There’s a method to creating a great night out for your audience. It all comes down to creating an environment where your audience can mix. Think of it like defrosting a chunk of ice. You’re the heat, and when you’re done, everyone should be feeling free to dance to new styles with new people. Be a better DJ by learning the tricks. Here’s a three-step approach towards creating a memorable night by filling the dancefloor.
Break the ice
Getting the first few people on the floor is the hardest bit. A good general rule for the early stages of the evening is to play for the girls rather than the boys. (general guideline, not a declaration of gender identity war, thanks.) Women generally go out to dance, often in numbers. We all know why guys generally go out. General. Generally. So start out with the more familiar numbers to loosen them up. Forget everyone else hugging the wall. Play only for the small crowd on the floor.
Please and tease
Using both track selection and volume, tease your small crowd like they’re fish on a line. If you hit it too hard with the classics too early, you burn the audience out too quickly. Right now it’s about not delivering everything hard and hot. It’s about keeping them on the floor with a balance of low-profile tunes and the occasional evergreen number (or a mashup thereof). Draw them in, then drop the volume a little and play less known numbers. It’s all a buildup to stage 3. Make them want that next dopamine hit by being a little restrictive.
Rotate groups
The same people aren’t gonna dance all night. Rotate your track choice to please one group, then pick songs that get the lurkers in the corner out of their safe zone. They’re all there to dance, so make sure you’ve done something for everyone at some point in the evening. Rotating also gives the dominant group a chance to get a drink, which means the venue is happy with you. By the end of the set, most of the audience has had a chance to dance, and now they’re feeling free to let go a little.
The method behind filling the dancefloor involves getting people to mix. You’re the facilitator of social hookups. People who don’t normally dance to a certain style should be throwing their inhibitions out the window and going for it. To achieve this, you need your audience to trust you. You earn that trust by excluding as few people as possible, and by watching and reading the crowd constantly. Foot tapping, eye contact and body movement are your signals. Get better at DJing by signing up for a career DJ course today.
John Bartmann is a music producer and DJ