Disclaimer and Apologies

OK - the first article is a couple of days late, way too broad and not focused enough... I've been hearing that all my life. Anyway, I tried to shorten it and leave things out but I just had so much fun exploring all of the side topics that I had to leave them in there. So while it may take you until your 33rd birthday* to experience all I've put together, please do it anyway (if you've got the time) and let me know what you think. Don't worry, I won't have the energy to do this every week.

Lots of love,

Miriam

P.S. have headphones ready for the recommended reading soundtrack links ;)

*may depend on actual age at commencement of reading.

Inspiration strikes

Two weeks ago Janet Jackson appeared to me and inspired me to start this blog[i].

I was at a café and inexplicably hesitating clicking the ‘book now’ icon that would commit me to a few weeks of luxurious nothingness on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico, when I looked up, as we all seem to do when we are trying to make sense of our thoughts, and saw Ms. Jackson (sometimes I’m nasty). Taped to the window next to me was a flyer for a Janet-themed retrospective dance party that was happening two days later. My mind was cleared and I knew what to do. I sent an apologetic email to the boat, posted the event on my Facebook page and started planning what to wear.

The dance party was hosted by The Fabulous Ladies of Fitness (FloF), aka J-Bo and Jyldo, DJs extraordinaire. In a mid-song chat with the Ladies that night, I discovered that FLoF is just one expression of a community of movers and dancers in Chicago whose focus is firmly fixed on fun, silliness and selectively reviving 70s-90s grooves and choreography. Jyl also told me about WERQ, a new Chicago dance-fitness class made up of hot dance moves and set to current club hits. My brain quickly connected this information with what I knew about Dance Dance Party Party (a viral ladies-only dance party collective) and step-ball-change; I had a social trend…and an inaugural blog article!

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[i] This isn’t as outrageous as it sounds; Janet has changed my life many times with her pop and r&b grooves, crazycool choreography and fierce performances. Close friends will testify to my love for “old school Janet”.

How Can We Know the Dancer from the Dance? (Part One)

Gratitude...

In the course of researching this article I met, conversed and danced with a number of people within the Fabulous Ladies of Fitness/Cole’s Bar, Dance Dance Party Party and WERQ/Zumba/Chicago Fitness Parties communities. I enjoyed nothing but warm welcomes and willing project participation and I am respectfully grateful for everyone’s contributions and kindness.

How can we know the dancer from the dance?

an exploration of current Chicago group dance sessions

Dance is often a defining element of culture, demonstrating a society’s music, physical movement, roles, mores and histories. Despite Henry Ford’s best intentions[i], common American folk dance seems to be all but dead in America; but after my FLoF dance party experience I started thinking that this, and other popular dance forms, may be more than just good fun. Dance may be more than just supporting cultural definitions even! What kind of contemporary subcultures are forming around pop song group dance forms?

How Can We Know the Dancer from the Dance? (Part Two)

WERQ, Zumba... and Jazzercise

(click for suggested reading soundtrack)

Jyldo told me about WERQ, a new high-energy group dance-fitness class based on club tracks and sometimes held in bars. I got in touch with Chicago Fitness Parties the creators of WERQ and booked in for a session. In addition to (not so) regular daytime classes in fitness studios, Chicago Fitness Parties hosts WERQ After Dark, evening group dance fitness classes in bars. These events combine social activities with exercise in order to make fitness fun so people will stick with it.

Community

Though we were in a bar, albeit long before any usual patrons were around, the scene was very different from the FLoF Party. The only men were behind the bar and primarily pouring ice water. Though this makes sense considering the group wasn’t getting together for leisurely socializing but to get a good sweat on.

How Can We Tell the Dancer from the Dance? (Part Three)

Dance Dance Party Party

(click for suggested reading soundtrack)

Despite my extroverted nature, I’ve always connected with the lyric: “Only when I’m dancing can I feel this free-ee, at night I lock the door so no one else can see, I’m tired of dancing here all by myself, tonight I wanna dance with someone else…” So when I heard about Dance Dance Party Party, an all-girl, all-sober, all-dance party, I was stoked to check it out.

Similar to FLoF, DDPP was started by two girlfriends on a whim and in an attempt to create the scene they wanted to experience. In 2006, Glennis McMurray and Marcy Girt just wanted to dance in comfortable clothes to music they loved and with people they thought were cool, and so they did. The idea quickly took off and now these award winning* female-only free-dance sessions are held at least weekly in over 25 cities worldwide.

It’s simple. A group of women get together in a community space, a volunteer DJ sets up a pre-organised 60 min set of great grooves, the lights go out and everyone does whatever their body wants them to. Running on a super-basic format of “no boys, no booze, no judgment… and no talking”, it’s easy to join or start a DDPP chapter in your town.

How Can We Tell the Dancer from the Dance? (conclusion - phew!)

You still with me? Great, here's one more to take you out!

Conclusion 

So what’s making people take to these group dance trends? In my relatively short research period (and long-ass article), I’ve presented following influencing factors:

1)     Economics

2)     Trends in contemporary art*

3)     Physically and emotionally therapeutic results

4)     Ticking the right boxes of behavior change theory**

5)     Innate human desire to move together as a society

All of the investigated examples of group dancing - the Fabulous Ladies of Fitness dive bar dance parties, WERQ and Zumba dance fitness classes and Dance Dance Party Party free dance jams encourage partcipants to lose themselves and connect to the music and the movement. Bibliovault suggests the lessons of the importance of shared movement from Keeping Together in Time will “serve us well as we contemplate the future of the human community and of our various local communities.” Perhaps in losing ourselves, we find each other.

So get together with your friends, family, neighbours, or any other form of community and dance without judgement! Or just start dancing… and start a community!

I pledge allegiance to the step-ball-change...

My first article will be up by this weekend - a review and reflection on a bunch of crazyfuntime group dance crazes. Experiential journalism couldn't be better!

The hit list... so far

I did a bit of research before I left Australia and came up with the following list of local community-based organisations and related groups. I plan on working with these groups to report on public art, civic engagement and social and economic trends in the American Midwest.

Let me know if I should add more or if you are interested in me pursuing particular conversations.

Welcome

Hi, I'm Miriam. I'm an American/Canadian citizen and an Australian resident. I’m intensely curious about people and places, and in particular emerging and established community and economic structures in the American mid-west.

I’m currently living in Chicago, looking for opportunities to exploit my curiosity in places between Detroit, Milwaukee, St. Louis and Chicago. I’m looking everywhere from pole dance studios to community gardens, from ‘the View’ to Burning Man, in order to