Category Archives: Performance

A Successful New Year’s Eve!

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I recently had the pleasure of performing for a massive New Year’s Eve party – a first for me, actually.

It was a four room, Jame Bond-themed extravaganza at the Empire Landmark Hotel. Salsa, electro swing, hip hop/club, and world groove rooms, appetizers, drinks and desserts, several performing groups, and a lot of guests.

For the first part of the night I wandered the space on stilts.

David Yates stilt walking New Year's Eve

I received some of the most enthusiastic interaction I’ve ever had. Everywhere I went, I danced hard like I usually do, and everyone around me responded with joy, excitement, and a real willingness to get close and interact. I partner danced, had people dance through my legs, and of course offered plenty of high fives all around. If anything, it felt a little dangerous in the rooms where the ceiling was lower, the space was more crowded, and the lighting was a bit darker. It was a real test of stilt walking skill, and luckily I passed!

Later on came my solo fire show, a James Bond-themed poi piece. I entered looking “normal” – a bit like James Bond in a dark suit with a dress shirt opened at the collar, and then as soon as the music started I put on goggles and removed my suit jacket to reveal a sleeveless dress shirt and leather bracers underneath. The rest of the piece was really about using the music to feature my movement and poi skills, and it all went pretty well. Unfortunately, my camera died right as I lit my poi, so I don’t have any video yet, but here at least is one guest’s quick snapshot to give an idea of what my costume looked like.

performing with fire poi on New Year's Eve

One Couple’s Wedding Dance Story – The DJ Played…..What?

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Here’s a story from students we had recently, and a great reminder to all future students to talk to the important people involved in their event!

“We practiced religiously every night leading up to the wedding and even though I was nervous prior to the dance, I was confident that we’d be able to pull it off. We had arranged to do it as soon as we were announced into the ballroom, rather than wait until after dinner. So we’re standing outside, getting ready, and the DJ announces us . . .”

So far, so good!

” . . .and in we glide and – tada! – we realized that the DJ was playing the wrong version of our song. He was playing the TECHNO version of our song, with no lyrics or anything.”

Oh no! It’s exactly the sort of moment we ourselves dread. We’ve decided never to keep going. We’ve decided that starting the dance over is more important than forging ahead. But we hadn’t had this talk with our students.

“So I looked at my new husband, as 100 guests were staring at us, and said, Ok, let’s just do it.”

The DJ played the wrong song . . .

As you can see from the photo, things seemed to go okay at first.

but they decided to do their dance anyway . . .

“So we started our routine and got about 30 seconds into it when we just realized it wasn’t working . . .”

Wedding dance students busting out the techno moves

and their dance turned out well enough, but wasn't what they hoped for.

“. . . so I busted out some techno moves and we called it a day.”

To us, it looks like they did a fine job of going with the flow, adjusting on the fly, and doing their dance anyway!

“Sigh . . . I can’t believe he thought that we’d want the techno version for our first dance song!!! Who would want that?! (You can see the disbelief on my face in the pic where Darren is twirling me)”

“Anyway, nobody even knew and we all laughed about it later. After dinner and speeches, he played us the original verson of the song to start the dance off and we did it again, but with everyone else on the dance floor too. I didn’t want to subject the guests to watching us do our first dance twice!”

“So, it was just a little glitch in an otherwise glitchless day. Thanks again!”

Moral of the story? Things do work out in the end, but we still think it’s always best to start a dance over if the beginning (or in this case, the song itself) isn’t right!

A gentle wedding reminder: communicate with your DJ!

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Even though we’re professionals, we have often faced a very difficult, split-second decision while performing, and struggled with it every time:

Do we stop the music? Or do we go on?

Here’s what happens: sometimes the DJ starts a song too soon and we’re not ready. Sometimes the DJ starts the song too softly and we can’t hear important opening cues. Sometimes the DJ even plays the wrong song!

And that’s when the decision must happen – we either continue, struggling past the first few beats, trying to find our place in the song, or we signal a quick stop and hope the DJ gets it and starts the song over.

We generally aren’t excited about the idea of stopping the performance and starting over, but forging ahead, sometimes off the music, sometimes struggling to regain our sense of composure and presence, has always proved a much poorer decision. After enough experience having made both decisions, we’ve come to a conclusion:

Stop the music. Calmly start over. The thing is, the audience will forget what happened the moment the song comes back on and the dance begins. The audience won’t forget if the evidence of the mistake is happening right before their eyes: a performance that lacks something, a look in the performer’s eyes, a moment of disconnect with the song.

So here’s our advice:

1) TALK TO YOUR DJ. Confirm that the right version of your song will be played. Confirm the starting cue. Where will you be standing when the dance begins? Ask for a sound check beforehand so that the volume is set properly. And make sure your DJ also knows when to stop the music. You’ve worked so hard on your first dance for your wedding – you definitely want the end to live up to the beginning!

2) If, for any reason, something goes wrong anyway, don’t be afraid to start over! Calmly stand still, smile at your guests, give the DJ the sign to start over, and then proceed.

We’ve heard too many stories about DJ’s marring an otherwise perfect first dance – make sure you take care of every detail of yours! Coming soon – a story or two from our students about what they did and how it went.