As a social dance veteran and amateur musician, I wrote this guide for the musicians and bands who might find themselves playing for social dancers, that means specifically couple dancing. As I’ll explain, social dancers will have different preferences and expectations than a typical club audience, so there are a few things you might consider to make the event a success for everyone.
We are promiscuous on the dance floor -- we love to change partners often, and at almost every tune. The best dance evenings are those where everyone gets to dance with everyone else at least once. This means that you should try to keep your songs short, typically under five minutes: two verses, chorus, instrumental solo, chorus and done, thank you very much, and next song! This way, during a one-hour set, we may have up to ten different partners -- ten in an evening would be fantastic!
Shorter songs are also suited for couples of mixed skill levels. Although you are (we hope) professional players on stage, we on the floor range from beginners to experts. In general, the good dancers try to encourage the beginners, but if we’re stuck in a unbalanced partnership for over ten minutes while you guys are jamming and trading solos, it can be agonizingly long for both dancers; and it is rude and discourteous to excuse oneself in the middle of a song.
A secondary effect is that if the event is not gender balanced, there will always be people sitting out. The more songs played, the more dancers get into rotation.
Dancers appreciate a solid rhythm section that keeps a constant, fairly strict tempo. Though some of us may be paying attention to the nuances of your musicianship, mostly we feed off your energy and focus. Keep it simple and predictable, and we feed energy back to you.
Remember, it’s a dance, not a concert -- I have found that dancers generally don’t pay attention to anything but the music. For example, if you introduce your songs with background information, it will generally fall on deaf ears, because we’re probably socializing. Especially, if you try to interact verbally with the crowd during a song, it’s likely we won’t react or answer, because we’re so focused on what we’re doing. Don’t expect much applause after your epic solo either -- our hands are busy!
Don’t be shy to take a short pause between songs, we can always use this time to manage our shift changes -- to thank our partner, leave the floor, take a sip, etc. In fact, a heads up on the next song is always appreciated -- a “We’re going to slow things down a little…” or “Get ready to rock!” sometimes allows us to seek out a preferred partner depending on the tune coming up.
I hope this guide has been helpful in planning your next dance party gig, because we’re eager to move to your groove!
