SwingDJs

I’m fed up of having to DJ slow - mid range songs, because people don’t want to dance to faster tempos.
I’m also fed up of dancers just turning to Balboa when I put on an upper tempo song, even if it screams Swing out.

Swing is a music that goes from amazingly fast tempos to very slow tempos. I want to be able to DJ them all.
Who do we start to convince the dancers that fast music is a lot of fun and is not as difficult to dance to as they appear to think?

Brian

Bob the Builder wrote:Who do we start to convince the dancers that fast music is a lot of fun and is not as difficult to dance to as they appear to think?

Brian

i dont think the question is who or how, i think its when.

if their teachers baby them, and only play slower tempo music then they are going to develop in a way that will only allow them to dance to slow music.

Sorry guys,
I should have said "How" not who.

"How do we start to convince the dancers, that fast music is a lot of fun and is not as difficult to dance to as they appear to think?"

Teachers are probably in the best position to influence what tempos dancers are willing to dance to and what style of dance they will do.

As a DJ, you have some influence over tempo. Probably less so in terms of style.

A couple of points I use to push the tempo envelope:

1) Dancers will perceive something is too fast if there is an abrupt increase in tempo or energy. Try and use the flow of your set to increase the running average tempo a little bit at a time. When you move back to something slower, keep the tempo up just a little bit. Stuff with faster tempos that doesn't feel fast can also work to keep dancers on the floor while increasing their ability to dance to faster music. It's all about playing with perception.

2) Throw in the occasional barn burner during a night. It may clear most people off the floor but use the few that stay to inspire everyone else, go out and dance it yourself if necessary. Probably one or two of these at a time max. Dancers get tired quicker at fast tempos and those sitting out get bored sitting out too much.

I agree with the others, and would add a couple of points.

Start out a bit faster. Trying to increase the tempo in the middle of a set is a lot more work than doing it from the beginning. When people arrive, they're more likely to accept whatever the tempo is, and go with that. I'm not saying you should start out at 250 BPM. Just up it a bit, maybe over the course of a few nights.

Accept that initially, people won't dance with the faster stuff. There have been times when I've had the second half of a night, after the first DJ had played slow stuff. This was where 170 BPM seemed fast, even for the ECS dancers. I played a couple of very high energy barnburners right away to let people hear high energy stuff and get them in the mood for faster music. Nobody danced, which I was prepared for. Then I went back down to a tempo that was a bit faster than what the previous DJ had played. I think it sort of helped (sure confused the other DJ), but it was still hard for the dancers to get into the faster stuff, which I understand. It's hard to get pumped up when you're sleepy and sedentary. That's why I advocate raising the tempo from the beginning.

Just my take.

Bob - Don't get down on them for dancing Balboa is a good first step!

1. Balboa is a real swing dance - in fact it may be the FIRST dance refered to as swing dance.
2. That they do this lets you play up tempo music without clearing the floor
3. Uptempo Bal teaches people to move their feet! My dancing was trapped in the land of sub 160. I danced a LOT of bal for a year or so. Suddenly I could swing out at 200-220. So Bal indeed taught me that it was OK to move my feet quickly.

Our local scene followed this progression (slow Lindy to Lindy+bal to Lindy + bal + fast Lindy) and last week when I played Bill Elliot's Traffic Jam (285bpm) we had half the floor doing Bal and half doing Lindy. It was shocking! It was good!

Feel free to bash on them for doing bal at 160 BPM, if you want. That plain annoys me, not the concept of bal at slower tempos, but that some people use it as a crutch - an automatic default at tempos above 140.

I would start out faster, using the selections you typically use to get them moving faster at the front of the night. Building that base allows you to move them from the familiar range to another BPM level much easier.

Kalman

Bob the Builder wrote:I’m fed up of having to DJ slow - mid range songs, because people don’t want to dance to faster tempos.
I’m also fed up of dancers just turning to Balboa when I put on an upper tempo song, even if it screams Swing out.

If you look at this as a problem, where the dancers are an obstacle to what you want to do as a DJ, then you're going to become more unhappy with your DJing as time goes on ... I think you need to reframe this as a challenge for yourself. After all, what would it say about your DJ skills if you can get this normally slow crowd to dance fast?

You picking on me?

Oh well, I don't care.

I have a problem when dancers opt out of dancing because it's too [adjective]. I would love to see more dancers dancing at all tempos. It irks me to see longtime dancers "default" to another style automatically.

Kalman

mousethief wrote:I have a problem when dancers opt out of dancing because it's too [adjective]

Well put. Excpet, what happens when I opt out of dancing because it too "sucky."

yedancer wrote:

mousethief wrote:I have a problem when dancers opt out of dancing because it's too [adjective]

Well put. Excpet, what happens when I opt out of dancing because it too "sucky."

Cripes, I had to do that this week. I know some things don't move some people but there's a commonality in swing dancing where the music, well, swings.

Not so this week.

Kalman

mousethief wrote:You picking on me?

Oh well, I don't care.

I have a problem when dancers opt out of dancing because it's too [adjective]. I would love to see more dancers dancing at all tempos. It irks me to see longtime dancers "default" to another style automatically.

Kalman

moi? it's not like i'm putting words in your mouth.
although it's true that if you are doing balboa at 160 because
you must then it's pretty lame. but isn't balboa supposed to be
a dance you can do any tempo? then it's pretty lame to bust on
people who enjoy doing it at a variety of tempos. to insist that
everyone must do what you enjoy is to be prejudiced.

Rayned,

I don't object to people doing bal at a given tempo, in fact, I seem to recall that bal was originally done at tempos much lower than you might find today. I object to dancers having a "kill switch" that automatically creates this Pavlovian response because the tempo is too fast (or not in some cases). I've seen it scene after scene, 180 BPM - BOOM - must-do-the-robot.

I have the same objections with "Flyin' Home" becoming the You-Must-Do-Big-Apple song.

Kalman

big apple to Flyin' Home is FUN!

if they automatically do the big A, play a different version of FH or a DIFFERENT FRICKIN' SONG!

I hate when people kvetch about this.