there’s a fire…alarm, anyway.  And we burned the turkey so bad we set it off for the first time this winter, taking the studio from ice cold (seriously, like 50 degrees when we walked in!) to scorching hot with our thermal units of happiness.

Of course this was the good kind of burned turkey!  And all thanks to DJ Muzak’s mix–jigglier than cranberry sauce, sweeter than marshmallow covered yams, and smoother than pumpkin pie, it was a booty bustin’ buffet!

Even though the story of the Pilgrims and Indians is kind of BS, Thanksgiving at least inspires us to think about the things that we’re grateful for.  Friends, family, food.  The miracle of a snowless November.  The fact that there’s a place in Chicago where women can get down without fear.  Ladies, I don’t want to get all Hallmark on you, but I’m so thankful to have discovered DDPP, and to have had the pleasure of dancing with you all.  No matter how tough my week is, no matter how tired I am, no matter how down I’m feeling, I know that when I walk into that studio I’ll be swept up by a tidal wave of positive energy, and that I’ll leave with a smile on my face.

DJ Muzak, thanks for serving up a delectable feast of beats!   And Lady K Stud, thanks for helping out your vertically challenged denmother with the smoke alarm.  And everyone else, thanks for being awesome!

xo,

Dizz

P.S. Next Sunday is the MINNESOTA MIX SWAP!!!  Don’t miss it, it’s going to RULE!

Yesterday afternoon marked the debut of DJ Cumberbun (aka DJ Kiki Bizzo, DJ Bridez-illah, and your lovely den mother Kelly P.!) and I know at least one lady who could have used that missing D.  As in, one of these…

to hold up her skivvies!!!  Yes, a DDPP first, the fierceness of DJ Cumberbun’s mix snapped the elastic in someone’s drawers.  The first ever handsfree atomic wedgie!

Not only did DJ Cumberbun blow our elastic, she blew our minds.  The rhythm pushed us to jump, and it was nothing but good vibrations!  Trust me, I ain’t frontin’.   Woman, your mixes are bootylicious no matter the monniker!   Whether walking with Jesus or sneaking Sally through the alley, we’re yours!

Just one of the many things to be thankful for this week!

REMINDER: There won’t be a class this Wednesday, but there WILL be on Sunday, so come on out and burn off some turkey!

Hello rhythmic friends! FYI:

DDPP will CONTINUE as usual on Sundays

But NEXT WEDNESDAY (aka Thanksgiving Eve) there will be NO DDPP.

We will continue rocking out on Sundays and Wednesdays as usual after that.

So take that new hour you’ll have not dancing on Thanksgiving eve and go do something borderline inappropriate. Like this.

DJ Tunerkin is climbing up the list as one of our MVDJs as this marks more than a healthy handful of tremendous mixes she’s supplied over the years.

Each tune on her line-up came out like hot little spicy mushroom poppers on a silver platter. They were perfectly catered the the ravenous dozen ladies who plucked them from the air and twirled, rocked and digested them into their own style of physical sustenance.

She had us wiggling it and swinging from the metaphorical chandeliers like our names were all Crystal Light. Yeah. Remember that crap? Well turns out they sponsored their own kind of DDPP Olympics back in the 80s. Which from the looks of that video, makes me reconsider the “no boys” policy. As for the “no booze” policy? Well this video reinforces the need for that rule. Good thing DDPP doesn’t happen in a tent, or have poles…

Behold: Tunerkin’s Tuneage!

This week’s mix was too wild for words!  And so I present the following:

Yeah, all those cage scenes?  They happened. (Courtesy of DJ Muzak, and the best floor crawl I have EVER seen.)  And this:

Yeah, that happened too. (Who knew imitating Wade Robson’s moves could be so exhausting?!!)

Basically, DJ Lady K Stud’s mix was studly as always, and drove a room full of ladies to go COMPLETELY BANANAS (as hot studs often do.)  I mean, a Ting Tings cover?  Bizarre Inc.?  I bow down to your prowess woman.  You made it, took it, and got it into the groove.  It was a wolf day afternoon that none of us will soon forget:

Hail Lady K Stud!  And thanks to all the ladies who let it all hang out this Sunday!  My head is still spinning!

Almost forgot to give props to the fantastic t-shirts the KStud crew were sporting (practically made for DDPP!), and remind you all that there will be DDPP on November 29!  Come on out and get your turkey burn on!!!

Ladies, yesterday’s mix left me positively glowing.  Literally:

Yes, believe your eyes!  That is your den mother’s hand, sporting some sweet-ass glow stick bracelets courtesy of the fantabulous DJ Lil’ E.  She brought enough for everyone, and it was pretty much the coolest. thing. EVER.  Thank you Lil’ E!

Not like her mix needed any extra pizzaz, though.  While she is diminutive, there’s never anything lil’ about Lil’ E’s jams!  Anyone who lived through track number 7 can attest to that (it really did feel like the end of the world, at least in my chest cavity!)  The energy in the studio yesterday was brighter than our bracelets, and we stomp/clapped/ran amok with giant smiles on our faces. Nearly every song had someone shouting “Yes!” within the first few seconds, and at the end of the evening we were sweaty, exhausted, and elated.  Hate that you live so far away girlfriend!  Get started on that next mix!

