Dan Crooks: “‘Whimsical Skedaddling’ Was the Best Way I Could Describe Irish Dancing”

When Jamaican-born, California-based DJ Dan Crooks (better known by his Instagram handle @mystacrooks) posted a late night video describing world champion Liam Costello as a “professional whimsical skedaddler”, he had no idea he was about to start a movement.

Today — 38.5 million views later — #SkedaddleNation counts the leads of Riverdance among its members, and Dan is now working on his sevens. The Irish Dance Globe sat down with the president of Skedaddle Nation to talk about how it feels to become an overnight Irish dance celebrity, what the response has been like, and where he hopes Skedaddle Nation will take him next.

Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me today!

Absolutely no problem at all. This is kind of surreal for me, if I’m being honest.

Just for some context, can you tell me just a little bit about who you are and what you do?

I’m a DJ and host. I live in California, so I do Caribbean/Afro-Caribbean-based events, I host stages with reggae festivals in California, I do the BoomYard stage at Cali Vibes, I’m Blvk H3ro’s tour DJ in the US, I also do a podcast with a friend of mine, Dale Elliott Jr — a number of things. And apparently whimsical skedaddler now. Add that to my resume. 

How did you get keyed into Skedaddle Nation?

I don’t even know how to explain it, to be honest. So, I’ve been on Instagram for a while and trying to be very serious about it, presenting, ‘This is my DJing, and here’s my professional pictures’. And after a while I was like, ‘Just have some fun with it’ and started doing reactions. 

I have a very weird algorithm, to be fair, but different things pop up. A friend of mine, [tap dancer] Danny Wooten — I think he was a part of the original US tour for Riverdance, if I’m not mistaken. So I was already kind of interested in that world. 

I eventually came across Liam’s video, and Liam looked like a puppet. Like, his movements were so precise. I was like, ‘How is this guy even…’ Like the spin? He hit a spin that I was like, ‘Nah, bro, you’re on a chair or something. You’re not a real person. This is not…this is clearly AI or something’. 

So I started going down the rabbit hole. I started looking at his page. I looked at it, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow. People do this for real. This is, like…a real thing’. I started researching it, and then when I went back to his video, I was like, ‘Oh no, this guy’s good’. 

And was “whimsical skedaddling” just an off-the-cuff thing? 

I watched it a couple times, and by the time I seen the last part, I was like, ‘Oh, he skedaddles right there, for real’. I was like, ‘Yeah, but that was kind of whimsical, though’.  Because he hit the flutter and he spun…I was like, ‘Oh nah, this is like a Disney Channel situation’. I feel like that was the best way I could describe it. I couldn’t think of a better way to describe it.

I think 30 seconds later, the entire Irish dancing community were identifying as whimsical skedaddlers.

It was so trippy to me. I did the reaction in the middle of the night at my time — it was probably one in the morning. I was like, ‘Alright, let me do a couple more reactions, and then go to bed’, and that was the last one I did, and then I was like, ‘Alright, bedtime’. I woke up, and there were so many messages and memes like, ‘Yes, bro, yes, thank you. I’ve been studying this for 17 years, and nobody has ever described it — I don’t even want to be an “Irish dancer” anymore’.

How have you found the response?

Overwhelmingly positive. It’s been very genuine. A couple messages that I got, people were saying ‘Hey, thank you so much for highlighting the Irish dance community, because these people train very hard, and it’s very difficult, and they don’t get any attention’ — it’s not something that people necessarily talk about very often, unless you’re already in the community. I didn’t even consider that. But they’ve been very, very positive, they’ve been very welcoming. I feel like an honourary Irish person today.

What has the response been from people who just followed you anyway, or people who kind of just found it on their For You Page? 

There are people who are just like general fans of mine that are like, ‘Bro, what is going on right now? Why are you reacting to 19 Irish dancing videos? Like, what rabbit hole have you gone down? Your algorithm has to be fried’.

There’s people that’s like, along for the ride. And I think it’s this weird thing, where it’s become an evolving series of skedaddling, starting with Liam [Costello], and then Lochlan [Howard] and Aidan [Hurff] and Kait [Sardin] and then Morgan [Bullock]. And I haven’t reacted to the Gardiner Brothers, yet, but I’m there.

I’ve been looking at some of the shows now — A Taste Of Ireland, I’ve been in contact with them, and I want to go. So I feel like the next move is, now I gotta go to a competition.

One thing that’s impressed me is that many of the videos you’ve been reacting to have been very ‘if you know, you know’. How do you find and choose these videos? 

It’s the Nation! Eventually, I was like, ‘Oh, this is a real community building right now, because people are sending people’. Somebody sent me Luke [Sooy], and then Luke contacted me directly. I’m looking at him, and I was like, ‘Oh, he’s like, the guy. Okay, more research’.

Like you said, it’s like an ‘if you know, you know’ type deal, and it seems silly that I’m sharing it to the outside, but to the inside it’s like, ‘Oh, he knows what he’s talking about’. That’s kind of the balance that I want to strike where I’m having fun, but if you know, you’ll understand how entrenched I’ve been. You know, the research that I’m doing is very serious.

You said you had a friend who was in Riverdance — what was your familiarity with Irish dance before this?

I wasn’t super familiar with it. I know about tap dancing, and I knew a bit about, well…not a lot about Irish dance. But at the time, to me, Irish dancing was called Riverdancing. 

So I’m going from completely, practically unfamiliar, just like from seeing Lord Of The Dance ads and meeting a friend who used to be a part of it — so I’d see highlights from when he was on the show — but outside of that, I was completely clueless until Liam’s video. 

I should warn you, once you’re in the Irish dance world, you’re never leaving the Irish dance world!

Yeah, I’m like, ‘I’m in now!’ I was like, ‘I gotta learn to dance’. I’m still trying to get my sevens.

But you are learning, though!

I’m slowly learning. 

I don’t know if you saw, but we asked the leads of Riverdance a couple of days ago if they were part of Skedaddle Nation, and they said very emphatically that they are. How does it feel to know they are part of the Whimsical Skedaddle Nation?

I don’t know how to feel about it. It’s very surreal. It’s insanely dope. I could have never fathomed that this would be…I never thought ‘Hey, post this video, and in a couple weeks, the entire Irish dance community is going to rock with you’.

Big up to the Riverdance. They’re the ones that got me into it. I feel like everybody that’s unfamiliar with Irish dance, most of them, their first introduction is through Riverdance. So for them to be Skedaddle Nation…I can’t even describe the joy and pride that I get from that. 

I think I can say on behalf of Skedaddle Nation that it’s an honour to rock with you.

I’m so glad. I don’t even know how to describe the feeling I’m getting from it. I never expected such an overwhelmingly positive response. And this just feels like it’s evolving into something that I can’t even describe where it might lead yet. I’m here like, ‘So, are you a DJ? Are you a DJ, for real? Because the Skedaddle Nation…that’s more what you are right now. You’re an Irish dance representative, bro’. So I’m just rolling with the punches and seeing where it takes me.

Keep up with Dan Crooks’ ‘Skedaddle Nation’ commentary on Instagram.