Dance Dance Party Party: A DIY Way to Work Out

dancedancepartyparty

Story by dancedancepartyparty

Published on May 25, 2010 in Events

Photo by dancedancepartyparty

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Jennifer Brandel is always a dancing fool; sometimes, she is an embedded producer/anthropologist for the Bahá’í Faith, a holistic healer, and a public radio reporter. She’s only now learning how to vacuum properly after recently acquiring a dog. Kelley Clink plays guitar better than she speaks Spanish, but not nearly as well as she cooks tofu. Three years ago she took a vow of poverty and became a writer. Don’t worry, no one else has heard of her either…yet! 

Isn’t going to the gym and working out your absolute favorite thing to do?

Don’t you love paying big cover charges and getting grinded on by greasy dudes at dance clubs?

Isn’t busting a move in wobbly high heels and strapless bras while trying not to get too sweaty a blast? 

We sure don’t think so. 

Okay, for those who exercise regularly — yes, there are better days than others. And for those who are clubbers, sometimes it feels nice to get a little masculine attention. But wouldn’t it be amazing if every time you got your heart rate up you were also grinning ear-to-ear, hearing fantastic new songs, sweating without a care, and allowing your body to move however the hell it wants to move?  DDPP_logo.jpg

Enter Dance Dance Party Party. It’s a simple concept: no men, no booze, no judgment. For one blissful hour weekly, women dress comfortably, gather in a space, turn the lights down low, the music up high, cease talking and judgment of themselves — and everyone else — and just.get.down.

The concept was born where so many brilliant ideas are: in New York City. Glennis McMurray and Marcy Girt were missing the days of the 10-year-old style sleepover party — where there’s no fear of looking foolish and gals aren’t tut-tutting disapprovingly in the corner about your moves or outfit. So in 2006, Dance Dance Party Party (a.k.a. DDPP) took over a Lower East Side studio space weekly, and true to movie cliché, if you build it, they will come — and they came.

In a cosmic turn of events, less than a year later my then-roommate Jenn Salvatore and I were thinking the same thoughts that Glennis and Marcy had, and were gearing up to start the very same thing in Chicago. But it wasn’t until Venus Zine crossed our paths with an article about DDPP that we learned this judgment-free dance party concept already existed and was a growing success in New York. So we teamed up with DDPP NYC to create the first offshoot chapter in Chicago. Within a year, more than a dozen chapters sprung up around the globe — from Canada to New Zealand. It seemed that women everywhere were universally attracted to this expressive do-it-yourself workout. 

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“She’s a Maniac” photo by DDPP New York Chapter on Flickr

What we’ve found is that by having no instructors and no goals (other than to have a kickass time), women are free to release their inner spazz in a way that ranges from highly entertaining to surprisingly therapeutic. Besides the usual club-style dance moves, women from all ages (11-85 years old!) have done any of the following under the DDPP influence: crab-walking, cart-wheeling, conga-line-dancing, wall-to-wall sprinting, nunchuck-chucking, downward-dogging, breakdancing, slithering across the room, and slapping the floor madly with the palms of hands. Such wonders ensue because every woman who comes to class is there for a different reason. Some are just looking for a fun workout to add to their routine, others want something that will boost their confidence or comfort in their own skin, some are recovering from trauma to the body or the mind, and still some are in it for camaraderie and musical discovery.  

This brings me to one of our favorite aspects of theDDPP_DIWW.jpg DDPP: the music. Attendees of Dance Dance Party Party are invited to sign up and DJ an hour-long session and create their own DJ moniker — like “DJ Tanner” or “DJ Roy G Biv DeVoe.” Every session is different, as the music is different, and we get to know a fellow dancer better through the musical personality she provides. And DJs are free to reinvent themselves each time they plug in their iPods. 

It doesn’t take science to tell us that listening to music while exercising is exceedingly fun, but we’re happy to see that more studies are indeed coming out to show that music + exercise = increased endurance, mood boosts, and better brain functioning. We can only imagine what other good stuff happens when you add women and fully liberated dance movement to the mix. At this point, we have over a dozen cities operating DDPP around the world and we’re hoping more women choose to start one wherever they are. All it takes is finding a studio space, getting some booty-busting speakers, a few mixes, and spreading the word.

Our Chicago chapter has become the new “mothership” of DDPP operations and we field all the questions for women interested in setting up their own chapters. You can check out dancedancepartyparty.com and click on How to Start One for a more detailed account of how to get a DDPP started wherever you are. 

Thanks for sharing such an inspiring idea, DDPP!
It’s time to get your groove on — what’s your all-time favorite dance song? Leave it in the comments below.

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