the main evening dances in addition to the main ballroom, and one or two alternative rooms going concurrently at after hours.Nate Dogg wrote:At any given time there will be two rooms. The rooms will have pre-announced musical themes for different segments of time. The advantage to the DJs is that they know what is going on in the other room, so they will be able to contrast better.Shorty Dave wrote:Are there going to be *four* rooms at once? Or just two - a main one and an alternative - and the "theme" of the alternative will be constantly changing throughout the night.Lawrence wrote:However, we will have sizeable alternative rooms for Classic swing, Slow Blues dancing and even "Westie Lindy" (an alternative term to West Coast Swing because it is not technically "WCS" but instead just Lindy patterns to non-swing 4/4 music, like Lou Rawls "Natural Man").
Personally, I'm still undecided if multiple rooms playing a niche is better than just one room with a big mix. But I don't ever recall four different rooms at a lindy event, so if indeed that's the case, it'll be interested to see how well it goes over.
The main motiviation for side rooms is dispersion of people, not any desire to segregate a particular music style. Having themes for the rooms makes things more organized, that's all.
Nathan
The main motivation is NOT just to disperse people. ("Nothing to see here, move along, people...."). Diverting people out of the main ballroom to relieve over-crowding is only one factor that makes the alternative rooms an even better idea than if we had a smaller Exchange and were diivying up a critical mass of people into less-than-critical masses. We hope to have enough people to provide a critical mass in all rooms.
I have my reservations about side rooms, myself, mostly for the same reasons Kevin and Dave have cited. I also do not like stacking the deck against a DJ in a side room because "everyone" will want to be in the main room where their friends and the band is. I also respect that one of many ideal goals in DJing is to appease all diverse tastes of music within a set, to somehow be able play all genres from Johnny Dodds to Artie Shaw to Basie to Gene Harris to Royal Crown Revue to Jimmy Rogers to Stevie Ray Vaughn to Earth Wind and Fire, and that it would be nice to have every Lindy Hopper be a part of the same, happy family.
But the vast differences between all those styles makes it so that you will almost inevitably not please anyone by trying to please everyone. The music will be less cohesive and more of a mish-mosh of abruptly different styles, especially with multiple DJs playing their "greatest hits" somewhat regardless of what the other DJs played. Moreover, there is a vast variety of music in each of the sub-genre "themes" we chose to make it possible to DJ a fantasticaly interesting and diverse set within those sub-genres.
This set-up gives us the best chance of pleasing the most people. If you don't like what you're hearing in one room, you are assured that another room will not have the same stuff. To borrow and respond to Falty's critique in another thread, there will not be a style-monopoly; it won't be a choice between two DJs of similar styles, but two DJs of different styles. And, unlike some other Exchanges I have been to where "alternative rooms" were some converted closet or hallway, these alternative rooms are adequately sized to provide a good vibe.
Accordingly, in answer to Dave's question, each alternative room will choose a theme and stick with it throughout the night. The themes should remain constant instead of kicking every "slow blues" dancer out so we can play some up-tempo Classic swing when the DJ shift changes.
I am interested to see how it will go over, as well: which is a large part of the reason I wanted to do it.
