Last night I had the pleasure of DJing and MCing my second school dance at Bernardo Heights Middle School and I had an absolute blast! From the moment I walked in the ASB kids were so welcoming and complimented me on “being on time” which they were apparently not accustomed to with the DJ they had before they hired us. I took a little video of my setup which consisted of 2 powered Mackie speakers, a B52 sub and some dance floor lighting. The kids brought in some black lights that I helped them set up and together with the dance floor lighting, it made the room really pop. Once the dance began at 5pm, the kids pretty much rushed in and started socializing and filling up the room nicely. I did a great deal of mixing in the beginning to get the kids warmed up, playing very popular hits such as “Replay” by Iyaz, “Hard” by Rihanna and “Tie Me Down” by New Boyz. Once they got ready, I had them all come to the front and I kicked off the party with the most appropriate song to start a dance “Party In The USA” by Miley Cyrus. The sounds of 300 middle-school kids singing at the top of their lungs was deafening and music to my ears all at the same time. I played more hits as the night went on and also let the kids know that they could request songs all night long as well. At that point, a stampede began and every 3 seconds a kid would come up to me asking to hear their favorite song. With the exception of the two boys coming up over and over again requesting every single song by Coldplay they could think of, I was planning on playing most of the songs the kids requested. The next big highlight came when I played a squeaky clean version of the current #1 song in the country, “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha. I wanted to save it for later and build up to it, but I was afraid a riot would break out if I didn’t play it when I did because of all the requests I got for it. As expected, the song was a huge smash and easily the most popular song of the night.
But what would a school dance be without a great line dance? Who would have thought that a 13 year-old song which was released when most of these kids weren’t even born, would receive such a huge response? The kids loved the “Cha Cha Slide” by DJ Casper and I even jumped out there along with the school’s principal and danced with the kids. I then decided to push the envelope a little and I separated the kids by splitting the dance floor down the middle. I named the kids on the left “Bernardo” and the kids on the right “Heights” and went back and forth to see which side could be the loudest in a screaming contest. When it was over I couldn’t decide which side was loudest, so I brought them both together and had them make some noise together. At that point, I lost my hearing.
Other highlights throughout the night were Lady GaGa’s smash hit “Bad Romance” which is currently the #2 song in the country. And you can never go wrong when you play Taylor Swift’s “You Belong With Me” for a middle school crowd. They sing the song so loud and word-for-word you start to believe that they wrote it.
I decided to end the dance with two of the most popular songs of the night so that the kids who got there late could hear these songs too. So I ended the night by replaying the most popular song of the night (and in America) “Tik Tok” by Ke$ha followed by “Party In The USA” by Miley Cyrus again. That’s the great thing about kids of this age; you can play a song over and over again and they rarely get sick of it. And with that, the dance was over. I spent the final few minutes of the dance getting high-fives and fist bumps from the kids as they exited the gymnasium followed by smiles all around from the parents and teachers. But all the “thank you’s” in the world couldn’t compare to the joy I felt by being able to assist in these kids having a good time last night. And watching them have fun made me have fun as well. I’m looking forward to returning to Bernardo Heights Middle School in May for their next dance and I think next time I’ll bring some ear plugs. 
