Reinventing Dance (for Emotional Uplifting Trance)

aka, Dancing Based on Emotional Melodies, Not Hard Kicks or Bass, and for Higher BPMs

Many people say that emotional uplifting trance isn't danceable and that "big room" music is more danceable. But that's not true. It depends on the kind of dancing.

For some kinds of dancing (many Youtube footage examples below after my explanations), low-bpm "big room" music doesn't work at all, but high-bpm emotional uplifting like Freedom is perfect and works great.

And 147 bpm is not a fast bpm for dancing. It's a fast bpm for a certain kind of dancing, but not for another. This is due to the laws of physics and gravity, and the mechanics of how the human body moves (more below). What a "fast" bpm is depends on the kind of dancing. The video footage below is at

158 bpm (example 1) [34 seconds long]

158 bpm (example 2) [47 seconds long]

153 bpm (example 3) [39 seconds long]

143 bpm (example 4)

After you read my explanations, when you see the videos below, you can see in all examples that this is not particularly fast. It's a normal tempo.

The kind of dancing determines the type of music that works for it. And thus the dancing style determines what music is successful and popular, what djs support and what sells.

Clearly, among dance music, if a certain music is better at getting people to dance, then it's better for djs to use and it's what fans hear (and come to like). And thus that music sells more than music that isn't at good for dancing and so isn't played at dance events.

The reason Martin Garrix sells more than SoundLift isn't that Garrix is better for dancing and djs. It's because for a specific kind of dancing and bpm, Garrix music is better than SoundLift music and thus is played more.

But if people danced differently, higher-bpm SoundLift music would be much more conducive to dancing than Garrix music and would sell more and be more successful and popular.

The way people dance at EDM events is that everyone faces the dj and then people jump up and down, often jaggedly to choppy music, or shuffle their feet side to side—all staying in one place and facing the same direction.

Meanwhile, to contrast, in traditional Jewish & Arab culture, people dance by running around in circles or lines, usually group dancing, without any really complicated moves. This dancing consists of moving/running around fast along with other people, without staying in one place and without just facing one direction. (See Youtube examples below after you read.)

So it's not that Freedom isn't really danceable. It's that it's perfect for dancing — for a completely different kind of dancing! And much much better from that dancing than Garrix. So if people danced that way, SoundLift would sell much more than Garrix.

And Garrix music would not work at all for the dancing below and for such an event no one would play Garrix or any big room music. If that's how people danced, Garrix music & "big room" wouldn't sell at all and no one would play them. The Armada "Mainstage" label would not exist.

The music I'm talking about works like this: The melodies fill your emotions with such joy and happiness that your joy overflows and it naturally expresses itself by your dancing and running around. It's not based on bass or driven by the kicks. It's based on emotional melodies generating emotions of joy or happiness, which carry you away.

On Jewish holidays, there are no instruments, except people singing, but the dancing is more amazing and uplifting and energetic than what you see in clubs. You are dancing because of your intense joyful or beautiful emotions that cannot be expressed except by dancing & running around.

Much punchiness, depending on how its done, can actually be detrimental to this kind of dancing because this kind of dancing is based on emotions and flow, and punchiness can interrupt that flow & emotions.

Bpm, gravity, and how the human body moves is central issue, a key difference between the dancing styles and music. As you know, the higher you want to jump above the ground, the more time you need to get up and down. Someone jumping lower can jump faster than someone jumping higher.

if you're running or jogging or walking fast, you don't have to jump high. Your feet don't go as high off the ground. But you're still moving fast.

So for "jumping dancing", you're jumping up and down, you need time to go up and down. So if the bpm is 147, that's too fast for you to jump up and down and be moving fast and expressing through your body the energy of the music. If it's too fast you can't move, and then you're bored and not dancing.

But if you're running around in a circle or a line (or various disorganized group dancings), although you're moving fast and expressing through your body the energy of the music, your feet don't need to go high off the ground and you don't need so much time between steps, so a higher bpm works naturally.

That's why jumping-dancing requires lower bpms than running-/circle-dancing. And that's why the examples below — all of which are traditional Jewish dancing, the way people have danced for centuries — have very "high" bpms, which aren't actually high, just high for current-EDM dancing.

