Music

This event is by Balboa dancers, for Balboa dancers, and we know that the music, whether live or DJ'd, is key to a great event.  We will be serving up only the finest Bal-tastic tunes for your shuffling pleasure! If you were at IHB 2022, you know how 🔥 the live music was! For 2023, we are pleased to offer:

Two nights of melt-your-face-right-off ✨amazing✨ live music from

Keenan McKenzie & The Riffers

Featuring special guests:

Laura Windley on vocals  (Fri & Sat) & Brandon Mitchell on vibes 🙀😻 (Saturday)

Check out live music from last year's event!

2023 DJs coming soon

----2022 DJs ----
Allison Meeks (she/her)
Head DJ

Allison began DJing swing music when she was a baby lindy hopper in college at UNC-Chapel Hill. Since then, she has become a regular swing DJ in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C. area and is the DJ coordinator for the Lindy Lab, a weekly dance in Durham. Her venues have ranged from local dance halls and breweries to nationwide events like All Balboa Weekend.

Allison is passionate about sharing swing music that inspires new and experienced dancers alike. She’s a fan of catchy melodies, small group arrangements and a good clarinet solo (not necessarily in that order). 

Qui Nguyen aka DJ Qui-J  (she/her)

Long before setting foot on her first dance floor, Qui has always been in search of good music. From scouting out local shows, to digging through dusty record store crates, her motto has always been "if it moves you, it's good music". So it was quite natural for her to fall in love with swing music and dancing. A lover of the music first, and the movement a close second, you can always catch her listening to and dancing close by the bandstand at any number of swing, balboa or blues events. You might even find her behind the DJ booth, spinning tunes at local dances and at various events throughout the region. She is super excited to be representing Richmond at I *Heart* Balboa again this year.

Michael Quisao  (he/him)

After growing up as a wallflower at school dances, Michael went to his first swing dance in 2006 and has been captivated by social dancing ever since. His love of swing music and social dancing has taken him across the country to dance, compete, and DJ swing music; he strives to share the joys of swing dance and swinging rhythm with everybody he meets.

Michael believes that the music is the heart of the dance and that attentive partnership and comfortable technique are the keys that unlock the door to exhilarating and creative dances.

Jodi Daynard (she/her)

Jodi was pretty much born listening to swing music, since her father was a multi-instrumentalist Jazz musician who jammed on a star-spangled band stand in their playroom! She began DJing in 2018 at the Balboa Experiment, after dancing Lindy Hop and Balboa for many years. Since then, she has DJ’d at M.I.T., the Balboa Speakeasy, Hop to the Beat, JP Swings, and Beantown Dance Camp—as well as for many online events and fundraisers, including Paul Riding’s Global Online Social. Her taste leans towards an “in the pocket” old-school groove, with a passion for Basie, Benny, Duke, Fats, Prez, Hamp, and Oscar Peterson. But as a Balboa dancer, she knows how to up the tempo, too! Mainly, she just loves watching people have a great time dancing to her tunes.

Brennan DeVoe (he/him)

Brennan DeVoe grew up dancing in old country music bars to his family’s band and made the transition to jazz in college when his sister dragged him to his first swing dance. Fifteen years later, he is a teacher, DJ, sound engineer, and half of the organizing team for the Philly Balboa scene and Phila-bal-phia. In ‘real life,’ Brennan is a Subaru mechanic and a blacksmith. Brennan’s secret favorite habit as a DJ is to loop the intro in Opus One just to mess with the floor, but he promises not to do that at I Heart Bal (maybe).

Erica Vess (she/her)

With a penchant for dinosaur jokes almost as strong as her dance shoe addiction, Erica combines the grace & elegance of Balboa with several sticks of butter and a large helping of vanilla extract. She will never try to pass off oatmeal raisin cookies as chocolate chip, and she will always keep you dancing. Erica has been a featured DJ at Jammin' on the James, The Lindustrial Revolution and Beantown Camp as well as a covert ops DJ in the Balboa room at Lindy Focus.  No one was spared; not even the children.

Erica is running this crazy show, but she might still play some tunes for you to fill in the gaps!

DJ Summit

Are you a DJ? Or maybe just DJ-curious?

We'll be holding an informal DJ Summit hosted by our staff DJs at 1pm on Saturday, right before the afternoon dance.

Chat about music selection, library curation, music apps, finding music, & more in a casual Ask Me Anything format.  Open to any attendee who is interested in collecting swing music, whether you DJ or not!

DJ Mentorships 

Are you an aspiring Balboa DJ?  Great! 

We plan to offer opportunities for newer DJs to play a short set with a mentor DJ at the afternoon and late night dances.  This is an unpaid intern position, where your supervising staff DJ can give you advice & feedback on your set, and you get some real-world experience DJing at a regional event.

Email our head DJ, Allison Meeks, to get on the schedule: meeks.allisonj@gmail.com