DJ NutMeg Shake Down

Too. Tired. From. Dancing. On. My. Sprained. Ankle

Highlights included: Rhianna, Missy Elliot, the Lion King and all the lovely ladies smiling faces who came out on this holiday weekend! Keep rockin girls!

Here’s the playlist NutMeg made. Although I think we only made it to “Seasons of Love.”

Dance Fever

Us 7 or 8 ladies got down to this fun mix which was like dancing for dummies. But in a rad-tastic way!

Slam it to the left, shake it to the right, chickas to the front!

Vogue!

Shake your booty!

and Take off all your clothes!

Also I couldn’t stop singing “The Most Beautiful Girl (in the room)” all week- here’s their video:

Dance Me Four Time

DDPP Vancouver #4:

DJ Dawn (no DJ name yet) went old skool and made us a mix tape for this week’s mix. Sadly I didn’t grab a copy of the set list. If you want it- I’ll find a way to hook you up.

The highlight of the party was when 3 lady seniors from the ballroom dance class next door visited and joined us for a song in the middle of DDPP! Truly DDPP is for all ladies, all ages, all styles.

Question: Who wants to keep the party going this summer? The Mount Pleasant Community Centre contacted me about this. I’m going to the UK in July so I’ll need replacement (or co-) Den Mother for a portion of it.  We might be able to get another day/ time for DDPP so put in your requests now.

I’m looking for a DJ for May 4- e-mail me if you want it!

See you next week.

We got Red Bulled

Last week’s DDPP Vancouver was a wee bit of a gong show.

Attendance was down. I’m guessing because most people were involved in the record breaking Sun Run this year. Or they got stuck in traffic behind the Sun Run.

Us hardcore 5 DDPP’ers danced like we were saving the world to DJ Ella’Ella’s mix. Which, unfortunately, we don’t have an image/ set list of. But trust me- it rocked. A little bit of Scissor Sisters, LCD Soundsystem and the Safety Dance.

Then half way through our party who stopped by to cheer us on? The Red Bull promo team dropping off some of that jitter juice to pump up the jam. And guess how they found out about us? Facebook.

I hope to see you at the next DDPP where we are full of surprises and smiles.

DJ’s wanted – Facebook Group Made

Hey Ladies,

I’ve taken up the task of Djing for the last two DDPP’s but this is a collective event y’all.

We need a fresh booty shaking DJ for our Sunday April 20th DDPP and I’d love for one of you to hit the 1’s and 2’s (DJ lingo for those of you that don’t know).

You can be our DJ by making a mix on your ipod/mp3 player or make a CD or go old skool and make a tape (I can’t guarantee that the old tape decks wont eat it though) and bringing it down to our party on Sunday.

Here’s the official DDPP NYC DJ info with tips on what they say makes a great mix- don’t forget to give yourself a DJ name!

http://dancedancepartyparty.wordpress.com/our-djs/

e-mail me at sarabynoe(at)gmail.com to sign up to DJ.

I can’t wait!

Forever dancing,

Sara

ALSO if you’re on the crackbook there’s a Facebook group for you to join for our Vancouver Chapter. Check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10465916801 the group is called “DanceDancePartyParty Vancouver “

Second Time Around

DJ Sparkle Bunny put together this guilty pleasure mix for our dancing pleasure.

Media Attention

Get down girls

At a Dance Dance Party Party event the rules are simple: no booze, no boys – and no judging. Ladies, you’re free to let loose

WENCY LEUNG

From Friday’s Globe and Mail

April 11, 2008 at 4:07 AM EDT

VANCOUVER — It’s a Sunday afternoon, and in a small, corner room of Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant Community Centre the fluorescent lights are switched off.

The electrifying chorus of Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ blasts from a portable stereo, and the roomful of women go wild.

Fists punch the air, bodies bounce, heads shake and hips shimmy. As the women jump and gyrate haphazardly around the linoleum floor, they nod at each other in encouragement and grin. This is a typical session of Dance Dance Party Party, an uninhibited, women-only dancefest that has evolved into an international phenomenon.

Two years after starting as a small New York get-together, DDPP has caught on throughout the United States and New Zealand, and in recent months new chapters have sprung up in Vancouver, Toronto and Guelph, Ont.

The concept is simple: Bring together a bunch of women, turn down the lights, pump up the music and dance.

