Clearing The Floor

Tips and techniques of the trade

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fredo
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#16 Post by fredo » Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:53 am

well, that's one way to screw around with a dance floor!

"Hogging" the dance floor is a funny thought to me. Only the meek and timid would be kept off the floor because of a full house, and so I guess swing dancing is not for the meek. If people want to dance, they will dance, regardless of how crowded it gets.

A non sequitor, such as Michael Bolton, takes a crowded floor (which isn't really a problem to be solved in the eyes of a DJ or dance promotor) and creates three new negatives: two harsh transitions and one shitty song.

I don't mean to be cruel, but if you can't find a way on to the dance floor on a crowded night, then you're not trying hard enough or you don't really want to be there anyway.

If you want to try to thin the floor a bit, do what others have suggested and just keep upping the tempo -- people get tired, need water -- on a crowded night there will be back ups ready to take their places.

Surreal
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#17 Post by Surreal » Mon Jul 07, 2008 10:11 am

I find beginners tend to shy away from crowded floors too. It's a little intimidating and they may not have developed the skills to dance in crowded spaces yet.

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fredo
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#18 Post by fredo » Mon Jul 07, 2008 8:29 pm

Surreal wrote:beginners may not have developed the skills to dance in crowded spaces yet.
haha, this is what usually keeps some of the non-beginners off the crowded floors!

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djstarr
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#19 Post by djstarr » Wed Aug 13, 2008 5:25 pm

fredo wrote:I don't mean to be cruel, but if you can't find a way on to the dance floor on a crowded night, then you're not trying hard enough or you don't really want to be there anyway.

If you want to try to thin the floor a bit, do what others have suggested and just keep upping the tempo -- people get tired, need water -- on a crowded night there will be back ups ready to take their places.
Sunday nights at the Century are so interesting because of this - we get 250 to up to 400 [on 3 day weekends] of 18 to 25 year olds mostly. Lots of them don't have crowded floor skills; the DJs have to ask every half hour or so for people to stay off the dance floor if they aren't dancing.

So most of the advanced and even average regular dancers have stopped going on Sunday because they don't like getting kicked etc.

I've tried climbing the tempo up, I have to go over 300 to really thin the floor out. It's impressive. at 250 bpm there are still plenty of dancers. Of course, if I played a very slow song then it would also thin out. If I drop below 150 for too long I get kids up at the booth asking me to speed it up lol.

And I really enjoyed last Sunday because the Loose Marbles played and it was a great mix of beginner and advanced dancers. Yeah for live music on Sundays.

turin
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#20 Post by turin » Mon Sep 15, 2008 6:34 pm

So here's a question for the opposite of your situation.

Some of our venues tend to have between 20-40 dancers coming out, just because our scene is both small and a college town. How do you keep those people dancing and not let the energy die?

We're all friends and have pretty much equivalent taste in what we like to dance to, so I do my best to cater to their tastes, while still trying out the new stuff I can. The problem is that they all get tired around the same time, so they take a break at the same time. Thus the floor is cleared, and the energy suffers (as does my heart to see an empty dance floor). I've tried alternating between fast/slow and high/low energy songs, without much luck. On nights with more people it isn't a problem, but when it's just the core group of dancers out that night, it gets tricky....

Surreal
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#21 Post by Surreal » Mon Sep 15, 2008 10:28 pm

I come from an even smaller scene where we consider 20 people a big turnout. At that point, the socializing is just as important and you don't want to force the dancing. Let people rest up for a song, maybe play something non-standard or a little more experimental (even if they don't dance to it, it will become familiar the next time they hear it), then come back with a crowd favourite and lead someone onto the dancefloor yourself. Where one goes, the rest will follow.

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dogpossum
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#22 Post by dogpossum » Mon Sep 15, 2008 10:29 pm

turin wrote:So here's a question for the opposite of your situation.

Some of our venues tend to have between 20-40 dancers coming out, just because our scene is both small and a college town. How do you keep those people dancing and not let the energy die?

We're all friends and have pretty much equivalent taste in what we like to dance to, so I do my best to cater to their tastes, while still trying out the new stuff I can. The problem is that they all get tired around the same time, so they take a break at the same time. Thus the floor is cleared, and the energy suffers (as does my heart to see an empty dance floor). I've tried alternating between fast/slow and high/low energy songs, without much luck. On nights with more people it isn't a problem, but when it's just the core group of dancers out that night, it gets tricky....

I've been seeing exactly the same thing lately. Usually they're all up and dancing for three songs. Then on the fourth, everyone's back to their beers. The energy in the room is still high and people are having fun, it's just that the floor is empty for one song, maybe two.
I generally try to aim to play a 5th song that makes it impossible not to dance - something really infectiously fun. And I just figure it's a different vibe to a hard core dancing night, so I play different music. I actually find that I can get away with playing a far wider range of stuff - songs that I don't play all that often - because people are just as interested in listening as dancing.

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fredo
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#23 Post by fredo » Mon Sep 15, 2008 11:21 pm

Being able to sit out a song for a beer is big help, I'm guessing. When there's a small dance at an empty dance studio it can get kinda dull if the people aren't already decent friends. A venue with drinks or food can help keep the social energy up if the dancing energy is up and down.

turin
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#24 Post by turin » Tue Sep 16, 2008 3:30 pm

So the solution is to fill everyone's bellies with food and alcohol so the energy stays high no matter what?

Why didn't I think of that sooner....?

Honestly, I like the idea of setting that 5th or so song as a "try-out" song for a later play. If our venues could support food or alcohol, I'm sure the night would have more people. Alas, it's at a dance studio. We have a night at a coffee shop, but nobody ever buys anything...

I'll try out that idea next time I DJ.

THX

Surreal
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#25 Post by Surreal » Tue Sep 16, 2008 11:49 pm

My two passions are dancing and eating. As I have been sidelined with a knee injury for several months now, any option that involves eating makes me happy :)

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