Dance Questions

Overview:

Anthrocon's dances are a great opportunity to unwind after an exciting day at the convention. Stop by the Spirit of Pittsburgh ballroom on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights to shake your tailfeathers until 2am!

Each year we strive to provide a variety of musical genres and DJs. The dance schedule is planned to try and provide a different overall mood on each night. On Thursday, you can expect 80s and pop hits starting off the night, leading into darker industrial and trancey tunes toward the end of the dance. Friday, grab your glowsticks and prepare for a audiophile journey as you dance to heavier club genres, including DnB, House, and breakbeats. On Saturday we cap off the night with a 2 hour mix prepared by our very own DJ Rigel, planned around the convention's theme. Don't miss it!

Every year we hold open auditions for DJ spots at the convention. The deadline for sending in an audition is January 1st. We require a minimum 30 minute mix, preferably in mp3 format but other formats may be okay as well. Please keep your mix to no more than 90 minutes. Auditions can be sent via e-mail, or any number of free web based file sharing services. You can also mail a CD or turn one in to Ops during the convention. If you hand in a CD, please be sure to include contact information and a note that it's for a DJ audition.

Selection is made by looking at a number of criteria. All of these things are important, but neither is a deal-maker or deal-breaker by itself. Instead, the entire presentation is examined with these measures in mind, and compared against the other auditions that come in.

• Mixing skill: Are the tracks mixed smoothly together using beat and phrase matching, or does the mix move from one track to the next when each song ends?
• Song selection: Anthrocon makes no effort to micro-manage what DJs play, but we like to book people who can bring music to the fans that they may not have heard before. A mix that sounds identical to 10 other mixes is probably not going to score very high.
• Genre: We do, to an extent, micro-manage genres. It would be more accurate to say that we look for a specific sound to fill certain blocks of time on specific nights. However, we are not opposed to breaking free of tradition. If you present a mix in a genre that is not typically covered (Hip Hop, for example) that we feel can keep a furry con dance floor packed, it will be given equal consideration no matter what genre it belongs to!
• Medium: Do you play on CD, Vinyl, or Digital? There is no bias for media selection, but there is a bias given towards visually entertaining DJs. To give you an example, someone who works with digital files, but uses turntables with timecode discs or similar hardware to do their actual mixing will be more visually entertaining than someone who works entirely from a laptop computer.

A few things are heavilly frowned upon, and will often result in your mix being disqualified. While these are usually deal-breakers, if a DJ shines bright enough in other areas these can be overlooked at the discretion of the dance coordinator.

• "Winamp" DJing: This is when the DJ does nothing more than queue up some music. At Anthrocon, we expect our DJs to mix live. Some DJs like to prepare a complicated mix early rather than mixing live, and this is allowed, but the mix will need to be especially good to be picked over other DJs who prefer to mix live.
• Being late: The deadline for auditions is January 1st, and we open auditions for next year as soon as the con ends. This allows nearly 6 months to send in your mix, so please be punctual. Late auditions will not be considered for that year.
• "Danceable": This is largely a matter of personal opinion, but if you send in a mix full of slow ambient trance, it will probably be rejected. Remember, we're trying to please the majority.

The list of DJs is picked in January following the conclusion of open auditions. While the list is posted relatively early, the actual schedule remains uncertain until much closer to the convention. Generally, the dance schedule will be made public within 30 days of the convention. You can find printed material at the door of the Spirit of Pittsburgh ballroom entrance during the dances which includes information about the DJs and their timeslots.

This tradition began as small flyers we would print out and pass around, similar to rave advertisements. However as the con grew, we needed a more efficient, and preferably more unique way to advertise the dances. The result today is the dance poster. The artwork is donated by a different artist each year, and then mounted on foam core. It sits by the door of the Spirit of Pittsburgh Ballroom during the dances, and you can buy it at the charity auction to take home a one of a kind souvenir!