Hitting Play Dirt

By Pat Sherman
Photo by Jeff “Turbo” Corrigan?

When wrapping up a career as a professional soccer player-which included stints in both the U.S. and Japan-Linda Kurtyka wasn’t getting a kick out of the career options laid out before her.

Ultimately, the club-hopping athlete decided to trade in her grass stains for grimy grooves, reinventing herself as DJ Dirty Kurty.

“I’ve loved music my entire life,” Kurty says. “It’s kind of the only thing I’m passionate about besides soccer.”

The sports-minded DJ (who’s currently training for Olympic-distance triathlons), doesn’t take her job lying down.

“I’m literally jumping up and down and dancing behind the booth, and really vibing off the music I’m playing and the crowd,” Kurty says. “House music is definitely my passion, (but) electro is now really the top thing to spin.”

Her DJ moniker was born when friends at her alma mater of North Carolina State University started shortening her last name from Kurtyka to “Kurty.”

“I was kind of checking somebody out one day as they were walking by, and a friend’s like, ‘You’re dirty!’” Kurty says, with a laugh.

As for airing out her dirty laundry by revealing whom she was scamming on back then, she says, “I’m not going to mention any names.”

For some good, clean fun, catch DJ Dirty Kurty spinning at Eden and the Brass Rail in Hillcrest, Andaz and Henry’s Pub in the Gaslamp, U-31 in North Park and Bourbon Street in University Heights.

djdirtykurty.com

DJ Dirty Kurty
Age: 40
Hometown: Toms River, N.J.
Drink: Patrón Silver on the rocks
Eats: Phó (Vietnamese noodle soup)
Beats: Deep, funky house
Most energizing track: Afrojack’s Take Over Control
Former occupation: Professional soccer player