Lawrence wrote: Part of the reason I started this thread is to find out how to encourage some of the ladies to share the burden.
Even though I played jazz saxophone in college and have always loved jazz, and have been dancing lindy about 5 years, I only started DJ'ing in the past couple of months.
Part of the reason is that just recently there has appeared a very non-threatening venue to practice at --- we have an informal dance on Monday's here which is run by one of the local swing clubs. There had been one guy DJ'ing for too long, so we decided to open up the DJ'ing to volunteers -- two people splitting 3 hours into 45 minute sets. This has allowed a lot of people to start DJ'ing, and it's a been a great way to practice.
The other thing that has helped is that the Century Ballroom, one of the main venues in Seattle, is run by a woman who has gone out of her way to promote female DJ's; she occasionally runs a "Ladies who Swing" night; I got to DJ a 30 minute set last month there; based on this I'm doing a full night tonight! (which I'm more than a little excited about).
Anyhow, I think having a fun place to practice DJ'ing is the key to get more people, both men and women, Dj'ing.
Brenda