There is no instruction, no booze, no boys and, importantly, no judging. “Like a lot of women, at any age, I wouldn’t go out dancing without my male friends. The club scene’s too aggressive, too sexual,” said Xanthe Faulkner, 25, who joined Vancouver’s inaugural DDPP session last weekend. “If one doesn’t want to be approached but one wants to dance, there’s nowhere to go.”

Rewind to 2006 and that’s precisely how DDPP’s New York founders Glennis McMurray and Marcy Girt felt. The two disliked the sexually charged atmosphere of Manhattan’s nightclubs, and they weren’t interested in enrolling in classes to get their dancing fix. So, they gathered their girlfriends together at a dance studio and DDPP was born.

As straightforward as it is, not everyone understands the concept, said Ms. McMurray, 28. She frequently hears the question, “What do you mean, you just dance?”

“Explaining it as a workout program is the best way for people to understand what it is,” she said. “But we’re really working to make it a phenomenon for women to kind of find that inner child.”

Any mention of the “inner child” is enough to make some people squirm, Ms. McMurray said, but there is definitely a childish silliness to the events. Most women haven’t cast their inhibitions aside and grooved so freely since their adolescent slumber party days, she said.

At a typical 90-minute session, each participant contributes $5 to $8 to pay for the use of the space. Participants are encouraged to DJ, so depending on who’s in charge of the music, the set list can include everything from Amy Winehouse to 50 Cent.

Sara Bynoe, who organized the Vancouver chapter, came across the idea while surfing the Internet. “I was like, ‘This sounds awesome!’ ” she said, adding that she was drawn to the notion of free-form dancing.

But the DDPP revolution may take time to pick up steam in Canada. Only 11 women, ranging in age from early 20s to mid-40s, attended the first session. But they gave enthusiastic reviews.

“It’s nice to be able to do what you want and not have to follow along [to an instructor],” said Christine Hackman, 37.

Added Ms. Faulkner: “I loved it. It’s a fantastic workout.”

These types of free-form dance parties aren’t for everyone, however, said veteran Vancouver movement instructor Jane Ellison.

As a workout, she said, they could be limiting since participants don’t learn new movement patterns or body alignment techniques. Instead, they tend to fall back on familiar moves and repeat them, so they don’t necessarily work through a full range of motion.

“But if people just want to have fun and dance, I’m all for it,” Ms. Ellison said.

In Toronto, Crissy Calhoun held her first DDPP session in early March at the Centre for the Arts. In spite of a snowstorm, seven women showed up. Ms. Calhoun expects more will turn out to future events, which she hopes to run once a month. More than 60 women are now signed up to her chapter’s Facebook group.

“At first, it was a kind of shuffle dance-y before people busted out the big moves,” Ms. Calhoun said. But after getting over their initial shyness, people were soon performing spontaneous choreography and challenging each other to dance-offs.

“It’s a freeing sort of experience because you don’t have to dance cool. You don’t have to look pretty,” she said.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080411.wldance11/BNStory/lifeMain/home

Don’t Stop Believin’ Vancouver!

I am in love! I am in love with Dance Dance Party Party!

We had 11 lovely ladies dancing for our inaugural DDPP (along with two from the Globe and Mail). By all accounts it was a success! I’m sure we will out grow our little room very soon. Until then I hope to see many more lasses at the next DDPP Sunday April 13 where we will be ‘Hot in Herre.”

Here’s the playlist:

What’s Shakin’!

Hey Girls,

I searched Vancouver high and low for an affordable, centrally located, regularly available studio space and this is how we’re gonna’ get down:

Teaming up with the uber hipster Mount Pleasant Community Centre DDPP will be happening in their spring program which runs from April – June.

Sun      12:15-1:45pm 12 weeks         41603.201       Apr 6-Jun 22    Fee $60           $7 drop-in

If you want to register (for the low price of $5/ class) please contact the Mount Pleasant Community Centre at 604-713-1888 ( I believe the class number is 41603.201).

I know it’ll be hard to wait until April so if anyone knows any place we can start it up in the meantime let me know!

Mount Pleasant Community Centre

3161 Ontario Street
Vancouver, BC   V5T 2Z1
Tel: 604-713-1888
Fax: 604-713-1899
Email: mtpleasantcc@vancouver.ca

peace out!

Sara

PS- The special bonus of the MPCC is that they will be moving to fancy new digs this fall at 1 Kingsway so if all goes well with DDPP we’ll get a fancy brand spakin’ new studio!

Welcome!

Welcome to the future home of DDPP™ of Vancouver, BC!  Stay tuned for all sorts of info including the times, dates and locations where you and your best pals can come and get DOWN!