We pride ourselves on being able to play for dance contests better than anybody else, because three of our band members (Jonathan, Hilary and Josh) are experienced dancers. We have all seen contests where the live music was either generally subpar, or where it disadvantged a particular competitor during a phrase battle (nothing like having your splotlight be the bass solo, right?).

So here are some clips of the Contest we played for at Strutters' Ball last Wednesday. The format was: 1 slow song, 1 medium song, and 1 medium fast phrase battle w/ an all skate at the end.

For the phrase battle, we have several particular elements we think are essential for providing great contest music, AND making sure each competitor gets a fair shake.
1) Each contestant gets a hot solo with similar high energy.
2) Riffy and rhythmic soloing to give the dancers as much syncopated matieral to work with as possible.
3) An ending all skate to the shout chorus, so no single couple gets the best part of the song.
4) A short musicial break between the last couple in the phrase battle, and the ending all skate - so that the last couple is not disadvantged by having to go straight from their spotlight into the all skate, while other competitors got to rest up. (Also, we think it looks pretty bad ass when a whole line of dancers hits their swingouts on cue.)

SONG 1: SLOW ALL SKATE

SONG 2: MEDIUM ALL SKATE

SONG 3: PHRASE BATTLE

Musicians: Jonathan Stout (guitar/leader), Albert Alva (tenor/clarinet), Jim Ziegler (trumpet), Christopher Dawson (piano), Wally Hersom (bass), and Josh Collazo (drums).