One Year, 50 Dance Parties

This weekend was full of dance partying, so I'm making this three entries...

dance party number five happened with one of my special friends, Ellie. Ellie is three years old and we have a really wonderful relationship. I first met her when she was a few weeks old, and watching her grow up has been really delightful. A year and a half ago she was joined by Eva, her creatively mischievous and extremely huggable little sister. Ellie and Eva and I share some good times together every week, and this week while their mom was out to work for the afternoon, Ellie and I started a dance party. I taught her how to shuffle. She likes Pink, LMFAO, and Katy Perry, and she helps me indulge in every guilty pleasure I have (sparkles, crazy dancing, ice cream, pop music with dirty beats, excess use of glue in craft-making, swimming for hours) with no shame and plenty of gusto. Ellie is trying to teach me how to let go and just be me, while I try to remember to just let her be her in whatever way suits her best in the moment.

Last night I actually kiiiiiiind of attended two dance parties, but I'm putting them both as one event because they happened right after each other. In my search for dance partying fun, my friend Maia said I should join for her dance karaoke at this crazy tiny bar in the total ghetto near our 'hood. I said "but of course", so after I picked up Maia at her house and having a pre-karaoke cocktail, we headed there. This bar is seriously in a warehouse behind an auto repair shop. It's crazy. Apparently every Friday they have karaoke and dancing (either along with the singer or as a backup dancer for the singer) is highly encouraged. I've never seen or done anything like it, and it was hilarious. 

This is sort of a tangent, but I have a sober-Vanessa-approved List of Songs I Can Sing Karaoke To saved on my iPhone as a note. Here is the current list:

1) Crimson & Clover (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)

2) Connected (Stereo MC's)

3) Trouble (Ray LaMontagne)

4) Shelter (Ray LaMontagne)

5) Hold You in My Arms (Ray LaMontagne)

6) Hungry Like the Wolf (Duran Duran)

7) Be Mine (Robyn)

8) Bad Reputation (Joan Jett & the Blackhearts)

9) Wicked Game (Chris Isaak)

10) My Sharona (The Knack)

Guess which of the above songs they had? NONE. ZERO. ZILCH. Damn. After browsing the offerings I settled on I Believe (Blessid Union of Souls) which I think went pretty well. I also signed up to sing Crazy by Gnarls Barkley but luckily for me and probably also everyone else there we ran out of time before I could sing it.

So the bar closes at midnight, and by this time Maia was several drinks in. She was like "omg Vanessa you're my favorite you're so hot right now we have to go dancing downtown" and I said GREAT LETS DO IT so we headed towards downtown...and then she passed out in the car while I was looking for parking. :) So, I turned back around and took her home, then went back downtown by myself to see what I could find, dance-wise. I was lucky to find a good parking spot near some of my favorite dance spots, and I headed to one I knew was having 80's night, Barbarella. They usually have great DJs and a fun crowd that really gets down.

This was my very first time EVER going out to a bar/club by myself - and it was really interesting. I realized that most "single" chicks who go out, go with friends and then dance in little drunken clumps that are awkward (at best) to break into, and the single dudes there just stand around the edges and look for opportunity. Depressing. I was with the Single Dude crowd in this instance and it was definitely not fun. I headed to the back patio to get some air and see what was happening there and found more of the same. Luckily (I think) for me, this guys comes right up to me and introduces himself as "Jason, like the red power ranger" which immediately dates both of us because I only remotely know who the power rangers are (I was probably out of high school already when they were popular...I think?). At any rate he was ultra cute and I thought he was gay (Barbarella has a big gay crowd) so I was relieved to have a partner in dance. We danced around for a couple songs and then he asked me if I wanted to go get coffee at Bennu - an all-hours coffee shop in my neighborhood. I said sure so we headed over there and spent the next hour hanging out and talking. He's an interesting person, and I liked the random connectedness of meeting a stranger - something I don't get very often in life (pretty much everyone I'm friends with now I met through a friend-of-a-friend). Unfortunately, I think the barista gave me caf instead of decaf, 'cause I was totally wired for the rest of the night. I went home and went to bed, but I'm not sure if I slept at all or not - it felt like I didn't, but I also didn't feel super tired today so I'm not sure what that means.

My intention has been off to a slow start, thanks to a new job and being too exhausted to stay up past 8:30pm, let alone get myself to (typically) late-hour dance parties. Last night, I finally made it to Dance Party Number 1 - a  forró dance at Esquina Tango. Forro is a regional partner dance from northeastern Brazil. You can watch a video here that shows some more modern forró - traditionally, forró has less turns and is more close partner dance. I find the follower form to be tricky - the follower puts their arm all the way up and over the lead's shouder, placing the follower's hand on their opposite shoulder (like a one-armed hug). It's meant to keep you very close to your partner, but if your partner is much taller than you, it can be almost impossible to achieve.

All of my main dance passions are afro-brazilian based, and forró is no exception. I love the closeness, the improvisation, the music. Last night they had a live band - here's a video of them at Esquina Tango, performing some coco music earlier this year - and the feeling of dancing to live music rises well above a recording for me, every time.

I was honored to be joined by my friend Connor Rivera for the evening - he hadn't danced forró before, but jumped right in and after a short lesson, proved himself a wonderful and enthusiastic dance partner. Thanks, Connor!