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 The best blues dance DJs in Seattle and the country will be here to spin tunes for you during the band breaks and into the wee hours of the morning. Some of you might look at this list and wonder, "Hey, why isn't _______ instructor or _______ organizer DJing?" Well, we wanted to give the instructors a bit of a break from DJing and allow them to focus on instruction. As for the organizers, well, we're going to have our hands full as it is.
Devona Cartier (New York, NY)
Devona Cartier hails from nyc and is excited about djing for emerald city blues, on the other side on the country from her home. She has become well know for her “hot blues djing skillz” and is glad to add her name to the short list of female swing and blues djs. Expect to hear a variety of music for blues dancing with a strong base of traditional style blues music in a variety of tempos. You saw her recently at Down Home Blues and look for her in Dallas for Red White and Blues.
Evan Lawrence-Hurt (Seattle, WA)
Evan learned of blues dancing from Ogden and Amanda at a Connecticut workshop in '03. Later that year he moved to Seattle, where he started dancing and collecting. Come June of 2005 he was ready to show Seattle's discriminating Blues Underground crowd what he was made of; since then he's dropped sets at dances and parties in Portland, San Francisco and sweet-home Seattle. He is thrilled beyond belief to be playing to his favorite dancers, alongside his favorite dj's, at Seattle's first ever blues dance festival.
Miranda Metcalf (Seattle, WA) Miranda rules all. What else is there to say?
Dave Mortensen (Seattle, WA)  David
DJ's regularly at his venue in
Tacoma and at other
venues around Seattle. He also organizes Seattle's (and
perhaps the worlds) only blues dancing venue — Blues
Underground. Although a fabulous blues dancer and
lindy hopper, David is best known for his street balboa (as
seen here).
Kelly Porter (Detroit, MI)
Brenda Starr (Seattle, WA)
Steven Watkins (San Francisco, CA)
Brought to you by the
Washington Blues
Society |
Greg
Avakian has been a popular DJ for many years, having spun music for dancers at
competitions, exchanges and other events around the country, in Canada and
Europe. Greg has also been the DJ Coordinator for the American Lindy Hop
Championships. His style mixes classic swing with very groovy blues and other
sweet & funky stuff. Greg doesn't DJ dances so much much as he DJs parties for
dancers. :)
Evan grew up homeschooled, drinking goats milk on a dirt-road no-subsidy farm in central New Hampshire. He was fourteen before he realized the rest of the world wasn't wearing second-hand flannel and tight blue jeans. His first girl cheated on him and his second girl broke his heart. He djs soulful, broken, tender and dirty blues from the '40s, '50s and '60s.
Kelly
Porter has been a collector of jazz and blues ever since she first got a part
time job as a kid to pay for albums. Bringing dance audiences a rich mixture of
blues old and new, classic and lesser-known, she finds that the thing that
defines her style is an intense affinity for the deep soul and defiant humanity
of the blues tradition. She is an enthusiastic collector of rarer albums
(including a recently-developed love of collecting dirt-old 78’s) and loves
bringing fresh and lesser-known music to her audiences. For the past five years
Kelly has been DJing for blues and jazz dancers throughout the US, and as an
avid social dancer herself, she has a keen intuition when it comes to keeping
crowds on the floor and loving it. She was recently a featured DJ the Cheap
Thrills Blues Weekend, The Mezzjelly Blues Weekend, and the St. Louis Blues
Exchange, and is a regular DJ in her home town of Detroit. For Kelly, music is a
continual joy that she is excited to share everywhere she can.
