Hi

Am doing a wedding tonight for an elderly couple. Although they never mentioned any old time dances in their play list I feel as though 1 or 2 of the guests may ask me for couple..

I am struggling a little. I used to have some LP`s when we were on vinyl but I don`t have any cd`s.

Lads and ladies I could do with a compo of all time dances or a few idea`s of any composers so I can see if there are any downloads.

As I say its for a wedding tonight
Cheers in advance.

Ballroom, or strict tempo dances are something which has cropped up a few times before here on DJU.

In many (older) guests eyes, a DJ who can cater for even just a few minutes of ballroom dance requests is head and shoulders above t'other disco. In fact, I won a lucrative and long running contract at a venue where t'other disco had played a couple of ballroom dance requests (supplied by the organiser) and then said "And now back onto proper music"

Heres a couple of links to other DJU topics, with Ballroom recommendations:



Heres one

and heres another.

There were quite a few LP releases of ballroom dance music by The Joe Loss Orchestra which were then re-issued by Music For Pleasure and there are certainly a lot of Joe Loss tracks available on Napster.

There was a BBC cd out recently featuring Bruce Forsythe...Stictly come dancing..

should be able to get hold of that fairly easily in the shops

Mastermix do 4 cd's (£10 each) full of various different types of ballroom dances. I use them all the time they are good for this kind of thing.

I've got the Strictly Come Dancing one, along with the likes of Victor Sylvester. The Strictly Come Dancing one offers a nice change, in as much as the tunes are a bit more up to date. You may even find younger guests enjoying a few of this style due to the popularity of the series.

Victor Silvestri is another artist to look out for.....

Just out of interest, what do you mean by "elderly".

I carry a victor silvestor CD for just such occasions...

I even played a track off it to clear a club out one night as the door staff were having problems getting people to go home...

Victor Sylvester CD's always in the box. You never know when you might need them.

Hi Guys,
Don't add much input to this forum, though I do nosey in for a read when I can...
being a dancer aswell as a DJ, I though I'd give a little input....

Before playing any traditional dance tunes, you have to find out whether your playing to traditional ballroom dancers or sequence dancers.....

ballroom being an individual dance that a couple do together, She follows him and dances backwards

sequence dance being a repition of steps, that all couples dance together at the same time making their way in an anti clockwise direction around the dance floor (LOD...line of dance) You will need to find out what dances are known by the dancers before starting though.... there are thousands of them out there..

Usually dancers can dance both types of dance but sequence dance does require music that is specifically phrased to the particuler dance being danced, also sequence dances traditionally are played in 2 sets (eg, mayfair Quickstep followed by another Mayfair quickstep, Sweetheart waltz then another sweetheart waltz) though it isn't a rush to get both on as soon as possible, a bit of waffle between, recalling the dance, inviting people onto the floor etc

Can work quite well to play a couple of popular sequence dances, followed by a couple of Traditional (waltz/quickstep) followed by a couple of mixer dances, gay gordons, barn dances, reels etc....

The suggestions above for traditional strict tempo aren't to bad,
do look out for some David Lobban Sequence CD's, very good, and usually found for a couple of quid on the local market....


If anyone needs any other advice, just ask

oh yes, just to put the frightners on ya,
it is tradition that the caller of the dance lead off the dance.. and dance the first few reps on their own..

Nik

We play a lot of waltz and quickstep tempo in our irish pubs.

Irish music has very set tempos, a definate 1,2,3 beat is quite prominate in tracks like Beautiful Meath, One Day At A Time and The Roads Of Kildare. They all love this, young and old. The request is often just "Play some 1,2,3."

SLightly off topic but I read recently that "Rock Around The Clock" was promoted as a foxtrot when it was released!!!