DJ Michelle Leslie Brown is one of our all-time top mix masters. The woman provides. In just this past week alone, she’s handed us not one, but two outstanding mixes. She’s a double-your-pleasure kinda lady, I suppose.

Woah! Where the hell did that dude come from? We do not condone smoking. Repeat – smoking is not good for you. But this man did come up when I googled “double your pleasure” – but we’re only inviting him to lounge on the back porch – not to come inside and have a drink.

Anyway – last Wednesday, Jenn B was ill and Jenn M Den Mothered and danced the hell out of class. This is what she and the other lovelies jammed out to thanks to DJ MLB’s fine ear and eye for tune stacking.

And just one week later, fortunes have been reversed with Jenn B being the healthy one and Jenn M taking a health breather for the team. My oh my change keeps changing.

Just a couple of hours ago, DJ MLB donned her alter ego, DJ Re-Run and brought back some supremely magic memories with her Election Night Mix… revisited. She played this same mix exactly one year ago. Even though in this past year a coupla little things have transpired… like a massive recession, global banking system collapse, new wars being waged, still not equal rights for all, etc… tonight we took a break from the grind of all the bad news and honored all the changes that have already come, and made an inviting space available for all the inevitable change to be.

Thank you DJ MLB for reminding us that yes we did… and yes we still certainly can. We know darn well we can work it out.

[p.s. And if you're so inclined to hear one of your den mothers fumble for words trying to assess what's changed in America this past year on Australian radio (from a year ago and today) knock yourself out here.]

Let’s face it, Halloween is always risky business: razor blades in apples, needles in candy bars, all you can drink costume parties.  And there’s always the danger of putting off your costume idea until five minutes before DDPP.  Well, clearly one of your den mothers had the foresight to plan something mam(mary)moth, and the other slid in just under the wire…

If you missed it, be sorry!

Believe it or not, the scariest part of Sunday wasn’t even our costumes!  We rocked out to a super spooky mix by none other than DJ Jill O’ Puddin’ Pops, the master of murderous moves!  We also got geeked up on sugar.  Because really, Great Pumpkin aside, candy is the true meaning of Halloween. 

BOO!

AND, in other exciting news, DDPP is on Yelp.  Stop on by and give us a review!  Tell all of your friends!

Every now and then I come up against a mix so relentless in its fabulousness that I literally can’t take it. What I mean to say is that the beats are so hot, my heart wants to dance itself out of my chest on EVERY SINGLE SONG!!!  And my brain says “Yes!!!  Keep dancing!!!  Dance faster!!!  Dance harder!!!  Dance more!!! Do this song justice!!!”  And then my legs say “Are you kidding me?”

And later, the next day, after a healthy dose of ibuprofen has turned the pain in my knees down from a scream to a dull throb, I go looking for pictures of rubber legs on the internet to illustrate my point and come across this:

Don’t worry, I can tie this together: I loved DJ Sassybrass’s mix yesterday as much as that cow loves that old man’s chin!  And I wasn’t the only one: four, count em, FOUR people came into the studio off the street to check out the flavor behind the bad-ass tunes.  One of them was a dude quite possibly a decade or two older than the above cowpoke.  You should have seen the smile on that guy’s face!

And as if that didn’t make this Sunday exciting enough, it was DJ Sassybrass’s birthday!  Not just her celebratory birthday mix, her actual birthday!   I gotta say, I’m loving this trend.  DJSB, after the gift of your killer mix we here at DDPP have something to present you.  It’s even better than a birthday cake:

Yeah that’s right, it’s a giant Twix.  And it comes with instructions.  You’re welcome ladies.

Happy Birthday DJ Sassybrass!!!  Thanks for shakin’ what your mamma gave ya, and for thankin’ your mama.

Like the autumn leaves perpetually piling up on the ground and in the gutters, our to-do lists have also been magnificently piling high, only sadly it’s not as fun to take a running leap and jump into them. This is all gibberish for saying why today we bring you last Wednesday’s mix and soon we shall bring you yesterday’s mix. 

Speaking of gibberish, do you ever wonder why there’s absolutely no need to understand they lyrics of a song in order to rock out unabashedly?  The beat, the instrumentation, the emotion of the singer’s voice – it usually says it all. Like this dude below, for instance. 

Music just makes working up a sweat on easier. But don’t just believe my vague generalities, there’s some science behind it people. 

For the last 20 years, Costas Karageorghis, a sports psychologist at Britain’s Brunel University, has been setting the research pace for understanding our need to groove and move. According to Kargeorghis, there are four factors that contribute to a song’s motivational qualities: rhythm response, musicality, cultural impact and association. The first two are known as “internal” factors as they relate to the music’s structure while the second two are “external” factors that reflect how we interpret the music. Rhythm response is tied to the beats per minute (bpm) of the song and how well it matches either the cadence or the heartbeat of the dancer. A song’s structure such as its melody and harmony contribute to its musicality. The external factors consider our musical background and the preferences we have for a certain genre of music and what we have learned to associate with certain songs and artists. (for more click on that link above)

Last Wednesday, DJ Honeycrisp tapped into the collective musical background and preferences we have for a certain genres of music and created a vortex of rhythm response. We sashayed and parlayed our ripe BPMs into swirls, twirls and ended with a room full of very happy girls. Thank you for being our “Fall Girl” DJ Honeycrisp. You picked just right.