How to get people on the dance floor at a Wedding gig

0:02 Now I have delved on this subject in the past

Right guys, now I have delved on this subject in the past. And the reason I'm doing this again is because, well, I see it. The more information you can get out of there, the better. Alright, now, I had one email from someone who basically said, how do you get the crowd going, let's say, after they've had a meal? Maybe they've had a buffet, maybe they've had a sit-down, like three course canapes, the lot. How do you get them dancing directly after a meal? Well... You sort of can, you sort of can't, but in a sense you sort of shouldn't. I'll explain. People have just eaten, alright? And it's a known fact that after you've eaten you just want to chill out like that. So people don't really want to start jumping up and down. Alright, ironically enough, or not meaning to contradict myself, there will always be a couple of people who say, come on we want to dance! But generally people will want to sit down for a while.

Background music comes in. Now logically you will be playing background music if they request it during the course of the meal. So, maybe we need to look at three levels. Here, here and here. No, actually there, there and... No, over there, down there and about five miles that direction. Right, three levels. The first one is background music while they're eating. Very calm, laid back, chilled, bit of jazz, bit of soul, not R&B or hip hop or anything like that, but very laid back sort of music. And then maybe when you can see that the greater proportion of people, if not all of them have finished their meal, when I say greater proportion, if they're having a buffet, you're always going to have people coming and going, so not everyone's going to finish at the same time.

1:49 Sort of lighten the atmosphere, or enlighten the atmosphere, should I

On the other hand, if it's a sit-down meal, theoretically, if everyone is serving, or the staff are serving correctly, everyone should start and finish roughly at the same time. So maybe what you need to do, and also you need to speak to the bride and groom just to make sure, clarify all of this, maybe what you need to do then, as soon as people have finished eating, maybe take the background music up the next level. Sort of lighten the atmosphere, or enlighten the atmosphere, should I say. And then what you're almost doing, you're almost sort of like getting the people slowly motivated. So in other words, maybe at that point start playing some old classic tracks from the 60s, 70s, 80s. Not the charty poppy stuff because that's the stuff you want to play later on and you want them to dance to those. So almost in a way the sort of say the tracks that got into the charts wherever you are around the world at number 20 and number 30 but didn't get any higher.

So people know them, but they don't really know them. And then maybe, once everyone's finished eating, after about 20 minutes, maybe 15 minutes, something like that, then possibly begin to start the evening correctly. Now of course, over here in the UK, 99% of the time you will start with the first dance for the bride and groom. A quick pointer here. Ask the bride and groom, very important I find, ask the bride and groom if they want to dance by themselves for the entire duration of the first dance. Now you need to ask them this every time because they might not have thought about this and they may think, yeah we do. Well they may have actually thought, well yeah we wanted to begin with but then let other people join in because quite often the bride or the groom or the bride and groom maybe are a little bit, I don't know, they're scared about you.

3:37 Show them that you're there and you're helping them

So what you've got there, if you can, psychological, if you can get to the point where you say to them, right, would you like to dance for the first dance by yourselves? Or maybe what you need to say then is it may be a good idea. For you to begin to dance correctly, and bearing in mind you need to not necessarily take over, but show them that you are in control. Show them that you're there and you're helping them. And if you can show them and maybe explain to them that you're in control, they will be more at ease. So if you can, let's say hypothetically, get them to agree to have people coming in halfway through the first dance, then you're there. www.ellaskins.co.uk Would you now like to join the bride and the groom with their first dance? And you will get people coming onto the floor. Now, again, a lot of people have said, how do you get people to dance as soon as the night starts? Well, there's your answer. They're on the floor and then all you need to do is go into a big classic track that you know in your country, your area works. And theoretically, if you've got a good music sense and you know what tracks to play.

I hope that's been a help. Practice and enjoy.

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