DJ Skills for Conscious Dance Teachers

April 11 - May 23, 2026

Make your music just as powerful as your teaching.

JOIN US

 

You’ve already poured thousands of hours into training and teaching.

You know how to hold powerful space, navigate the nervous system and bring movers through rage & grief into bliss.

But you still don’t have the DJ skills to match.

Maybe …

It’s intimidating

You haven’t had time

You don’t know where to start

Or you’ve tried and it made things more complicated!

Whether the idea of tech skills triggers excitement, curiosity, desperation or terror — they’re the key to unlocking the next level of your leadership.

April 11, we dive into the essential, practical skills you can apply to everything you do.

What It Looks Like

 

  • In-depth videos will break down your DJ essentials into bite sized, manageable parts that build into a full skillset

    • Our online platform Circle hosts all your course materials and resources

    • It’s also where we converge as a community throughout the week for questions, support, celebration, curiosity and connection

  • This is where we break down what you’ve learned in the videos, evolve your understanding, answer questions and work with targeted practices to refine your skills!

    Saturdays at 12pm ET (NYC time)

  • … But how do I know if I’m really getting it?

    Tasha will personally check your skills progress in weekly homework assignments so you can know for sure! Expect practical drills and feedback on where to focus so you can continue to improve.

  • Something amiss with your tech? Things not behaving like they should? Something not connecting? Bring all of your tech questions and troubleshooting to Ziad's tech hours and find out how easy the solutions can be.

    Wednesdays 8pm ET and Saturdays at 11 am ET (NYC time)

  • Co-led by Tasha and Nico Allen, this mastermind is devoted to the deeper question behind skill-building:
    What are you here to create?

    Through focused dialogue, reflection, and collective insight, you’ll clarify your vision, strengthen your creative direction, and map practical pathways for bringing your music, facilitation, and offerings into the world with greater coherence and impact.

    Tuesdays @ 11am ET (NYC time)

    • Our collective’s collection of musical gems from a wide range of styles and genres

    • The opportunity to contribute to and participate in our music share program!

  • This might be the best part :)

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

  • Know Your Context

    The History of DJing

  • WTF do I do with these Buttons?

    Navigating Your Gear

  • The Basics of Mixing

    Seamless transitions with No Sync

  • All the Tricks you Need

    Looping + Effects

  • Music Theory Made Easy

    Song Structure + Phrasing

  • Advanced Blending

    Make Your Sets Sound like BUTTAH

  • Shaking it Up

    Jumping BPMs + Mixing Genres

  • Music Library Organization

    Exactly what you need, when you need it

  • Putting it All Together

    Crafting Sets like a Pro

Join Us

 

Hey! I’m Tasha.

Dancing saved my life in 2007, I found the world of conscious dance through 5Rhythms in 2009 and jumped on the teacher training path.

I never imagined I would become a DJ.

DJs were gods to me. Spotlights chose them. 

I was a barefoot dancer in the dark who hoped to someday teach movement. 

When several of my friends suggested I learn to DJ, it didn’t compute. I wasn’t good with tech. I didn’t own a single vinyl record. I wasn’t a dude.

My then-boyfriend traded some old gear for a Traktor DJ controller, brought it home and put it in my lap.

I froze. There were so many buttons. I didn’t know how to do this.

I wanted to exit my skin. 

And I knew enough to know that feeling meant this mattered.

Deep breaths and shaky hands, I leaned in. 

It was like learning to drive a car. Totally overwhelming at first, then one step at a time till you’re on the highway. Once I threw it into fifth gear, I realized I could actually do this. 

About Your Guide

More than a decade later, I’ve played and produced some of the wildest dances on earth.

From big clubs to barefoot somatic journeys, the skills I’m sharing in this course are the foundation for all of it.

And after more than three years running PhDJ (an 8-month holistic + intensive DJ initiation that integrates everything I learned along the way), I decided to make something for you.

YOU: Who’s already done your ten thousand hours and spent probably at least that many dollars on trainings.

YOU: Who’s already full-on with teaching and doesn’t have or need 8 months of a whole other thing.

YOU: Who’s been making it work with music, but doesn’t feel nearly as confident on the decks as you do in your embodiment.

I want you to know the tech piece doesn’t have to be a struggle. And unlocking it will open new worlds for your leadership, artistry and impact.

Who this is for

Trained Movement Facilitators of practices including 5Rhythms, Soul Motion, Azul, The 360 Emergence, Movement Medicine, Ecstatic Dance, Open Floor, Biodanza, Trance Dance, etc

Somatically trained, nervous system educated practitioners who want to learn to DJ

That’s it! This is a specialized training for those who’ve been doing this work to fill in their skills gaps fully and connect with their colleagues in a fun, supportive, loving environment.

What’s possible:

  • Total command of the skills essential for every truly great DJ

  • An unshakeable sense of active connection and collaboration with your conscious dance colleagues around the world

  • Music prep that inspires you and gives you goosebumps

  • Dance floors that blow your mind every time

  • Participants who write you love notes for days after each dance

  • The ability to use not just your tracks, but also your transitions to create intentional energetic changes for your dancers

  • The freedom and flexibility to play what you want without getting trapped in certain genres or BPM ranges

  • No more sacrificing smooth transitions for the right track

  • No more messy transitions or train wrecks

  • No more accidentally dropped momentum

  • No more guesswork

  • No more insecurity

The next time someone asks if you DJ, your answer is YES.