There's a lot of variety in the examples below, with lots of different ways of dancing. They are disorganized, and some people are standing around instead of dancing, but ignore them, as I want you to focus on the dancing, even if it's sometimes chaotic. But all have some things in commong: they involve no training or any complicated moves. And they are all based on happy joyful melodies generating the dancing, not bass or loud kicks, and all have bpms that the EDM scene would consider really high, but aren't high for this kind of dancing.

As said, there are a lot of different kinds of dancing below (all matching what I'm talking abuot), but for some of them, if everyone danced like them at dance events, SoundLift - Freedom would be #1 on the Beatport charts, more tracks like it would be made, and no djs would play Martin Garrix or Armada Mainstage so they'd be at the bottom of the charts. It would be a totally different world, but the difference is just one small thing: Instead of standing in one place facing one way with dark jagged music, dancing would involve people running around full of overflowing joy and happiness in a state of mental flow, aka, trance.

(PS: After these 4 video examples I have written a section about new ideas to try when djing.)

Example 1 (34 seconds). The tempo is over 158 bpm:

(Note the volume here is higher than the other clips so you can adjust your speakers after this.)





Example 2 (47 seconds). The tempo is 158 beats per minute:

This example is going in circles as a group, first by holding shoulders, and latter by by hands or arms.





Example 3 (39 seconds). The tempo is 153 bpm:





Example 4 (3 min & 49 sec). The tempo is 143 bpm in the first half (then it drops a bit).

The latter parts of this have less going in circles and more going in lines or across/around the room or winding in and out of rows between chairs.



So how does this translate into djing? How does one dj this with today's emotional uplifting trance?

The following ideas are experimental and haven't been tested, but I intend to :)

Instead of having short breakdowns, one makes the trance parts much longer: the dj loops the climax (or loops other parts), and the dj repeats the melody many times until he senses the crowd is ready to move on to the next track. (This only works if the melody is good enough to be heard lots of times.)

This might go on for a long time. Then when the crowd gets tired or needs a break, one can have the breakdown. After running around for a long time they might need a longer break.

The dj's skill will involve gauging the crowd, knowing how long to repeat the loop and when to move on.

Also, it's counterproductive for the dj to be a center of attention on stage because then people instinct face towards him/her instead of in many directions and that kills the dancing. Instead, the dj can set the loop and join the crowd and dance with the crowd, or even be a motivation dancer to get the crowd moving, the whole time with the melody looping.

Then when the dj realizes it's time to move to the next melody, he/she goes back to the decks and ends the loops and continues from there, mixing to the next track. Then at the right place in the next track he/she can set the loop and go back into the crowd. And so on.

Example tracks that work:

SoundLift - Freedom (Original Mix / Intro Mix) Dominik Walter & Giovannie De Sadeleer - Hope Remains (All mixes: Original, Silvernova & 4 Seas & Stacie) Probably Dimension Pres Oceano - Cabo Del Mar (illitheas Remix): Shorten thre breakdown if for dancing. And note that even though they don't really have an extended melody, the build and mixout of the track work great for this—maybe even better than the climax—so play them instead of mixing out fast. You can even extend/loop the mixout & build and shorten the climax. Probably Emanuele Congeddu & Nicolas Marriott - First Kiss (Original Mix) Probably SoundLift - Long Way Back (Original & Six Senses Remixes): These two tracks (esp the remix) are definitely great for twirling around / spinning around with your arms out with your eyes closed. They are probably also good for the dancing here but I'm not yet sure.

(PS: This article is talking mostly about bright happy joyful emotional melodies without hard bass kicks (which aren't needed at all). It obviously doesn't work so well for sad or dark things or things with strong kicks. [Interestingly, though, all four video examples above video are in minor keys, not major keys. Meanwhile, tracks like Freedom & Hope Remains are in major keys. So the music can be in any key :)]

That means if a dj is playing dark or sad music, or music with hard bass kicks, dancing like this will not work. If you try it there, don't blame me or the dancing when it doesn't work. Instead, blame the dj for playing the wrong music, lol :)