Attention

“I think you've got to play a lot of the music people love, more than the music that's just good.”

Laying out his philosophy as a DJ — the crowd comes before his own taste when he picks tracks

“There really isn't that much of my own taste in the music I play. I think the biggest part of the job is getting people dancing and having a blast.”

Explaining how he places a DJ's role in building the floor's energy rather than in personal taste

“I watch people's faces and how they're dancing, carefully. You can tell from the dancing and the expressions — oh, they know this song, or oh, they're struggling with it right now.”

How to read the crowd in real time from the DJ booth at a social

“I usually think of peak time as starting somewhere in the 10, 11 o'clock stretch. In that window I go with the most upbeat songs I can, songs that really crank the energy up.”

Explaining hour-by-hour song selection strategy for a social party

“Up in the DJ booth I'm constantly watching — what's the energy of tonight's crowd, do I keep riding the upbeat stuff, or do I bring the mood down and go romantic?”

Explaining how a DJ reads the floor in real time and folds it into song selection

“I don't play a new track the second it drops. Even when something really grabs me, I usually wait two or three weeks.”

His know-how on working new releases in — checking whether dancers abroad have demoed it, and moving carefully

“It used to be all wave, one hundred percent. Now you've got to do mood, and Dominican, and wave, and mambo. There's so much you have to do now.”

An observation that bachata styles have diversified and the bar has risen since starting out in 2018

“Zouk style came in and there are a lot more of those flowing, swaying moves — early on the women could follow, but these days they handle pretty much any zouk-y pattern you throw at them.”

An observation that zouk's influence made bachata moves harder, but followers have leveled up right along with it