[Wolfie]

Art is right.

Junior high dances can be fun. The students are very clique-ish at this age but not hard to please. The ticket is to play the "clique-ish" stuff every now and again. This keeps everyone happy. Remember, not everyone is going to dance. Don't worry about it. Many of the pups come to the dances to visit and hang out with their friends.

Remember to use your mic to keep the floor going. Building anticipation before laying on a popular track is a good thing. You can slowly kill the floor and then build it back up again with your mic and a popular song.

It's been a few years since I did middle school dances so I'm a bit out of date when it comes to the latest requests. I'd recommend chatting with some of the SCA students and asking about the off-the-wall songs they think will go over well. If you are subscribing to a promotional music service, chances are you'll have many of the songs they like.

Of course, the standard participation dances like Casper Cha-Cha Slide, Electric Slide, Macarena and YMCA will work. They're not likely to be big fans of Country music but you can throw in some Shania Twain.

They like lots of bass and lots of headroom. You'll need an arse-kicking sound rig to please these folks. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

Slow dances aren't all that popular with this age group but you should play at least one every 30 minutes. This gives 'em a chance to wind down and go to the concessions if they don't have dates. At this age, most of 'em don't have dates. The ones who have dates will slow dance.

Here are a few of the songs that have worked well for me at middle school dances:

Cotton Eye Joe
The Twist
Anything by Shaggy
Barbie Girl
Mambo #5
Rock Around The Clock
Love Shack
Get This Party Started
Limbo Rock
Livin' La Vida Loca
Who Let The Dogs Out
Hot Hot Hot
Move It Like This

Mix 'em up with the modern rock and mainstream stuff and you'll do fine. You may be surprised to find that older Motown dance tunes get 'em moving as well. [img]style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/smile.gif[/img]

I hope it helps and good luck!