History of remixed DanceSport music

The DanceSport is the spotlight for dancing. The Dancing is fabulous, but the music is not always relatable to the greater audience with the extreme example of the music played at the most beautiful competition in the world “The Blackpool Dance Festival”.

In the late 80’s a first attempt is made to step away from Big Band music as used in the Dance Sport scene. Dancelife’s Best series were created with re-recorded popular music including an enhanced rhythm. This series was a huge success within the social dancing studios, but never caught on at the competitions. Reason: When dancers would go to a competition like “The Blackpool Dance Festival” they were mesmerized by the atmosphere at these events, which included this big band sound. The nostalgia took over and gave no chance to change.

In 1995 Erik Wegewitz, a dancesport music freak and founder of Casa music, Started  to use original non-big band music on compilation albums created for the DanceSport. This success was followed by Dancelife, with Dancelife’s Sambas pa-ti. Dancelife’s Samba’s pa ti was a big hit, but Casa musica scored a massive hit with their Best of Ballroom and Best of Latin series and became the dominant party on competition music. Ton Greten, as music freak, influenced both parties with music tips to increase the quality of both parties. Dancelife and Casa musica , the largest DanceSport music producers and distributors, kept on renewing with the DanceSport music, and in 1999 the first remixed tracks on the Casa musica made, “Latin Music-series” appeared. This was an inspiration  to, now, well-known DanceSport DJ’s.

In 2007 a disagreement between WDSF and WDC created a split in the dancing industry. The WDSF created competitions with more rules to the dancing. The music was played by DJ’s instead of Big Bands. The DJ’s did use re-recorded popular music including an enhanced rhythm and original music, but they were hungry for more. Some creative DJs like DJ Maksy, DJ DLVG, DJ Ice and Avera started to enhance original music with extra rhythms, which made a huge impact on the dancers  at the WDSF competitions. So now the nostalgia was create by the DJ’s. Of course it is not allowed to sell an original enhanced music track, so dancers could not enjoy this music outside the competition. Dancelife and Casa musica recognized the talents and quickly teamed up with these DanceSport DJs to create albums with remixed DanceSport music.

In the meantime the word “DJ” does no longer only applies to somebody who plays records, it is also a producer of music. By remixing the DJ can create a new composition based upon samples of known music incorporated with extra beats and melodies.  Johnny M, Watazu, DJ Sylz and Mattia Di Renzo are showing that a commercial sound can be used for the DanceSport and with that creating a connection to the greater audience with music they can relate to.