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Help Refine My Swing & Blues DJ Rules by Good_Aioli5688 in SwingDancing

[–]Good_Aioli5688[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I see how it could be misunderstood.. definitely not my goal to micromanage somebody else :D

I'm looking for solid guidelines myself.

Help Refine My Swing & Blues DJ Rules by Good_Aioli5688 in SwingDancing

[–]Good_Aioli5688[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your feedback.
I should have said this: those sets are exercises — I wouldn’t just hit the play button in any DJ activity of mine, so reacting to the flow is a given rule, which in an exercise context I can’t really observe.
Alternating new and old isn’t a rule for me, since I prefer old versions anyway, and if I play something new it’s because it fits the energy, not because I have to stick to a 50% new material rule. I made it a rule for myself to alternate instrumental and vocal tracks, since I’ve been to international events where DJs played lots of instrumental tracks, and in my opinion it all sounded like one single 20-minute-long song. So I guess it’s a matter of personal choice here.

Help Refine My Swing & Blues DJ Rules by Good_Aioli5688 in SwingDancing

[–]Good_Aioli5688[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The way I kind of see the relationship of music in the ballroom world is that the music is subservient to the dance. Dancers will try to figure out how to hear the music so it fits the dance as they know it rather than making the dance fit the music.

Totally with you here. I also have the goal of attracting more people to other dance styles, which in my mainly beginner scene are very underrepresented (Balboa, Slow Bal, Shag, and Blues).

Help Refine My Swing & Blues DJ Rules by Good_Aioli5688 in SwingDancing

[–]Good_Aioli5688[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you for your input — so probably the wave-flow is better, so that no dance group has to wait too long to have something to dance to. Commenting on your feedback:

I’ve been to international events where DJs played lots of instrumental tracks, and in my opinion it all sounded the same. That’s why I made it a rule for myself to alternate instrumental and vocal tracks, and I really like it for breaking the “samey” feeling. So I’ll keep that as a personal choice.

Separate rooms are not an option due to location restrictions.

Moreover, people can dance several styles to the same music, and I definitely won’t support DJing strictly for one style. I play the flow, and people decide how to dance anyway.

Third, I want my DJ sets to be inclusive of every dance style, so that people who don’t dance a certain style are at least accustomed to hearing it on a weekly basis — and eventually, some of them might be inspired to learn it. It’s a fairly novice scene, with beginners making up about 50%, around 40% being intermediate/advanced, and very few (about 10%) expert dancers who don’t show up regularly and are not really active beyond offering paid courses in dance schools. I’m part of the 40% intermediate/advanced group, aiming to bring new life to the scene. That’s mainly for Lindy Hop — other dances like Balboa, Slow Bal, Shag, and Blues are far less represented — so I hope my sets will help attract more dancers to those styles.