record’s time signature, increased the pace of her dancing at the exact point the bass
was reintroduced into the mix.
Both reactions point to different levels of ritual experience. As such, dropping the
bass out of a record demonstrates to dancers that they must obey the DJ not only by
dancing but also by dancing together. Dropping the bass out of a record essentially
functions as a levelling device—by interrupting the flow of time as measured
through the kick drum the DJ is able to assess and re-synchronize the dance floor. As
Turner has noted, such actions on the part of those conducting rituals are essential
in creating the prerequisite ‘uniform condition’ (V.Turner 1969:95) of spontaneous
communitas. Within the span of twenty minutes, with four records played and two
additional cases of similar EQing, the effects of this ‘grinding down’ of neophytes
was observed: the group of four women continually surveyed the more experienced
dancer to their left and, becoming more familiar with both the effects of EQing and
the single woman’s corresponding reaction to the technique, no longer hesitated as
noticeably and, progressively, reacted in a similar fashion.
Mixes are the fourth, and most important, liminal technique.^10 In all
performances of underground dance music, every mix is a period of ambiguity for
both the DJ and the dancers. Generally favouring the longer, more drawn-out mix
in which he overlays two records simultaneously through EQing for a minute or
longer, Tim Patrick is considered to be one of Toronto’s best technical DJs and
rarely ‘trainwrecks’ a mix.^11 However, there is always the possibility of error or a
skipping record, which will reflect poorly on his supervisory ‘shamanic’ role in the
proceedings. Although Fikentscher has noted that the programming of records is
one mark of a ‘good’ DJ, mixing is equally important as both a technical skill and an
art. A DJ’s reputation and career are, in part, based on mixing skill, and between
every record played mistakes can be costly for both performer and participants. For
dancers, mixes are liminal in that they can sometimes be uncertain periods between
the rhythmic structures of records. During this period, the ‘total involvement’
characteristic of Victor Turner’s (1979a:55) notion of flow can be broken by a poor
mix. In such cases, the flash of spontaneous communitas is potentially threatened;
dancers are often drawn out of their ecstatic state; they return to an increased
awareness of both setting and self, and sometimes abandon the dance floor. A
successful mix, however, allows for a continuous flow between mental, musical and
physical states. It is generally in this transitional period that DJs (when their mix is
recognized as not only technically successful but also innovative and/or daring) and
dancers (when enthusiasm, energy, drugs and alcohol seem to best motivate a
packed dance floor) find themselves caught up in those moments of spontaneous
communitas that ravers and clubbers refer to as a ‘peak’. In his popular pseudo-
ethnography of New York City clubs, Miezitis describes this experience as:
a peak of excitement and energy when the music is most stimulating, when the
crowd is the largest and the most loosened up, most energetic, and when the
lights and theatrics resemble a grand stage finale. The peak is like a sexualSELECTING RITUAL 175