Challenging the dancers.

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mousethief · #16 Post by **mousethief** » Wed May 05, 2004 10:14 am

sonofvu wrote:Never heard of it. I'll go through my set lists (the ones that survived my recent backup) and find some examples. By the way, who is this Digital Underground now? Are they bop?

*chortle*

You're joking. I know you're joking...

Kalman

gatorgal · #17 Post by **gatorgal** » Wed May 05, 2004 10:29 am

I know George, and no, he's not joking. So be nice. Bad Kalman!

Anyway, I think Katie said it best about not necessarily challenging dancers so much as exposing them to different styles of music that they may not thought of as something to dance to. I'd rather do that than deliberately give them something a bit frustrating when they're trying to have a good time.

I would think that those dancers who wanted to experiment would do it on their own.

Tina

mousethief · #18 Post by **mousethief** » Wed May 05, 2004 10:48 am

gatorgal wrote:I know George, and no, he's not joking. So be nice. Bad Kalman!

I came up with that song outta nowheres!

Anyway, I think Katie said it best about not necessarily challenging dancers so much as exposing them to different styles of music that they may not thought of as something to dance to. I'd rather do that than deliberately give them something a bit frustrating when they're trying to have a good time.

Open invitation to start "Sweatin' to the Oldies" of Motown & disco. I think any DJ on the board can challenge dancers within the bounds of their own collection and it doesn't require leaving Jazz to do it. Not that that is what you or Kitkat are advocating, but there it be.

I view the concept of challenging dancers as more in tune with competiton (which is where we started off on this topic) but I also do it locally. I might pick a fun song with good breaks to spice things up. I might pick an up-tempo piece that swings easy to get dancers to dance faster or switch to Bal or shag. I might cut the mix of well-known music and/or bring back long-dormant favorites. I might just play a different version of a familiar song. All of these represent a challenge beyond what is comfortable, but I don't think that they are so ludicrous that you can't pull them off in a social setting.

Kalman

mousethief · #19 Post by **mousethief** » Wed May 05, 2004 10:52 am

Example:

Shorty Dave has a piece with a great, sustained male vocal that sounds like the record is skipping. It's a great selection because it emphasizes not only the importance of actually listening to the song but also underscores your willingness to trust your DJ.

Shorty, if you're reading this, please give me the name of the piece. Jesse Miner once played a Yoko Noge song where the break threw Steven Mitchell - also challenging.

Kalman

#20 Post by **JesseMiner** » Wed May 05, 2004 11:20 am

mousethief wrote:Example:

Shorty Dave has a piece with a great, sustained male vocal that sounds like the record is skipping. It's a great selection because it emphasizes not only the importance of actually listening to the song but also underscores your willingness to trust your DJ.

Shorty, if you're reading this, please give me the name of the piece. Jesse Miner once played a Yoko Noge song where the break threw Steven Mitchell - also challenging.

Kalman

Both songs you're talking about are by Yoko Noge. The first would be "Stormy Monday Blues" from Struttin' With Yoko (I just played it again this past weekend in Toronto), and the second would be "Roaster Pan Boogie" from Thrill Me.

Great point about trusting the DJ. If the crowd doesn't trust you, good luck challenging them.

Jesse

mousethief · #21 Post by **mousethief** » Wed May 05, 2004 12:01 pm

She's so sneaky!!! I don't have Thrill Me.

Nertz.

Kalman

mousethief · #22 Post by **mousethief** » Wed May 05, 2004 1:59 pm

To touch on the "trust issue"...

I'm a professional salesman and any salesperson can tell you that unless the client and the salesperson agree that X is a good thing for the customer, there's no sale. There's no sale because the presenter hasn't earned any trust. No trust, no sale.

So... when I set out to challenge dancers or shake things up, I like to think of it like a family get-together. Every family has the chatterbox, the loudmouth, the drunk, big mama, the big happy uncle and so on. If I was to DJ to each of the archetypes, my set would be disjointed and awful.

Now, if I were to take a cue from a leader in my family - like a favorite uncle or a grandparent, someone who pulls the family together - then we've got a get-together again. To me, challenging dancers is a lot like listening to your grandfather tell you a story. He's leading you somewhere and while it's familiar, it's also exciting & new. And when you get to the end, you're glad you were able to absorb the whole thing. But without the trust and rapport in play, it's just some drunk in a corner going off about his youth. Ze-ro attachment.

