Experimenting Intermediate level dancers

[Bob the Builder]

Experimenting Intermediate level dancers

It’s quite common for us to talk about recommendations for beginners on this talk board. They are a large core of dancers that we need to keep happy on many dance floors around the world.
Another core group of people that I believe is worth discussing is a group what I call the Experimenting Intermediates. This title comes about form a level of dancer that has started to get very comfortable with their dancing. The may have been dancing for about 2 years and the musicality side of the dance is starting to slip into place. They have got to a stage where they what to try everything, and that includes dancing to a very wide range of music including non-swing tracks.
Now we have also discussed endlessly, whether or not, dancing to non-swing music is a good or bad thing, so I would prefer not to bring that up again. The way I’m thinking is this post is that if there is a large about of this kind of dancer on your floor and they want some non-swing, then by playing it, you are fulfilling your job role and keeping them happy.
So my question is:
How and when during your set, would you pull out some non-swing material?
Do you know some favorites that generally work?
How much of a shelf life do some of these songs have?
If you decide not to play “non-swing” how do you keep them happy?
Do you find the other dancers get board very quickly of this kind if music?

I’d like to hear what you think?

Brian

[djstarr]

? How to do you define non-swing?

We are starting to get more crossover between tango and swing dancers, so at the right venue I will play slow ballads that have a drifting beat.

Occasionally I've played pop/jazz but it's usually had a blues shuffle background; latin, especially cha cha where you can do a lindy pattern to is ok.

Other than that I don't really go outside the boundary too much, for this group [experimenting intermediates] I would throw a wide variety of tempos and songs that vary tempo - such as with double time sections etc.

[Bob the Builder]

? How to do you define non-swing?

I don’t. The patrons / dancers decide what is non-swing or swing. That is part of the problem. As a DJ, the person that is trying to keep the dancers happy, you some how have to decide what your patrons on the night want, or don’t want. Fortunately, most of the time you will be DJing to a similar crowd, so you may have a better idea.

We are starting to get more crossover between tango and swing dancers, so at the right venue I will play slow ballads that have a drifting beat.

Occasionally I've played pop/jazz but it's usually had a blues shuffle background; latin, especially cha cha where you can do a lindy pattern to is ok.

Have you had any problems with the Hardcore lindy hoppers with doing this? They always are a lot more vocal than other dancers.

Thanks
Brian

[Kaastel]

Athens is bizarre insofaras the _majority_ of our music is either 'non-swing' or neo-swing- very little of anything before 1960 or so. And a lot of what we dance is east coast swing, which isn't often applicable to Lindy. As to some that are quite popular and work well:

Pon de Replay - Rihanna
Swingin' - Blu Cantrell
Tell Her About It - Billy Joel
Lucas with the Lid Off - Lucas
Walking on Sunshine - Katrina & the Waves
Tango - Shakira
Runaround Sue - Dion & the Belmonts
Are you Gonna Be My Girl - Jet
The Longest Time - Billy Joel
Hit 'em Up Style - Blu Cantrell
Hey Ya! - Outkast
Brown Eyed Girl - Van Morrison
Let's Do It (Let's Fall in Love) - Alanis Morissette
Hanky Panky - Madonna
Build Me Up Buttercup - The Foundations
Feel Good Inc - Gorrilaz

Interesting question about shelf life- Hey Ya will pretty much always get everyone on the floor, even though it's been played here for years. If the DJ decided not to play 'non-swing' in Athens, people would get bored or he'd get lynched. This kind of music is the most reliable to fill up the floor in Athens, 'cause _everyone_ likes it- from devoted Lindyers like me to the new kid who learned a few steps the night before the dance. As you may surmise, we don't have any hard-core swing/jazz purists.

[julius]

What kind of music do you play during your exchange?

[djstarr]

?

Occasionally I've played pop/jazz but it's usually had a blues shuffle background; latin, especially cha cha where you can do a lindy pattern to is ok.

Have you had any problems with the Hardcore lindy hoppers with doing this? They always are a lot more vocal than other dancers.

Thanks
Brian

The dance where I will do this is where I feel I have the most leeway [Sonny's on Monday's]; the crowd has a wide range of what they will dance to, lots of blues/tango dancers with some who do latin, and the last hour I will try to mix it up. It's also a volunteer run dance put on by a swing club; the DJ's and staff volunteer and the admission pays for the rent for the night. There are some hard core lindy hoppers who attend, but not as many as at other venues.

I am not as experimental at the Century, where there are lots of beginners and it's a commerical venue, nor at OOJ whose mission it is to provide vintage lindy-hop music.

[CMU Matt]

I like to feel out the crowd first by throwing out some tracks that are not vintage, and sometimes not necessarily swing, but fun to dance to ("Out of Sight" James Brown, "Susie Q" CCR, "Can't Get No Satisfaction" Rolling Stones) while still playing a good deal of vintage material. If I see that they like the different songs or I notice that people like to play with their dancing, I will be more apt to play a few non-traditional songs - but I will never play a solid set full of them.

Shelf life is important because I feel most vintage jazz has a tremendous shelf life and newer songs do not. The songs I mentioned above seem to be okay but I don't over-use them. Feel Good Inc (Gorillaz) everyone seems to still like - and I liked it too before it got the cheese played out of it. I hear a lot of Cake played in East Lansing, MI, and that is a little tiresome. I am all for playing rock songs (obviously) but, I'm picky because I try to pick songs that will have musical things in them for dancers to play with.

I guess the way I see it, is people hear popular songs a lot outside of dancing (jet's "are you gonna be my girl", gorillaz' "feel good inc", outkast's "hey ya") - really the last thing I want to provide them with is something they've already heard a gazillion times, so I will usually try to give them something different when it comes to "non-swing" that is still a lot of fun to dance to.

Depending on what I choose for the crowd, I've found that most people don't get bored with my non-swing selections. I kind of make sure they're great fun and then I also slip them in under the radar, so to speak. I think however, if I played a set without swing or jazz in it, then they'd get bored.