Our Curriculum

We kick off with an opening call April 11 to introduce the course, orient you to our course platform and get to know each other.

Each week, you’ll receive a new set of video tutorials that take you step by step through the core skills that build your DJ Essentials. You’ll use those videos on your own time, pausing as needed to put it all into practice.

Throughout the week, you’ll have 24/7 access to your community, our team and lots of support through our online platform on Circle.

We’ll host at least one weekly live Tech Office Hours lead by tech support team well versed holding a regulated nervous system whilst troubleshooting the impossible.

For those ready to get inspired, we’ll also host a weekly skillshare session cohosted by me + 5Rhythms teacher Nico Allen, in which everyone is invited to nerd out, trade learnings and demo their discoveries.

Saturdays, I’ll host a Q+A covering the skills we’ve built that week, with a specific focus on how we integrate and implement those skills into our facilitation.

Here’s the full tutorial curriculum, with plenty of space for emergence based on your questions, discoveries and ideas in all of our live calls:

    • A brief history of DJing (know your role!)

    • What most people think DJing is VS what it ACTUALLY is

    • Choosing the right gear *

    * We’re teaching this course on Native Instruments’ Traktor software + hardware Their products are widely used in the conscious dance community, and the most accessible / intuitive industry-standard program out there.

    While I also teach on Rekordbox/Pioneer in PhDJ, we’re keeping this program simple with Traktor.

    If you’ve already been using Rekordbox/Pioneer and are interested deepening your tech skills with us in this course, shoot us an email at hello@phdj.dance — we can probably make it happen!

    • Plugging everything in

      • Cables, connections, electricity oh my!

    • Navigating your Settings + Preferences

      • What to change and update right now

      • What you might want to change later

    • Anatomy of a setup

      • Orienting to your gear

      • Which buttons actually matter

    • Downloading music

      • Curated crate of tunes for this course

      • Get comfortable downloading music from the most useful platforms right away

    • Playing Your First Track

      • Loading

      • Hot Cues

    • Basic Transitions

      • Finding the 1

      • Understanding + fixing your beat grid

      • Manual beat matching (no sync buttons here!)

    • Unlocking Music Theory

      • Understand song structure + phrasing across multiple genres

      • Transform how you think about and use music to create powerful mixes

      • Train your ears to know exactly when to mix in + out for maximum effect

      • Turn your transitions into works of art that create exactly the impact you want — whether that’s building energy, catalyzing catharsis, cultivating trance or creating more space.

    • The Art of Blending

      • Understanding 3-band EQ to make your mixes SMOOTH AS BUTTAH

      • Effects: what you need and what you don’t

    • The Magic of Loops

      • Your secret weapon for mixing in phrase, extending edits, effortless intros and playful surprises

    • Jumping BPMs

      • How to go from 70 to 130, 120 to 150 (etc) without missing a beat

      • Know when you don’t actually need to beat match … and when you really should

    • Mixing Genres

      • So you wanna go Dubstep > Drum+Bass > Melodic House > Afro House > Gqom > Grime > Footwork > Hip Hop > Moombahton > Big Room?

      • You can!

      • When it’s a good idea

      • When it’s not

  • Integrating all of it into pro-level sets that feel seamless, intentional and intelligent while creating massive impact for your dancers

    • Access to the PhDJ Music Library

    • Harmonic Mixing

    • Building + Organizing Your Music Library

    • PhDJ’s Playing Out Playbook for clubs, festivals and DIY sound setups

    • What to Expect: Prepping for different kinds of sets

    • Bonus Mix Assignments to keep the evolution going

    • DJ Glossary

    • Tasha’s DJ Resource Bible

Join Us

MEET THE TEAM

  • Tasha Blank

    Lead Teacher

  • Nico Allen

    Co-Facilitator

  • Elizabeth Nolan

    Assistant Teacher

  • Ziad Saab

    Tech Support

  • Yuri Chu Su

    Operations

FAQ

  • Live Q+A sessions with Tasha are 12-1:30pm ET (NYC time) Saturdays from April 11 - May 23.

    Creative Mastermind hours with Tasha + Nico are Tuesdays at 11am ET

    Tech Office Hours hours are Saturdays at 11am ET + Wednesdays at 8pm ET

    If you can’t make calls live, there will always be a recording.

  • We’re teaching this course on Native Instruments’ Traktor products because they’re the simplest and most intuitive industry-standard gear. This means they’re high quality and can do everything you need — and they’re accessible for those of us who are less than tech savvy.

    I'll be using a Traktor S2 to demonstrate the concepts in this course. Unfortunately, it has been discontinued but you can still find a used controllers on sites like Ebay. If you want to step it up with the Traktor S3, you can do that as well.

    If you’re currently using the Traktor X1 and/or Z1, you can navigate the course with those, but I do love the S2 for it’s portability combined with functionality.

