They Don’t Dance No Mo! They Don’t Dance No Mo!

Has everyone become so bougie that they would rather show up to sit and talk, then to get up and dance at a great party? The rap group “Goodie Mob” said it best on a song off their sophomore album – Still Standing. The song was called- “They don’t dance no mo, They don’t dance no mo” – All they do is diss, All they do is diss.

For the most part most of the events go over pretty well depending if the client has family and friends who like to have fun and dance. Speaking of family, you know that every family has that crazy uncle or cousin who’s the life of every party encouraging everyone else to dance. Then every once in a while there are those few parties where you know as a professional dj that you’re playing all the good stuff but nothing seems to get the party started, they’re so dead you start to hear the crickets.

I’ve recently seen some wedding gigs ending not much longer after dinner, maybe through the cake cutting or bouquet toss and they’re leaving. Let’s face it most people need the bride and groom to do something before they, themselves, feel comfortable enough to get up and dance. Unfortunate but some families just don’t dance much anymore.

I’ve always been a more analytical type of dj who often attempted to reason with why certain events were hits and others weren’t. In the past I would beat myself up mentally about those situations because I felt like if the guest were not dancing, then it was my fault. But was it really?

Then there are those dj companies that will say that they have never had a bad night where people didn’t dance and the dance floor stayed pack all night, yeah right! It left wondering what was it they were doing that I wasn’t, because I’m sure after many years of doing events that I know what music makes people move. Next, I decided to investigate and to my surprise most were not telling the truth about the consistency of the dance floor. I’ve come to realize that although a party might have all the right ingredients to make it a success, like good food, drinks and music, there are many reasons why every event won’t be a show stopper.

First reason I considered is that most of the people who come to events can’t really dance. Funny right but the only time you might see everyone get on the dance floor at the same time is if you play the electric slide, cha cha slide, cupid shuffle, etc., yeah the line dances or the step songs. Now there’s nothing wrong with those songs because they are the songs that can break the ice at most events. They will motivate the whole crowd to join in, but of course we can’t play group dance songs all night because they haven’t made that many of them yet. Besides who would want to hear them all night, after you dance to two of them in a row you’re most likely tired and ready to sit down.

When some people get drunk they often get up and dance but what if it’s one of those events where the Pastor or Spiritual leader is present, nobody’s gonna make a move to the dance floor at least until he or she does or until they leave, lol. Not to mention that they probably won’t be serving any alcohol at that event either. There’s an old saying if there’s no booze, then there’s no boogie shoes.

Then there are those who just come to events to see who’s who and what people are wearing like they are the fashion police. Excuse me; it’s a party not a fashion show where you are to come and judge what people are wearing or who they’re with. Someone has spent their well earned money, invited you to come help them celebrate and part of the celebration includes dancing of course. I can understand that everyone at the party won’t dance for certain reasons but it’s becoming a sad site to see people that will go out and buy a new outfit, get their hair done, put on the sweetest smelling perfume/cologne just to come to a great event to sit down.

I enjoy being a DJ but the future of parties is changing, so I believe that more interaction and activities will have to be applied to get people back to the essence.

If you’re planning an event it’s good to know that if you have some organized activities first, they can work as icebreakers that will end up with more of the guests dancing later. At any event there are some people who will dance no matter what, but, most people need you to do something just to help them to get in the mood. The days of people just arriving and dancing are disappearing.