Summer Sundays

It’s that magical time of year when you can FINALLY GO OUTSIDE!!!  Bar-be-ques, beaches, and block parties, oh my!  We here at DDPP understand that you ladies need to soak up the sun while you can, so we’ll be cutting back on our Sunday classes until fall.  Have no fear–we’ll be holding class on July 26th and August 30th to tide you over before we return for good on September 27th.  So mark your calendars!  Until then, spend Sundays gettin’ yo summer on.  And remember:

Also remember, Wednesdays will continue weekly–so come out and get your hump day fix!

A Day to Remember

Thank you everyone who came out yesterday to celebrate with me!  It was a pop-rockin’, chocolatey cupcakein’, balloon battin’ BONANZA!!!  Truly, I could not have asked for a better way to commemorate my first 30 years on planet earth:

As those of you who were there know, I made a special mix of songs connected with memories of dancing.  Some as simple as groovin’ in the living room with my family or in the car with friends.  Others a little more specific.  Here are those songs, and the best of the backstories:

#3: In 1983 I was a flower girl at my uncle’s wedding.  When this song came on during the reception, I ran to the middle of the dancefloor and COMPLETELY SPAZZED OUT, screaming Ghostbusters at the top of my lungs while jerking like a maniac.  And yes, there is video evidence.

#9: The name and theme song of my 5th grade bowling team.  Many a New Kids dance in the parking lot of Merribowl.

#12: 8th grade talent show dance routine.  And yes, there is video evidence.

#17: Two words: Senior Prom.

#19: You won’t find this song anywhere because it’s my brother’s old band, but picture me doing the monkey in a red-fringed flapper dress and go-go boots on a stage.

#21: Won free tickets to see these guys in concert, and some random guy in the audience taught me how to swing dance.

#24: Got drunk at a friend’s wedding and did a little booty-poppin’ with someone’s slightly terrified (and underage) nephew or cousin.  And yes, there is video evidence.

#29: Threw this bad boy on a ddpp mix a few months ago and shit got TRIBAL up in the studio.  Couldn’t resist reliving the moment.

Big love to you all!!!  Hope to do it again in another 30 years

xo,

Dizz

THE BIG 3-0 TODAY!

Come join us in our air conditioned (we promise) dance studio to rock out to 30 (YEP!) songs from Kelley Clink in honor of her 30th birthday! DDPP will be like old times today, starting at 3:30pm and going until 5pm. So come for an awesome workout and celebration, stay for some cup cakes. YES!

This is not Kelley Clink.

Raise $ For Public Radio Tonight by…DANCING!

Tonight – Millenium Park – The Bean – 5:30pm.

91.5fm (aka WBEZ in conjunction with Vocalo.org) will be doing a fund raising challenge and they need DANCERS! If they get 20 people to show up and dance to a song you download on the website, they get boku buck. So if you can swing by after work, shake what you got then you’re helping to keep public radio groovin. We know you got it in you.

PLUS

PLUS

EQUALS

Live & Let Die

Gentle soul. Michael. The music you made in your short life inspired more booty-shaking, more coming together, and more memories than any other artist. Your name carries with it a dance party that crosses genders, cultures and ages. We won’t ever forget you. We wish you peace.

As I sat down yesterday to post the play list from Wednesday’s raucous romp, I heard the news. Plans to post were overtaken with an evening spent lighting off fireworks dancing and marveling at the magnificent body of work that had attached to it the name Michael Jackson. While this last week’s playlist included none of his handiwork, so many of our dance parties have. And never fail, every time, no matter who is in attendance, we know Michael’s music will bring us all together. Thank you for the music, Michael. For giving it to all of us.

Cat On a Hot Wood Dancefloor

This Sunday’s mix was hot-hot-hot!  Literally.  No a/c.  But figuratively, too, because DJ Meow Mix (aka DJ Skydive) brought the sizzle for rizzle.

I didn’t even have to doctor this photo–thank you internet.  Anywho, once the beats started flowing we were on fire, fire!  We got sweaty and low, and even though it felt like we were walking on sunshine (with all the flesh melting plasma that implies) we weren’t scarred.  Far from it!  DDPP ladies are tough broads–we shake it like the post office: rain, shine, sleet, snow, or lack of freon.

And in case you were wondering, DJ Meow Mix switched up her moniker in honor of her real live feline Peaches, who’s been under the (ridiculously, insanely hot) weather.  Hopefully our collective love and sweat appeased Bastet and inspired many ancient blessings on Peaches.  At the least, I’m sure DJ Meow Mix’s descriptions of our cavorting cheered her up.