    For speakers, you can get away without these for a while, but they’re extremely useful to have for your practice sessions and recording.

    The highest quality you’ll need are the KRK Powered Studio Monitors. A less expensive option are Pioneer’s DM 40-Ds. You can also find less expensive ones online. Be sure to get 2!

    If you don't already have a pair of headphones you like using, we recommend the Sennheiser’s HD 25.

    Lastly, we recommend you using a Mac computer for the smoothest user experience.

  • We won’t let that happen. After nearly four years running live DJ courses, I’ve learned so much about how different folks learn, and what different learning styles and aptitudes need to succeed.

    All of this is integrated into how I teach and how we’ve structured this course.

    I’ve had students who were allergic to tech, got unlucky with computer issues, or hit points where they felt like they’d never get it — and every single one who didn’t give up made it through with flying colors, surprising and delighting themselves in the process.

  • If you’re already well-versed in Rekordbox or Serato, it’s unlikely you need this course.

    But if like many conscious dance teachers, you’ve been stuck using Algoriddim djay Pro or VirtualDJ - this course is an invitation to step into more fluency and deeper command of your music.

    I’ve designed everything to be completely accessible to folks just getting to know Traktor, building your skillset step by step from the ground up.

    If there was ever a time to upgrade your DJ setup, this is it.

  • I designed this course for folks who are already at least semi-hacking it on the decks.

    You’ve probably got a setup and may have been playing tracks for years!

    We start from square one and don’t skip a single step because:

    1) You may be using non-industry standard software like Algoriddim djay Pro or VirtualDJ and switching to Traktor for the first time

    2) You may have accidentally skipped some basics as you were learning on your own or piecing together random YouTube tutorials

    3) You may have picked up some less than helpful habits from other DJ courses, and I want to make sure you’re not making your life harder by doing the wrong things.

    Now, all my past students will attest that I’m rarely a right/wrong thinker. Once you move into the truly advanced and creative aspects of DJing, there’s no right or wrong.

    But when it comes to your essentials, there absolutely is.

    And getting them right will make your life SO much easier.

  • What should you do it you’re a trained embodied facilitator and you’ve been considering PhDJ, but this course also feels like a great fit?

    You don’t have to choose!

    Doing this course first will set you up with such a solid foundation from which to begin PhDJ, that we’re excited to empower anyone from this course who decides to join PhDJ by applying your DJ Skills tuition to PhDJ.

    So there’s nothing to lose if you decide to do both.

  • I (Tasha) will be your primary teacher. The video tutorials that provide the foundation of your learning are 100% taught by me.

    I’ll also lead our Saturday Q+A calls, in which we’ll actively integrate the lessons from the videos into your practice as a DJ and facilitator.

    We’ll also host a weekly live creative group mastermind with me + Nico Allen. We LOVE to nerd out together on new creative discoveries, and you’re invited to jump into our nerdfest :)

    Throughout the training, I’ll also be assisted by PhDJ rockstar graduate and tech maestro Ziad Saab.

    If you’ve got a tech issue during our course, you’ve got a grounded and present tech whiz on your side.

    Ziad came to PhDJ as both a software engineer and engineering teacher who’d been running his own software engineering school for many years.

    It was no surprise when he caught onto DJing right away and quickly became a tech resource for his classmates.

    I brought Ziad onto our team because of his innate ability to figure out seemingly insurmountable tech problems AND because he maintains a very regulated nervous system in the process!

    If you’re one of those folks who get freaked out by tech issues, not only will Ziad help you fix them - he’ll model a new approach

  • You’ve got access to these materials (tutorials, replays and all resources) as long as there’s an internet to host them, so you can return to them again and again as you evolve and deepen your skills.

    We do recommend attending as many of the live sessions that interest you + you’re able, since this will be a special opportunity to connect with the global conscious dance leadership community.

    There will always be recordings of all our live Q+A sessions and tech office hours for anything you need to miss, and you’ll keep ongoing access to those as well.

    You’ll also have 24/7 access to the community through our course platform on Circle during our time together. This is a perfect place for those who can’t make live calls (and everyone else!) to share wins, ask questions, get support and connect with each other.

  • Yes!

    That said, there will be lots of space for emergence as a community around how we talk about it.

    I’m here to make sure you’ve got your essentials DOWN and feel super confident using them to explore new creative possibilities.

    You’ll also be in a container with many incredible colleagues.

    Since it’s rare that we get to come together in this way, refine our skills and be inspired by each other, you’ll also have lots of time and space to mastermind, explore and share your creative breakthroughs, ideas, tricks and learnings.

  • Great! Email us at hello@phdj.dance.

Join Us

Everything mentioned above + lifetime access to all course materials, so you can return to them as often as needed throughout your DJ journey.

When you DJ, you’re not just dropping beats.

You’re shifting human physiology.

It’s not just what you play — but how you play it. The way we wield the decks can establish safety, build connection, unwind tension, liberate blocked emotions and bring everyone into the belonging we all need.

Knowing how to confidently weave sound is key when it comes to creating the conditions for ecstasy.

Few other vocations can change every molecule in a space and transform so many people at once.

This is your moment to fully own it.