2022 Recap: Accountability to Myself

Last year I put out a somewhat bold post stating my intention to more actively pursue my dance goals, in terms of competition, DJing, judging, teaching, and choreography. I had no idea where the remainder of the year would take me, and although I had confidence in my capabilities, I did not know what kind of timeline I would be looking at to see any kind of “success”.

I’m humbled to say that the remainder of 2022, as well as the start of 2023, has been nothing but a whirlwind of positive re-enforcement from the community in support of the goals that I put out in the world. I don’t do any of the things I listed(competition, DJing, judging, teaching, choreography) for myself, and while I do get a lot of fulfillment from being given the chance to practice these skills, I do all of these things purely because I feel that the community as a whole genuinely wants me to do them and that what I have to offer in these realms adds to others enjoyment or appreciation of this dance in some way. If I ever felt otherwise about any facet of my career, I would take a step backward instead of forward to re-evaluate… however, that has been anything but the case.

Instead, I saw steady growth in my ability to put my best dance forwards on the competitive floor, finaling, placing, and even winning at events where I’d previously only dreamed of doing so. Some highlights include:

1. Finaling at MADJam(for the first time in ANY division… this was the first event I ever attended in 2009): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skKhTHbelbU

2. Dancing in the All-Star/Champion Strictly finals at City of Angels alongside so many dancers that I’ve looked up to since I first learned what west coast swing was: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCbqdB6OXAw

3. Finaling at SwingTacular, an event I was ecstatic to make Semis at one time in 2018, resulting in one of my favorite J&J finals dances ever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AWmD-Zo5Eew&t=3s

4. Taking 3rd in the All-Star J&J at Boogie by the Bay, the first time I’ve ever made J&J finals at that event: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxI283c21l0

5. Taking 3rd place in the All-Star J&J at the US Open, an unbelievable feeling after reaching a heartbreakingly close 1st alternate in 2019: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WECzXCWQY_k

6. Winning 1st place in the All-Star/Champions J&J at Budafest 2023, after years of binging videos from that division and dreaming of attending “once my dancing is better”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xsqpqXTMM1g

7. Getting to dance a spotlight with one of my dance idols, Victoria Henk, in the Winners J&J at Budafest 2023, checking off a major bucket list item: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Gnv3bvPxSw

8. Choreographing, coaching, and performing my first ever Pro-Am Routine at the US Open, a hugely fulfilling experience that I hope to continue exploring more often: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CizlFCafCuc

9. Performing in Rising Star at the US Open with Lindsay Brown, one of the most incredible partners I’ve ever trained with. The feedback we received both during and after our run brought tears to both our eyes, and I feel so proud of the piece we put on the floor (Video is coming very soon I SWEAR, I’ve just been too busy traveling to put together my thoughts and feelings)

10. Getting the opportunity to coach students of all levels, and share knowledge that I wish I’d been given at an earlier point in my dance career, as well as being able to watch my students progress and implement things we worked on in real-time throughout the year. I swear I would charge $0 for private lessons if the market allowed for it, I just genuinely enjoy sharing knowledge and helping people understand things that I struggled with in the past. I’m continuing to improve my organization and planning to allow for more teaching opportunities, don’t forget you can view all of my upcoming events, available time slots, and schedule directly on aidanwcs.com.

11. Receiving opportunities to judge at a number of events including The After Party, Budapest, and Mountain Magic. This is a skill I am excited to practice more often going forwards, it’s hugely inspiring for me to be trusted with such an important and impactful duty.

