I pitched an idea to my boss at work, and she bought it, and now I have to educate myself some to carry out my part. The idea was that I will be the DJ for a monthly employee dance party. I will set up the sound system, provide the music from my personal collection, and play requests if people bring them on some media player. My boss will propose this as an employee wellness benefit, so we can get permission to use the hospital space, and get a budget for food and refreshments.
My personal reasons for doing this are much simpler. I just figured it was a way for me to spin tunes of my own choosing, play 'em real loud on a very good sound system, and get paid for it.
But I need to learn more about dancing, because as we know, real men, and most pretend ones too, don’t dance.
So,…
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How many beats/styles? I once heard a professional dancer listening to several pieces of music and saying things like, “That’s basically a cha-cha.”, or “That’s a rhumba.” Am I right in assuming that these various dance styles are associated with various identifiable beats? If so, can someone list them and give me a song reference that shows me what you mean?
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Help me expand my music collection. A co-worker suggested that if we want to attract parents with kids, I should include newer music, which strikes me as a good idea. I have a very good selection of 60s thru 80s music, and almost nothing since. Is there such a thing as hip hop or rap music that won’t offend the parents, and won’t be some weird sub-genre like “Jesus rap”? How about some good Latin dance bands? Or tejana? We have a large Latin American immigrant population among the employees, and we want to get people mixing it up through music.
Any other music/dance ideas welcomed.