Dance Dance, Party Party--Akron

Dance Dance, Party Party--Akron
by Joanna Wilson

You may have seen that our local group Dance Dance Party Party (DDPP) was featured on the front of the Life section in the Sunday edition of the Akron Beacon Journal yesterday.  Click HERE to see the on-line version of the ABJ article.  As one of the Den Mothers (organizers) of DDPP, I'm delighted to see that the Beacon staff writer Kim Hone-McMahan captured something authentic about our women's only dance program.  Watching what we do, Hone-McMahan saw that DDPP is about the simple, youthful joy of dance--it's really not more complicated than that.

Tired of the bar scene?  We're not a nightclub but we dance like we are in one.

For anyone that has yet to participate in one of our dance parties: we are a women's only group that gathers to dance in a dance studio.  It's not a class and there's no instruction--it's a free-spirited, do-your-own-thing dance opportunity for no other purpose but for the joy of it all.  We like to say we have three rules: no boys, no booze, and no judgement.  That means we're women who come to dance outside of a nightclub setting in a non-judgmental setting for any dance skill level.  DDPP welcomes all women to join us--we often have between 10 to 20 women participating, from twenty-somethings to retirees, and sometimes even a school-aged daughter accompanied by a mother who's come to dance.  We collect a $2 admission per dancer just to help us cover the studio rental costs.  While there are other Dance Dance, Party Party chapters all over the country--and all over the world--our Akron chapter has been going strong for four years and we're looking forward to the next four as well.

"No boys, no booze, no judgement--legwarmers optional."  Above, three of our DDPP-Akron regular dancers in their homemade legwarmers.

Our dance parties take place on the first, third, and fifth Friday of every month.  The dancers usually take turns each week providing an hour's worth of danceable pop music for our playlists.  On the fifth Fridays--which occurs approximately four times a year--we like to do something special.  Lately we've been dancing to popular dance movie soundtracks for those rare fifth Friday dance parties.  So far, we've danced to the soundtrack to Footloose and Dirty Dancing.  It just so happens that our next dance party, Friday May 31st is a fifth Friday of the month and we're scheduled to dance to the high-energy disco soundtrack of Saturday Night Fever! 

Eat your heart out, John Travolta!  DDPP-Akron is gonna show you how we do it--on May 31st.

Ladies, if you'd like to join us, this would be a great time to see what we're all about.  Our next dance party is Friday, May 31st at Martell's School of Dance (788 W. Market St
Akron, OH 44303) in Highland Square.  The music starts at 8pm and we only dance for an hour--so don't be late!  See you on the dance floor.

Check out our website: http://ddppakron.wordpress.com
RSVP on facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/239522176188564/?ref=14
Find DDPP on Facebook:  Dance Dance Party Party Akron page
Find DDPP on Facebook: Dance Dance Party Party Akron group
Twitter: @DDPPAkron
Tumblr: http://ddppakron.tumblr.com/