'I like the music but I don't know how to dance to it'
Moderators: Mr Awesomer, JesseMiner, CafeSavoy
'I like the music but I don't know how to dance to it'
Have you ever heard people say this at a swing dance? Is it necessarily a bad thing if a band or DJ plays adventurous music that challenges people, rather than staying within safe boundaries?
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Cyrano de Maniac
- Posts: 97
- Joined: Tue Mar 21, 2006 2:11 pm
- Location: South Saint Paul, Minnesota
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I don't imagine my opinion counts for much, but to a first order of approximation I'd say "yes, it's bad". As a DJ it's not my place to try to teach the dancers a lesson or otherwise diminish the dancers' enjoyment at any moment of the evening. I'm there for three complementary purposes: to lend my music collection to the dance in an intelligent manner, to maximize the overall enjoyment of the dancers, and to make the dancers happy with the venue such that they're enthusiastic about returning.
That is not to say, however, that it's bad to spend a little bit of time pushing dancers beyond what they spend 98% of their time dancing to, be it tempo (either direction), instrumentation, arangement, or whatnot. However this needs to continue to be done within the constraints of the music appropriate for the type of dance the dancers came to enjoy. So, at a swing dance this means music that swings, and therefore busting out some latin, hip-hop, or something intentionally perverse to dancers (e.g. "Take Five", good as it may be for other reasons, or heaven forbid some bepop) is poor form.
So, I see the comment 'I like the music but I don't know how to dance to it' as expressing something distinct from 'I like the music but it's more challenging than I'm used to, it's hard to stretch myself that far'. The former conveys frustration with the music being inappropriate to expectations, the latter conveys self-recognition on the part of the dancer that they're still growing in their dance skills within the genre.
Now, depending on the crowd and/or situation, this may be able to be changed up a bit. If you're DJing in a situation where people came not expecting a swing dance as such, but a more richly varied styles of social dance, then there's a lot more leeway. Or, perhaps if you're doing a solo four hour gig, it'd be fun to mix things up for those who hung on until the very end of the night, with some soul or disco or hip-hop or whatever might strike the much-diminished crowd's fancy. Or if you're at a weekend-long or longer situation where the dancers have gotten "in the zone", it may be OK to push into more challenging/obscure jazz or whatnot.
All that said, overall if the dancers came expecting a swing dance, that's what we're there to facilitate, and it's our responsibility to serve up the most enjoyable experience we can manage. To do otherwise is a disservice to the dancers and the organizer/venue.
Brent
That is not to say, however, that it's bad to spend a little bit of time pushing dancers beyond what they spend 98% of their time dancing to, be it tempo (either direction), instrumentation, arangement, or whatnot. However this needs to continue to be done within the constraints of the music appropriate for the type of dance the dancers came to enjoy. So, at a swing dance this means music that swings, and therefore busting out some latin, hip-hop, or something intentionally perverse to dancers (e.g. "Take Five", good as it may be for other reasons, or heaven forbid some bepop) is poor form.
So, I see the comment 'I like the music but I don't know how to dance to it' as expressing something distinct from 'I like the music but it's more challenging than I'm used to, it's hard to stretch myself that far'. The former conveys frustration with the music being inappropriate to expectations, the latter conveys self-recognition on the part of the dancer that they're still growing in their dance skills within the genre.
Now, depending on the crowd and/or situation, this may be able to be changed up a bit. If you're DJing in a situation where people came not expecting a swing dance as such, but a more richly varied styles of social dance, then there's a lot more leeway. Or, perhaps if you're doing a solo four hour gig, it'd be fun to mix things up for those who hung on until the very end of the night, with some soul or disco or hip-hop or whatever might strike the much-diminished crowd's fancy. Or if you're at a weekend-long or longer situation where the dancers have gotten "in the zone", it may be OK to push into more challenging/obscure jazz or whatnot.
All that said, overall if the dancers came expecting a swing dance, that's what we're there to facilitate, and it's our responsibility to serve up the most enjoyable experience we can manage. To do otherwise is a disservice to the dancers and the organizer/venue.
Brent