12. Signing on to teach my very first weekend event workshops alongside Skylar Pritchard at Swing Crush 2023, an exciting new event that I’ll be teaching, judging, AND DJing at very soon: https://satxwestiesproductions.com/

13. Seeing such incredibly positive feedback to my DJing throughout the year, as well as feeling deeply valued by so many event directors going into the new year. I’ve added almost a dozen new events to my weekend DJing schedule in 2022 and 2023, and I don’t take the added responsibilities lightly, either on the contest or social dance floor. As I work on improving my dancing to the best of my abilities, I will also put as much time and effort into continuing to improve and refine my DJing to ensure that I’m providing every dancer on the floor the most inspiring experience possible. You can check out my Spotify profile here, where I'll be adding throughout the year to my two regular lists: https://open.spotify.com/user/12149954698?si=0a59fc97fc2f4b74

14. Enjoying social dancing(and doing it more) than I ever have before. I've always worried that pursuing more professional avenues in WCS would close me off from the social floor, but it has actually had the absolute opposite effect. I instead have had probably some of the most memorable and inspiring dances of my life, with dancers of all abilities, ages, genders, and backgrounds. I only love this dance more and more with every night of social dancing, and I will NEVER stop social dancing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJ_R-cRj5QE

15. Having more FUN in my prelims and semis than ever before. These used to be things that I dreaded, instead I look forward to the chance to dance with three or more amazing friends or strangers and just exist out there as the dancer I am in that exact moment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z7OxYk4FFhU

16. Getting to travel the country, and even the world, alongside a growing group of amazing friends and colleagues. It wouldn't be the same without being able to share all of these experiences with incredible people.

The point of this post is not to list my accomplishments from the last year, but rather to be accountable to myself, specifically the version of myself that was terrified to make my goals public last year out of the fear I would not meet my own expectations yet again. This is to tell myself that I put in the work, and although I didn’t achieve every single goal I set out to, I accomplished so much more than I even knew I was capable of. I am choosing to take these small “wins” as proof that my efforts were worth whatever sacrifices I made, and as motivation to increase those efforts to the best of my ability going into 2023.

My goals remain similar heading into the new year, with a few new additions:

* Train my dancing on a daily basis, through regular drills, practices, and coaching

* Push myself competitively past my comfort level, without any set expectations but also without any self-imposed limitations

* Perform on the US Open floor, in as many divisions as I’m able to manage

* Offer judging services at events that I’m already DJing, as well as events I have not worked before

* Fill out my DJing calendar throughout the year

* Provide private lessons from my home in Sherman Oaks, CA

* Provide private lessons and DJ coaching at weekend events

Alongside these professional goals, the driving intentions that have kept me inspired and passionate about WCS this whole time will remain at the forefront of my priorities:

* Social dancing as many songs as possible every night, with as many partners of all levels and types

* Doing everything I can to help grow and improve the community, including making it a safer and kinder space for everyone

I hope to catch each and every one of you on the dance floor very soon

The Dreaded DJ Task: Re-Organization

It’s very easy as a DJ to fall into a trap of playing songs from two buckets:

1. Newer, popular songs

2. Older, comfortable throwbacks

While I try to regularly shake up my “popular” picks, as well as my “throwback” picks, it’s still hard to shake that feeling of repetition and monotony at times. The easiest way for most DJs to approach this problem that we all face is to try out brand-new songs. This can work great, in moderation, and after a night of moderate experimentation I often get feedback along the lines of:

“I didn’t know many of the songs tonight, some of the new stuff felt familiar enough to dance to but I was a little outside of my comfort zone”

I generally prefer that feedback to “I knew every song and was bored and uninspired all night”, but I still feel like I can do better. How? Through a grueling, time-consuming, yet ultimately inspiring process called “going through and re-sorting my entire library”. 

Yes, you heard that right, my entire library. How many songs does that entail? Well if we’re just going off my sorted music, it’s just south of 7000. If we include new additions needing to be sorted, we start getting into the 9000 range. Does this mean I listened to every single one of these songs during the process of re-sorting? Yep, at least enough of a snippet to decide if it’s worth keeping and where to put it.

You may wonder why I would go through such an arduous process if I already had my music sorted, and the reason is that unless a song manages to make it into one of the first two buckets I mentioned in this post within a month or so of being downloaded, it rarely escapes the depths of my library unless I happen upon it by chance through shuffling, etc. 

