Monday, November 20, 2006

Baby Loves Disco

This weekend Stella turned 11 months old. We celebrated by going to Baby Loves Disco at Southpaw, our local Brooklyn concert venue. Our little baby truly loves to dance, and she has some eye-catching moves that prove she is darn good at it! Besides having impeccable rhythm (if I might say so), she has her own signature flair. With one hand she will hold on to something so that she can safely stand and bounce, then she'll position the other hand very elegantly out to her side to swish it to the beat, and cock her head up, chin high, eyes squinty, punctuated with a toothy grin. In addition to this applaud generating stance, she has an 'oil pump dance ' where she gets on to her hands and knees and emphatically rocks back and forth to the groove.


Baby Loves Disco is a daytime club event held nationally in many big cities (San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, etc.). It is an opportunity for parents and children between the age of 6 Months and 7 years, to come together and dance to 70's music in a nightclub atmosphere. They provide lots of healthy snacks, juice and coffee, scarves and egg-shakers to play with, a bubble machine, diaper change stations, free stroller parking, chill-out spaces with tents and toys, and a full bar!(at extra expense). Your ticket buys you the license to be a total goofball with your child and maintain some anonymity in the dimly lit environment. Trust me, some of the parents behave just as crazily as their uninhibited children. It's like we've all been suffering cabin fever, and finally feel like 'Yes! We still have a life beyond parks and playgroups, that actually involves entering those night dens of our boozy pasts!" However,the coolness factor is way low when you are sharing the dance floor with a bunch of hyper toddlers, shaking your rusty ass to "(Shake, Shake, Shake) Shake Your Booty" by KC & The Sunshine Band . This brings me to my actual critique of the event - the music. 70's disco seems to be the universal music guaranteed to get everyone enthusiastically on to the dance floor, but isn't this painfully passe'? I was born in the 70's, and therefore never actually danced to any of this music when it was freshly released. I'd be a parent in my early 50's if that were the case. Looking around the room, I don't think there were too many parents of this age swinging with their babies. Isn't it time to start changing the music up? Couldn't we dance just as excitedly to some 80's new wave tunes or better yet, britpop? While were at it, why can't the music actually be contemporary? O.K. - scratch that idea, as contemporary dance music is poor pop in my opinion, and I don't really want to spend my afternoon dancing to Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake - but that's just me. I've certainly noticed that kids can dance to just about anything. Stella even starts bouncing to t.v. commercial jingles. With this in mind, I'm sure that the music could be improved upon, upping the hip factor, and making the whole occasion even more appealing to the type of parent who really is desperate to feel like they have actually gotten out for a DAY of partying. It was a little strange to be in a room filled with kids and helium balloons, that was the same place we had seen American Analog Set and Clinic, so very long ago... This fact reminded me of how distant our concert-going days are. In fact, we haven't been to see live music since I was pregnant in summer 2005, when we saw Arcade Fire put on an awesome show in Central Park, and were surprised by a guest performance by David Bowie.
Despite my general complaint about the music, there were a few gems in the mix, that sent me straight back to those 7th grade dances of awkward grinding and what we used to call 'disco biscuit' music. It was specifically while nursing Stella in a creepy dark corner of the club that "Let the Music play" by Shannon, sent me into a very early teenage reverie. I was also left with the priceless memory of watching the back of Daniel, as he held Stella bouncing on his hip, and rocked side to side, up and down, big head, little head, the two most important people in the world to me, backlit with red and green dance lights. Dance, baby, dance.

1 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I can just picture you, Dan and Stella busting a move on the dance floor. You and Dan have such great taste in music I can understand your desire to listen to music other than disco. You're both excellent sports when it comes to Stella. I still can't get that "ding-dong, ding-dong, ding-dong" song out of my head... Anthony is threatening to buy it for me.

Sarah you are a wonderful daughter, sister, wife and mother. It is no wonder why the people who love you love dancing in your presence.

Love,
Sista' P

11:02 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home