Meet our DJs!
Mark Calkins
Mark’s DJing was once described as wonderfully whimsical (or tipsy) by a Yale faculty member. With over 15 years of experience as a Swing DJ, he strives to provide the best virtuosos and deep-cut selections to enable the dancers on the dance floor. In his home scene in Columbus, Ohio he continues to serve as a scene builder, helps to manage the hallmark dance event Rocktober Intensive Lindy Weekend and had a 9-year tenure as the co-captain/choreographer for Team SwingColumbus. He is thrilled to part of the Kiss ME DJ team once again, and will try his best to refrain from yelling Ohio State Buckeye cheers while in Ann Arbor.
Dan Miles
Dan Miles first fell in love with the blues at the 2012 Chicago Blues Festival, on a Sunday evening, overwhelmed by their tribute to Koko Taylor, the Queen of the Chicago Blues. With that as his starting point, he has been refining his understanding of blues and exploring the rich variety of the genre ever since. Dan happily accepts the label of “traditionalist” as a blues DJ, both in the typical sense of sticking to the genre and in the sense of recognizing and embracing the blues tradition as one that is diverse, inclusive, historically rooted, and still very much alive today. Expect his sets to ramble through a range of topics, eras, and regional styles, hitting both some vintage classics and some currently performing blues bands from around his home in Columbus, Ohio.
Mary Blendermann
Mary Blendermann danced, DJed, and caused queer mayhem in southern Michigan for four years before relocating to Sacramento, California, and she is excited to return to her roots for KissME in Ann Arbor 2019! She goes nuts for sweet vocals, wailing trumpets, and vibraphone solos, and she is often caught jamming out and singing along in the DJ booth. Mary handcrafts each set on the spot, inspiring every dancer with the infectious rhythms and playful sounds of swinging jazz. A quick rundown of her favorite artists includes Sarah Vaughan, Cootie Williams, the Boilermaker Jazz Band, Lionel Hampton, Johnny Hodges, and of course, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. Mary leads primarily and is a vocal advocate for LGBT+ inclusion in the Lindy Hop community. When not DJing, she can be found running brain scans, cooking whatever she found at the farmers market that week, waking up way too early to go to yoga class, and bicycling all over Sacramento.
Brittany Dael McLaughlin
Brittany started learning lindy and blues in Philadelphia, and found herself drawn more and more to the blues aesthetic. She is currently DJ Coordinator for Hot Metal Blues in Pittsburgh, where she plays songs across a wide variety of idioms and moods (especially songs with attitude and interesting textures). Drawing on her sociological training from graduate school in linguistics, Brittany loves learning and teaching everything about the music, historical context, and political relevance of blues music. In Pittsburgh, she is helping establish Listening Moments for the scene to learn about blues history. Brittany is particularly excited about DJ onboarding, teaching, and helping dancers who are interested in DJ’ing make the leap.