Kalman

sonofvu · #23 Post by **sonofvu** » Thu May 06, 2004 9:07 am

mousethief wrote:
sonofvu wrote:Never heard of it. I'll go through my set lists (the ones that survived my recent backup) and find some examples. By the way, who is this Digital Underground now? Are they bop?
*chortle*

You're joking. I know you're joking...

Kalman

I really did not know who Digital Underground was. I was joking about the bop part though. I like challenging dancers with Lester Young and Ben Webster. I djed at the band breaks for the recent Steven and Virgienne workshop here in Austin. Once the band was done Steven requested that the dj play slower more mellow stuff. I played stuff like Good Queen Bess. I then played "Blues is a Woman". Lou Rawls' version. Steven and Virgienne got it. They did not lindy, they grooved and swayed to the music. There were a few other couples that got it. The majority either did not dance or they tried to lindy to it.

gatorgal · #24 Post by **gatorgal** » Thu May 06, 2004 12:09 pm

mousethief wrote:To touch on the "trust issue"...

I'm a professional salesman and any salesperson can tell you that unless the client and the salesperson agree that X is a good thing for the customer, there's no sale. There's no sale because the presenter hasn't earned any trust. No trust, no sale.

So... when I set out to challenge dancers or shake things up, I like to think of it like a family get-together. Every family has the chatterbox, the loudmouth, the drunk, big mama, the big happy uncle and so on. If I was to DJ to each of the archetypes, my set would be disjointed and awful.

Now, if I were to take a cue from a leader in my family - like a favorite uncle or a grandparent, someone who pulls the family together - then we've got a get-together again. To me, challenging dancers is a lot like listening to your grandfather tell you a story. He's leading you somewhere and while it's familiar, it's also exciting & new. And when you get to the end, you're glad you were able to absorb the whole thing. But without the trust and rapport in play, it's just some drunk in a corner going off about his youth. Ze-ro attachment.

Kalman

Damn. Great analogy.

Tina

djstarr · #25 Post by **djstarr** » Thu May 06, 2004 1:15 pm

Roy wrote:
djstarr wrote: - the band sounds totally different --- I think this really challenges the dancers, because you have to change your style depending on the sound.
Only the advanced dancers change their dance based on the sound, I would say the majority of dancers dance exactly the same to every song.

Agree ---- this gets back to the point of knowing your crowd; there are some venues where there is a nice mix of intermediate and advanced dancers; throwing on the occasional stretching song is cool since the advanced dancers will usually do something cool enough that makes everybody watch and say "wow, I'd like to do that".

We have another venue which is maybe 70% beginner, 30% int/adv. I think it's quite a challenge to DJ there right now since I'd like to play beginner friendly stuff and not bore the more experienced dancers - it's tough. It's also fun to throw in a couple of barn-burners to showcase the advanced dancers - everybody else just stops and watches; as long as you don't do it too often I think it helps motivate the beginning dancers.

mousethief · #26 Post by **mousethief** » Thu May 06, 2004 1:18 pm

gatorgal wrote: Damn. Great analogy.

Tina

I told you!

Kalman

coldnight · #27 Post by **coldnight** » Tue Jul 20, 2004 7:57 am

djstarr wrote:*snip*
We have another venue which is maybe 70% beginner, 30% int/adv. I think it's quite a challenge to DJ there right now since I'd like to play beginner friendly stuff and not bore the more experienced dancers - it's tough. It's also fun to throw in a couple of barn-burners to showcase the advanced dancers - everybody else just stops and watches; as long as you don't do it too often I think it helps motivate the beginning dancers.

Our very young Lindy group ( I think only a couple of people have more then 5 years dancing ) is very beginer heavy. We have weekly practices (where I expect to DJ at some point) and have to be carefull about our selections. - its very easy to overwhelm the students. We are a small (30 people is a busy night) community and thus VERY casual. When DJ's are going to play something that will challenge us (we all dance, some dj) they generally warn us that its going to be a left-field kind of event.

I, as a dancer love to hear new things, new styles and artists are very interesting.