DJ skillz a reflection of....

[mark0tz]

I wish I could remember more of the vocabulary and principles from my Logic class from a few years back, but I'd say that the skill of a dancer and the ability to DJ are loosely correlated.

They're correlated as such only because a better dancer probably has been dancing for a longer amount of time, and thus has more exposure to good (and bad) music.

Who has the better sense of flow? Who has the better sense of when to play what? Ehh... I'd say it's a push.

Roy, the guy I was thinking of is a DC local, and known as Bernstein. I won't get into a bio about him, but he's no longer DJ'ing in the DC area. For a while, he was the best DJ in the area who generated all the talk and you couldn't wait to dance to.

I will add that it's a rarity indeed, but that's probably because the Swing/Lindy communities are pretty tightly knit, and hard to gain access to from the outside. It's much easier to work your way into DJ'ing by becoming known as a dancer. Also, as we've already discussed, often the only pay is free entrance to events of the promoter for which one DJ's. What non-dancing DJ would really go for that?

[Lawrence]

I wish I could remember more of the vocabulary and principles from my Logic class from a few years back, but I'd say that the skill of a dancer and the ability to DJ are loosely correlated.

I taught logic in college and law school , and, yes, they are loosely corrolated. The stronger the corrolation, the more guaranteed that they will coincide in the future, most likely (although not necessarily) because of a causal connection between the two or a mutual cause that they share. As I said, the corrolation here is not strong enough to guarantee that a good dancer will be a good DJ or that a bad dancer will be a bad DJ.

But it can, as Peter noted, be one of the factors in explaining WHY a bad DJ sucks. It also is probable that a good dancer will be a better DJ than a bad dancer, just not 100% probable.

Who has the better sense of flow? Who has the better sense of when to play what? Ehh... I'd say it's a push.

Experienced dancers have their own experience in being a beginner as well as their experience seeing hearing what works and what doesn't, whereas beginners don't have the experience of being an advnaced dancer. That's why it is more likely, though not guaranteed, that a good dancer will make a better DJ than a new or (worse yet) experienced but bad dancer.

I will add that it's a rarity indeed, but that's probably because the Swing/Lindy communities are pretty tightly knit, and hard to gain access to from the outside. It's much easier to work your way into DJ'ing by becoming known as a dancer. Also, as we've already discussed, often the only pay is free entrance to events of the promoter for which one DJ's. What non-dancing DJ would really go for that?

Exactly.

[Nando]

It's been refered to on this thread, so I'll just accent it - but I'd say the common trait with a good DJ/dancer that a bad DJ/dancer has is listening skills!

At least as far as those bad wedding style DJs who play their same swings songs are concerned. They don't even know what makes a good lindy song. They just go with what the average 'Joe Schmoe' thinks of as swing.

There are some great DJs out there who admittedly won't win any major dance competitions, but still have skills and know how to dance to the music. Part of dancing is paying attention to the music. I'd say those DJ/dancers know how to listen to music on both sides of the DJ booth.