What If No One Is Dancing?

by Chris Brower
Last Updated: November 24, 2021

An empty dance floor, the DJ’s nightmare.

We all encounter it from time to time – a song you play clears the floor, or you’ve played several songs and still no one is dancing. So what can you do to get people back?

Play a Group/Line Dance

Group/line dance songs (example, “The Cupid Shuffle”) reliably fill the dance floor. These are the songs that usually have a choreographed dance, or the lyrics literally tell people what to do (“Clap your hands . . . three hops this time . . . “). People simply love these songs, and you can almost always count on them to work. I often save these for moments when the dance floor has cleared or thinned out. Very quickly, you can have people back.

Some popular examples include:

The Cupid Shuffle
The Cha Cha Slide
Cotton Eye Joe
Electric Slide
The Wobble
YMCA
The Macarena

Play a “For-Sure Song”

In a similar vein, I recommend every DJ have a list ready of songs that are reliably very, very popular. I have these on my computer under the name “Reception Gold.” Another DJ I know calls his list “Wedding Magic.” These are the songs I’ve found to be the most popular, ones that almost always fill a dance floor. This list includes a lot of the group dance songs listed above, plus songs like:

I Wanna Dance With Somebody (Whitney Houston)
I Want It That Way (Backstreet Boys)
September (Earth, Wind & Fire)
Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond)
Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey)
Party in the USA (Miley Cyrus)
Shout (The Isley Brothers)
Uptown Funk (Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars)

And many more.

Ready for the complete guide to becoming a wedding DJ? Here you go.

Play a Slow Song

Slow songs are usually very reliable to fill the dance floor. In fact, some wedding guests will only dance if it’s a slow song. Either they normally feel uncomfortable “busting a move,” or they simply don’t enjoy dance music, slow songs can often pull them out.

Slow songs are also a good way to sort of “reset” the dance floor, as people can get tired after several fast, loud songs in a row. A slow song can allow people to still dance but take a bit of a breather too.

Some popular slow songs include:

Wonderful Tonight (Eric Clapton)
At Last (Etta James)
Thinking Out Loud (Ed Sheeran)
My Girl (The Temptations)
Let’s Get It On (Marvin Gaye)
I Will Always Love You (Whitney Houston)
When a Man Loves a Woman (Percy Sledge)
She’s Everything (Brad Paisley)

Play a Sing-Along

For whatever reason, there are certain songs in the history of popular music that people have all agreed to sing along to. These anthemic songs can regularly make people jump to their feet, join arms with their friends, and sway to the beat as they belt out the words.

Some popular ones include:

Piano Man (Billy Joel)
Friends in Low Places (Garth Brooks)
I Want It That Way (Backstreet Boys)
Livin’ on a Prayer (Bon Jovi)
Don’t Stop Believin’ (Journey)
Summer Nights (Grease)
Take Me Home, Country Roads (John Denver)
Sweet Caroline (Neil Diamond)

Encourage Requests

Announce that you’re happy to take song requests. That might encourage more people to walk up to the DJ table and ask for a specific song. Of course, there’s no guarantee they will actually dance to that song. That can be infuriating when they don’t! But hopefully, because it’s a song they asked for, they will.

Announce a Group Photo

Here’s a trick you can try: working with the photographer, announce that we’re going to do a group photo on the dance floor, so everyone is invited to the dance floor right now. People will feel obligated to join the group on the floor for the photo. Once that’s over, play a popular dance song (such as any of the ones mentioned above), and many people will be more likely to dance, because they’re already on the floor with their friends and family.

Call a Group to the Floor

Is the bride(s) or groom(s) a member of a sorority or fraternity or other group (teachers, armed forces service members, etc.)? Invite them to the floor for a special song. Many sororities and fraternities have a special song they like to sing at the wedding for one of their members. Or if many of the people went to the same college, you could play the school song.

This is probably something you’ll need to coordinate with the couple ahead of time, but is another way to make their day that much more special and more theirs. Additionally, it brings the attention to the dance floor.

But Don't Hassle People to Dance

You want to fill the dance floor because you're playing great music and creating a great atmosphere. Not because you're hassling people or calling them out in a way that embarrasses them. "Oh come on, [Best Man], we know you love this song! Get on out here and show us your moves." Nooooo!

Don't hassle people to dance. Make it so they want to dance.

**Consider Reasons Why People Aren't Dancing**

There's always the chance there is something within your control that is causing people not to dance, other than your song selection:

The music is way too loud, and people can't stand to be so close to the speakers, because it hurts their ears or is just very unpleasant.
The music is too quiet, and thus is failing to make it feel like a party. It feels more like background music than party music (this could also be because of the song itself, not just the volume).
The dance floor lights are annoying or too intense (example, strobe lights).
The room lights are still up (aka, it's bright in the room), or you don't have any dance floor lights* going, thus, it doesn't really feel like much of a party.

Additionally, there are things often outside of your control that could be causing the lack of dancing:

There's another activity going on that people are more interested in. A common example is a photo booth, where people will eagerly line up for that rather than dance, or outdoor/lawn games like cornhole.
The couple insisted you play songs that aren't popular. Hopefully you discussed this before the wedding and could maybe nudge them toward playing those songs during dinner rather than dancing, but your hands might be tied, having to play a bunch of songs that aren't going to get people to dance.
The venue was set up in an undesirable way, so maybe the dance floor is in a different room/floor or far away from where people want to be. (This is why it's a good idea to learn this fact ahead of time, and maybe you can influence the couple/event organizer to set things up differently.)
It's a dry wedding (no alcohol). Hopefully people can dance without alcohol (of course they can), but it's an undeniable fact that alcohol makes it more likely people will dance and party it up. Plus, some guests might be annoyed there's no booze and will leave the wedding early.

What If You Still Can't Get Any Dancing?

Unfortunately, there are going to be some weddings, where no matter what you do you can't get people to dance. LeBron James could show up and offer to give everyone a million dollars if they danced, and they still wouldn't.

Some people are more interested in hanging out and talking. Some people are too shy to dance or don't like to. Some people are smokers and are going to spend much of the night outside, having a cigarette. Some people are simply physically unable to dance.

An empty dance floor doesn't necessarily mean you're a bad DJ or that you've done an awful job reading the room and picking songs.

It simply happens.

Almost every wedding will have a lull from time to time. And some will simply never get particularly lively. Some people like listening to music more than dancing to it (I've been surprised to occasionally learn that couples were very happy with the songs I played, even though no one was dancing to them!).

Hopefully you've tried all you can, and can learn from it and have better luck in the future.

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