Mike Marcotte (Head DJ)
For the last eight years, Mike Marcotte has been a DJ hailing from Washington DC. Whether it has been as the house DJ at K2 Dance Studio, putting together Sunday Blues at Glen Echo with his partner Donna Barker, to The Jam Cellar and beyond -- he's always trying to keep the floor rocking. He was honored to have been selected to be among the DJs at the Frankie95 Birthday Festival in NYC. He has served as a competition DJ for several years at Swing Fling, The Virginia State Open, and The American Lindy Hop Championships and served last year as our head DJ for the inaugural International Lindy Hop Championships.
Michael Gamble
Michael Gamble loves all the styles of music to which we dance. Early, strutty, society band music. Ragtime. Dixieland, hot jazz, and Charleston music. Pure, hard-swinging big band. Soulful jazz and blues. Contemporary swinging jazz. Michael is not a fan of musical monoculture, and believes the most satisfying nights of dancing touch a little bit on each era of this elaborate pantheon. Mostly, he likes to watch dancers react to exciting music, and works very hard to choose the right tune for each moment. Michael has played in over 30 US cities in addition to organizing the music for a wide range of competitions and camps, and looks forward to sharing his music with you!
Rayned Wiles
Rayned Wiles is one of the East Coast's most popular DJs with a busy schedule. He is an internationally known DJ with an extensive experience working at swing clubs, conventions, dance camps, and competitions across the United State and Canada. "I think the point of DJing is to ensure that everyone is having a great time through music. My music of choice is swing jazz blues. I like Fats Waller's view that swing is 'two-thirds rhythm and one-third soul' and Carmen McRae's reminder that 'Blues is to jazz what yeast is to bread-without it, it's flat.'"
Allen Kerr
Allen has been ravenously collecting music since 2005 and found he has a knack for finding music that delights and inspires dancers. He has DJed many national events, including ILHC, Lindy Focus, Eastern Balboa Championships, Enter the Blues, and All Balboa Weekend. Allen also spins regularly for the Jam Cellar, DC's Bal Night, Backroom Blues, and numerous other local dances.
Mike Thibault
Mike has been DJing swing and jazz music for over ten years, starting out on the air at RIT's Swing Show in 1998. Since then, he has gone on to spin tunes for dancers at exchanges, dances and workshops all over North America, and is known for building up the energy of any dance floor. He is a fixture at late nights in Swing Out New Hampshire and the famous Lindy Compound in Rochester, NY.
Kelly Porter
Kelly is a decade-long student, teacher and performer of American vernacular dance and she is passionate about bringing the ric h social history of this tradition to life. As a DJ Kelly is an avid collector of early jazz and blues on everything from 78’s to CD’s and is generally recognized as one of the US’s exceptional vintage lindy hop and jazz DJ’s, playing for the most demanding dance audiences throughout the world and on radio. Her love of music cleaves especially to the hot combos and big bands of the 1930’s, and any time she plays you will undoubtedly hear some of the best cuts you never even knew existed. Devoted as much to oral history and dance history as to good tunes, Kelly is also the founder of The Voices of the Jazz Era Ballroom Project: a national web-based oral history initiative meant to draw families and communities together in passing down the personal stories of dance and music during the jazz years (http://www.jazzeravoices.org). Having recently finished her graduate degree, Kelly can often be found working on her research, interviewing 90-year-old musicians for VJEB, plunking out a ditty on her 1924 Bacon banjo, infusing spirits for custom cocktails or slowly amassing her already-egregious collection of vintage shoes.