Were the majority of the 9000 songs I re-listened to great and worthy of reviving? Absolutely not! A good majority got shuffled out of my folders and into permanent retirement. But the gems I re-discovered will be worth all the hours this took, in my opinion, and I hope that by giving my library a proper re-examination I will be better equipped to accurately find the right vibe I’m looking for going forwards. And I believe it will result in more loosely familiar songs from the past making their way back into my playlists in an organic manner, allowing me to broaden the range of throwbacks I play, without having to rely so heavily on the same 100 classics we tend to pull from to fill the floor.

I hope this was an interesting look behind the curtains of DJ organization(exciting stuff I know), and I hope this sheds some more light on the sheer amount of work it takes for WCS DJs to prepare behind the scenes for that one-hour set that can seem easy to the onlooker. Remember that even if it looks like we’re just hitting play sometimes, that playlist could have taken days, if not weeks worth of work between research, discovery, downloading, cataloging, organizing, testing, playlist creation, etc.

Although I would have infinitely more money today if I had never started DJing for WCS in the first place, the journey, the experiences, the artistic expression it allows me, and that electric energy when a song hits at just the right moment in a crowded ballroom makes it worth every hour spent for me. While I will be further exploring different avenues such as judging, teaching, community building, and more next year, I hope to continue making an impact with every set I put together.

Sharing Intentions and Goals

As part of launching this website to promote my professional journey in West Coast Swing, I wanted to ensure that I have a regular outlet to share my thoughts and ideas in a way that is freely accessible to the entire community. I plan to share a number of thoughtful topics here that are hopefully somewhat informative, interesting, or thought-provoking.

Some topics I plan to cover include thoughts on DJing, competitions, community, dancing, social aspects, and more. I will be testing a variety of post lengths, depths of content, as well as potentially including some thoughts and content from a few valued friends of mine.

To kick things off, I’m sharing a post I recently made on my Facebook page sharing my goals and intentions heading into the next stage of my WCS goals.

I’ve recently received a number of questions about whether I teach, and where/when I do so. I’ve also had some amazing discussions with friends recently about my goals in WCS, and I wanted to take a moment to publicly communicate both my intentions as a member of this incredible community, as well as share my availability regarding lessons and where they can be scheduled.

For those who don’t know my story, I started in this dance as a wide-eyed 12 year old in 2005, attended my first weekend event in 2009, and have been competing at an All-Star level since 2016, becoming a fairly regular finalist over the last few years, as well as DJing professionally since 2010. I had the honor of DJing the Champions J&J finals at Desert City this past weekend, and had the brief thought of “Wow, I actually just accomplished a goal I’ve had since the start. What’s next?”.

What began as a hobby quickly grew into a passion, and a lifestyle, that I can’t even begin to imagine my life without at this point. While a number of factors have prevented me from focusing seriously on WCS over the years, I’ve made the choice since 2020 to both push my personal dance abilities past their current potential, as well as utilize my knowledge and art to inspire and share with others. I don’t intend to quit my day job, but I do intend to be teaching, djing, judging, and traveling to the furthest extent that my schedule will allow going forwards.

What does this mean? It means that I am currently looking to:

* Fill out my DJing calendar throughout this year and next

* Provide private lessons from my home in Sherman Oaks, CA

* Provide private lessons and DJ coaching at weekend events

* Explore judging at events, while brushing up on further training

* Provide video, editing and design services for events

Alongside these professional goals, the driving intentions that have kept me inspired and passionate about WCS this whole time will remain at the forefront of my priorities:

* Social dancing as many songs as possible every night, with as many partners of all levels and types

* Doing everything I can to help grow and improve the community, including making it a safer and kinder space for everyone

I appreciate all of you so much, and I hope to catch you on the dance floor sometime soon