Thanks for one purrrfect afternoon DJ Meow Mix!  (ugh, I think I just made myself throw up a little with that one.  Hairball.)

*Also, don’t forget that this Sunday is DJ Dizz’s Birthday Extravaganza!!!  Be at the studio at 3:30 pm to help Dizz relive the danciest moments of her three decades.  I’m promised there will be a/c, and (even better) there will be sugar.

A Quiz…

DJ MLB stands for:

a) Major League Booty-shaker
b) Mutha Lovin’ Badass
c) Michelle Leslie Brown

Answer Key:

ALL OF THE ABOVE!

DJ Michelle Leslie Brown’s beats last night were all that and a bag of chips.  

No, not that kind, this kind:

Her mixes are a phenomenon–no matter how little I’ve slept or how crappy my day has been, I can count on Michelle Leslie Brown to carry me away.  Within seconds I feel like I’ve been partying all the time, and before I know it I’m boogying so hard it’s going to take me 17 days to recover.  It was paradise, but is was also club lonely: Wednesday ladies, where were you???  Take a gander at what you missed, smack your foreheads V-8 style, and get back to dancin’ ASAP!

WAIT, THERE’S MORE!

If you shook your groove thang on June 7th, you’ve probably been waiting, with itunes open, for that Sunday’s set list.  Your wait is over!  Witness the appropriately titled stomp-clap-whistle mix of DJ Dollface:

I CANNOT BELIEVE I missed this one!

DJ Superba Stickin’ to ma Ribfest

Den Mother log date: 6/14/09

One of the first warm sunny days of the summer.  Tranquil wofts of mesquite marinated meat fill the air as I trip on empty beer cups and hear the echo of rock and roll reverberating from Lincoln Avenue to the CVS. 

All I want is a rib but the internal rhythm of my heart leads me and seven others to the cool dance space soon to be occupied by the mastery that is DJ Superba’s mighty thigh-crunching mix.  Nothing could stop us – not even our paralyzing mommy complex or Neil Diamond’s TOIGHT blue jeans.  

Flag day will never be the same. 

The Countdown Begins…

Ladies, mark your calendars!  Sunday, June 28, will be DJ Dizz’s birthday EXTRAVAGANZA, celebrating 30 years of shaking what her mama gave her with a MONSTER MIX of 30 songs in 90 minutes!!!  (class will start early–3:30-5:00)  Don’t miss it!

when I look into your eyes, it makes me want to party

DJ QQF here, aka DJ Quelquefois. And I’m not gonna lie, I made a damn good mix tonight. So good in fact, that I’m treating myself to my favorite meal for dinner: popcorn.

I mean, look at this action: 

I truly believe that anything I try writing to explain the energy in the room tonight just won’t do.

So here’s some vids to get you off in the spirit that we did. MMMMMM! A strange magic, indeed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Begun in 2006, DDPP™ is the creation of New York City residents Glennis McMurray and Marcy Girt. The two friends loved dancing at the clubs with gal pals, but loathed cover charges, getting hit on and reeking of alcohol and cigarettes the next day.

The set-up is simple: an hour of booty-busting tunes, a dance studio or other room with the lights turned low, and women willing to let go. Although McMurray and Girt began the class on a whim, they found it struck an unexpected chord. “DDPP started as a way to work out and have fun without the conformity of a gym – how often have you heard your favorite song while you’re on the treadmill and wanted to hop off to do a real running man?” said McMurray. “But it has morphed into this amazing revolution of sorts where women come to find that little girl inside us all who just wants to have fun!”

Attendees can even sign up to “Guest DJ” by creating a custom mp3 playlist. Anything and everything goes from Broadway to hip-hop to 80’s hits (along with a warm-up song at the start and a cool-down song at the end); 15 or so songs that will get everyone up and moving. Ladies are encouraged not only to DJ but to give themselves a killer DJ name. (Favorites include DJ Tanner and DJ Roy G Biv DeVoe.)

Through word of mouth alone, over a dozen DDPP™ chapters have cropped up all over the USA and internationally. Women around the world are responding to this liberating atmosphere where they are free to goof around, shake their bodies without objectification and feel good about who they are.

Chicago Tribune reporter Monica Eng wrote, “Why we decide to reveal our inner spaz to this room of mostly strangers is unclear,” and concludes DDPP™ is “a buttload of fun.”