In 2013, the Executive of Westview Dance Club decided to create a Music Team in response to a member survey that expressed concerns about the music being played at club practices and dances. Concerns included: the music wasn’t relevant, it wasn’t current, and there wasn’t enough “ballroom” type music.

Bev Gunnarson said, “When I first started, when they played a waltz, you knew what they were going to play, when they played a tango, you knew what they were going to play. This was good if you were a beginner, because you knew what dance to do, but not so good if you were more experienced.”

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In 2013, the Executive of Westview Dance Club decided to create a Music Team in response to a member survey that expressed concerns about the music being played at club practices and dances. Concerns included: the music wasn’t relevant, it wasn’t current, and there wasn’t enough “ballroom” type music.

Bev Gunnarson said, “When I first started, when they played a waltz, you knew what they were going to play, when they played a tango, you knew what they were going to play. This was good if you were a beginner, because you knew what dance to do, but not so good if you were more experienced.”

Even before the 2013 survey, some changes were already being made. Brian Armstrong, when he was president of the Westview Executive, began to upgrade and improve the music selection.

Bev Gunnarson remembers, “When Brian was president, the Executive did a cha cha to Moves Like Jagger, which was a big hit at that time. Monique was our instructor, and she created a cha cha routine for us. This was the beginning of including music that was current and realizing that you could dance a cha cha or a rhumba to modern music.”

Pat Hales said, “The year Alan Nelson left, Brian took over organizing the practice playlists and setting up the frequency of each waltz, fox trot, etc. He was the one who began to organize and change how the music was done.”

That was the beginning, but it was the 2013 survey that really brought the concerns to the forefront. The idea to create what turned out to be the Westview Music Team was first discussed at an Executive meeting on September 5, 2013. As the survey did not offer suggestions as to how to solve the concerns, the Executive decided to contact some of the members expressing concerns to see if anyone wished to take on the challenge of improving the music quality. One of the people asked was Dave Winsel, who eventually became Team Leader of the Music Team.

“It was important for us as a club to have this in-house capacity and be self-sustaining with our music,” Pat said. “We also have a lot of talented and interested people with a lot of creative ideas.”

The original Music Team consisted of Dave Winsel, Brian Armstrong, Phil Brown, Larry Brandt and Dave Crowe. Recently, Joan Crowe and Rick Mahon have joined the team. One of the first things the team discovered was that there were only about 250 songs in the music library, of which the newest songs were about 40 years old.

At that time, all the music was kept on CDs and played on a huge sound system that needed to be lugged around and stored by whomever was in charge of playing the music at dances and practices. One of the first decisions by the Music Team, with the support of the Executive, was to invest in a laptop computer, transfer all existing music to it, and implement a system to purchase and import additional music.

Over the years, Westview’s music library has grown to more than 1,800 “danceable” songs, with additional background music that can be played at dinner dances. Much of the current music has been based on member and class requests over the years.

“As a result of the Music Team, members have greater involvement and input regarding the content of the playlists,” Pat said.

Dave Winsel said, “Whenever a class wants a specific song or songs for their dance, we confirm the song and the artist, then either purchase it directly, if we can, or ask for the electronic version to be supplied for us. We’ve also been lucky to acquire some newer music that fits in with what our members like to dance to.”

The Music Team has also added new styles of dances to Westview’s repertoire. For example, in addition to traditional dances, such as waltz, fox trot, rhumba, cha cha, etc., Westview now plays Night Club and Country Two-Step, and pattern dances such as Cowboy Cha Cha, Rita’s Waltz and Heel-Toe Polka. The expanded music selection also allows the DJ to play song requests.

However, you can’t always please everyone. Laurene Haga remembers learning ballroom dance under Bill Daum, and enjoying it, because it was their era. Although she feels that the more modern music is good music, it isn’t “their” music. But she understands and agrees with the upgrade.

“If you want the club to continue, you have to get younger people to join,” Laurene said, “The music the club is playing now is great for the younger people and that is the music you need if you want them to stay. If you want the club to continue, you have to get younger people.”

Thanks to our Music Team, Westview’s music will continue to evolve. One thing that both younger and older members need to remember; just because the club is now playing new music, that doesn’t mean we no longer play the older songs. All you need to do is ask.

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