How Can DJs Get On Event Organizers' Radars

Kenny was recently asked “how event organizers decide who to DJ for their larger events. And how I can get on their radars?” and here are his brief thoughts as an organizer and someone who’s been hired for national and international DJ gigs.

• Actually, be a disc jockey. It’s okay to start with a playlist, but I want to see someone that is playing to the crowd, adjusting music on the fly, getting people out of their seats with the music you choose. A “create a playlist prior to the event and let it sit” is not a DJ.

• Someone that gets people to dance inspired. Mpst people show up to a dance to socialize and to dance. To get someone to dance inspired is another thing entirely.

• Be active in relevant groups. It used to be discussion boards and now it’s Swing DJs. If I was interested in scoping potential talent, I might check out DJ groups and see who is participating and how.

• Cold emailing organizers and having reputable teacher and/or organizer talent that can vouch for you and offer those references when you first reach out. Less work an organizer needs to do, the better.

• Read other DJs blogs like Dogpossum and reach out to other DJs getting hired to see what knowledge you can glean

• Reach out to online DJ events like Global Online Social hosted by Pauldances and put yourself out there.

• Consider building a resume/CV like my dance one here.

• Have a blog sharing your passion.

• DJ for a local event that out-of-town guests visit for.

Planning for Active Shooter Situations Resources

In light of the shooting at the Monterey Park dance studio January 21, 2023, we would like to share some resources we’ve gathered from our work in the events industry.

Someone I know that was formerly in a Public Safety role at a U.S. shopping center provided me this presentation they prepared to train staff in active shooter preparedness.

It's meant to be self-guided and I do have permission to distribute this. Sharing settings are "View" and it appears you can download this and then upload to your own Drive to customize it to your needs. The original owner did have a logo in the left corner.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask, but I anticipate not being able to answer due to the fact that I'm still learning. Hope you find this helpful.

Special Events Emergency Plan for an outdoor event I produced in 2020 so you can see what Denver has required of event organizers before.

Training for an Active Shooter Situation notes.

DHS - Active Shooter How to Respond.

NRF Active Shooter Guidelines.

The Danger of the Revival and Discovery Myths

A local organization recently did a nice post highlighting Lindy Hop’s African-American origins while also sharing a fantastic image of Ann Johnson (featured in our blog image) and Frankie Manning. However, they utilized the words “revival” in their original post and “rediscovery” in their repost - “…until European and American dancers rediscovered it starting from the beginning of the 1980s.” The terms are both fraught because they very nearly center whiteness.

From my original response on their first post using “revival” -
Great post! I might be hard pressed to use the term "revival" though. Like you said, Lindy Hop never disappeared so revival doesn't really seem fitting. It kept going thanks to people like Mama Lu Parks or transformed like you mentioned into other regional styles like Kansas City Two-Step, Chicago Steppin' and other social dances. Furthermore, Black artists and elders within this space have spoken out about avoiding "revival" too, so there's something there to reflect about. It certainly experienced a resurgence and transformation thanks to commodification, neo-swing, and other factors. It's just all very complicated.

And my second response when they reposted using “rediscovered” -
Still a solid post! Just like I pressed back on the word "revival," I'll also critique the term "rediscovery" since colonialism and appropriation are often attached to "discovery" especially when associated with Black art forms like Lindy Hop.

Here's an applicable quote from Adam Brouwers-Harries in the Teaching Swing Dance group - "The problem with the term "revival" is that it presents a whitewashing of the current popularity of swing dancing - i.e. it paints a picture of an activity "saved" from extinction by white people, rather than a living art form still practiced within black communities." Similarly, I would argue that using "discovery" is akin to "revival" here since it plays into this white savior myth that still is propagated through vernacular dance communities.

It’s always a fascinating experience exploring language and how we educate within the dance scene. The other night I was onboarding two teachers to represent Swingin’ Denver later in December and we were covering representation, appropriation, what is vernacular dance is and more. They seemed receptive to representing these cultural values. Other organizations and groups, even here in Colorado, will ignore offers to learn more or to gain opportunities through education. It’s about time and it’s been time for swing dance schools to step up their game when it comes to being good guests in the Black space that is vernacular dance.

Asking Each Other To Dance

Last night I had to remind myself to ask a private lesson student to dance. Clearly, the implication, the implied “yes,” is present since, as a student, you’re there to learn to dance and likely dance with the instructor. However, it’s quite important for instructors to model asking a person to dance to give opportunity for consent or “no.” That ought to be true in group classes, private lessons, and socials.

As consent came to be a larger topic within the global swing dance community, hip instructors made sure they discussed how to ask (preferably with your words), that declining a dance is okay, suggesting how to decline, and letting people know that saying just “no” is a perfectly fine response inside of classes and sometimes during socials. When dealing with safe space issues, we would find that offenders typically started out by crossing boundaries like not accepting “no” and forcing one to dance through verbal and physical means. This sometimes led to further harm and emphasized why we ought to have conversations revolving around consent sooner. And it’s quite good for the people in power like the organizers and instructors to model this from the beginning.

It might take time recalibrating current habits, but with a bit of self-awareness and effort, it’s worth it. Students watch you and take note. It’s good to be a responsible leader within the community.

DJ Music is Practice Music?

“Remember that DJ music is for practice; live music is game time.” I found myself reflecting on Falty’s words yesterday during the Vail Jazz Festival as I was listening to all the band members’ various solos. Whereas DJ’ed music features music frozen in time, live music is breathing right in front of you, bringing you a unique once-in-a-lifetime experience that you, the dancer, are reacting to in real-time. It truly is game time!

Discovering this video earlier this year may have unduly influenced me to solely focus on live music programming at The Savoy Denver. And we feature so much live music throughout the year with our various event partners, so be sure to bookmark our calendar and subscribe to our newsletter so you can stay apprised of all our live music happenings.

Pottery & Lindy Hop - Philosophies Merge

Today I attended the O’baware Summer Sale in Lafayette. Not only did I find excellent pottery to purchase, but I had the opportunity to listen to Kazu Oba, the Japanese-trained pottery artisan, talk about his methods and philosophy.

One particular element struck me was when he was talking about the piece pictured in this blog and I’ll try to be accurate as much as possible with this retelling. This particular piece is shaped cylindrical on the wheel with the vertical lines representing Kazu’s fingers as he draws the material upward. At some point he slices this cylinder into three pieces and drops the wet clay from a slight height for it to flatten.

However, the clay remembers that it was round and part of a whole so it tends to recoil round, so Kazu must work it flatter, but you’ll still see the edges curl upwards. The clay remembers.

This is in contrast with other potters that might start with a flatter piece of clay and try coiling the ends. However, Kaza was saying something akin to him not wanting to impose his will on the clay. He prefers his method of providing the clay a memory and guiding that memory to form something unique. This was my takeaway.

This led me to reflect briefly upon dance teaching. While these thoughts aren’t fully formed, I’d say there is a remarkable difference between how I was trained to teach ballroom dance (specific foot placement, specific technique, specific syllabi, imposition of will) versus how we teach Lindy Hop (acknowledging ambiguity, welcoming expression, striving to improve those triple step rhythms and moving from core). You can bring your lived experiences to vernacular dance and they can inform your interpretation of your teachers’ expressed philosophies whereas ballroom (I’ll acknowledge not all) can be cookie-cutter and formulaic.

Sometimes one style works best for a person. Sometimes you start with ballroom and move to Lindy Hop, sometimes you move the other direction. And I think it’s good to offer options so dance can meet people where they are at.