In-person dancing is BACK!

And we back, we back

And it feels real, real good! Yesterday we returned to the studio for a glorious homecoming! We laughed, we cried, we hugged, we DANCED! We’re so excited to bring you in-person dancing every other Sunday this summer. Our next in-person dance on Sunday, July 25 at 4pm.  

Here’s the scoop:

• In-person dancing is every other Sunday in Chicago at 4pm! 
• This event is for cis and trans women, as well as non-binary people who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women.
• Sign up in advance to reserve your spot  
  • You have to be vaxxed to dance 
    • Bring proof of vaccination for your first dance 
  • $5 payment is a must to boogie
    • Venmo @ddppchicago
• Meet at 4057 N Damen Ave. 
  • Enter on Belle Plaine through the back gate
  • Please do not ring the front door bell
• The studio asks that we dance barefoot unless you have a medical concern. 
  • Athletic or dance shoes only
• We’ll be dancing in person on 7/25, 8/8, 8/22

We’ll be in the Zoom room one last time on 7/21 at 7:30pm CST with another Den Mom Collab Playlist and on 7/25 at 4pm CST we’ll be grooving in the studio to a playlist from DJ El Train! 

Email us with any questions at ddppchicago@gmail.com!

We’re dancing in space on Wednesdays!

In 2021, two things remain true:

1) We miss the studio– dancing in the dark, surrounded by people who are getting free with it.

2) Our community is stronger than ever, because we keep showing up for each other every Wednesday. ❤

Never been to a space party before? Our biggest guideline is no judgement — our dance parties are an hour for you to do whatever is going to make you feel good going into the rest of your week. For some of us, that means pulling out the moves we showcased at sleepovers in our tween years. For others, it means getting as low as you can go. We’ve seen ballet and hip hop and yoga and step touching and just about everything else you can imagine. If you can move while doing it, it’s probably been done on our dance floor. The big goal of our party? JOY. Find that beat and maybe a bit of your bliss.

You can find weekly event information on Facebook or on Instagram. A different person DJs every week – come once and you can get on the calendar to bring the playlist. This event is for cis and trans women, as well as non-binary people who are comfortable in a space that centers the experiences of women.

See you in outer space!

DD(SPACE)PP Update!

We are coming up on our 6th virtual dance party. We’ve learned so much about providing at home dance parties in a very short amount of time.

1. Our houses/apartments are all cute AF.
2. The chat feature adds a WHOLE NEW LEVEL to dancing.
3. Liz Mason owns a hula hoop.
4. We all really respect an animal guest star on our screens.
5. Love for DDPP is truly felt throughout North America.
6. Making playlists and dancing together continues to be valuable, even in times of global distress.

As we’re learning how to exist online, we’ve found a lovely feature in our Zoom meetings that lets us stream the music really cleanly from our computer to yours. What does this mean? We’ll only be providing the playlist on Spotify going forward. This means we cancel all the extra streaming services we signed up for and we won’t have to worry about any glitches from mix to mix.

We love you all so much. We feel so seen every Wednesday & Sunday by you all. Thank you for continuing to spread the word about us. We hope you keep coming back and hope to give you a real life hug real soon.

-DJ Hotdish

DDPP Sunday 4/5 Links!

We hope to see you at our virtual dance party, hosted by DDPP Louisville!

Instructions for partying with us:
1) At 4pm CST, click on the ZOOM link to join the meeting.
2) Mute your audio and turn on your camera. Click “gallery view” to see everyone dancing!
3) Pull up the playlist on a second device, so you can control the music. You can find the playlist for this Sunday on Spotify, Apple, and Amazon music.
4) We’ll wait five minutes for folks to enter, then give a 3-2-1 PLAY. Click play on your playlist.
5) Mute the zoom audio and get to steppin’!
6) If you enjoy the party, we’re asking for $1 donations for our premium zoom account. You can venmo us @ddppchicago and we’re also on Paypal.

DDPP Jr. Links!

We hope to see you every Saturday at 10am CST for Dance Dance Party Party Junior!

Instructions for partying with us:
1) At 10am CST, click on the ZOOM link to join the meeting.
2) Mute your audio and turn on your camera. Click “gallery view” to see everyone dancing!
3) Pull up the playlist on a second device, so you can control the music. You can find the playlist for every Saturday on Spotify. No Spotify account? Don’t despair – we have premium music streaming power from the Zoom meeting!
4) We’ll wait five minutes for folks to enter, then give a 3-2-1 PLAY. Click play on your playlist.
5) Mute the zoom audio (if you are streaming from a second device) and get to steppin’!
6) If you enjoy the party, we’re asking for $1 donations for our premium zoom account. You can venmo us @ddppchicago and we’re also on Paypal.

The only rules of DDPP Jr. are to love yourself, to love everyone else, and to have fun. We can’t wait to dance with you!

VIRTUAL DDPP

DDPP Chicago will be taking off from our live dance parties until further notice. BUT WE CAN’T STOP WON’T STOP! We will be bringing the DDPP experience to your living room through the magic of the internet.

VIRTUAL DDPP DATES
Wed 3/25 @ 7pm Toronto
Sun 3/29 @ 4pm North American Collaboration by DDPP west Burbs
Wed 4/1 @ 7pm Los Angeles
Sun 4/5 @ 4pm Louisville
Wed 4/8 @ 7pm Long Beach
(CST listed)

Here’s the Zoom link for EVERY SUNDAY and EVERY WEDNESDAY!

We are asking for $1 suggested donation. Our Venmo username is @ddppchicago. Please note “DDPP Jr.” in the description. Our PayPal is here!

HERE’S HOW IT WILL WORK:

• We will be using ZOOM to gather online.
• A different DDPP chapter will be the “host” of each dance party – you will be dancing with people all over the country!
• The Spotify, Amazon, & Apple links will be posted 24 hours before the party on our Facebook and Instagram pages. You control the music in your own living room.
• A host will play the music through the zoom meeting. If you want to control the music on your own, you will need to use a second device so you can mute the music from the meeting and listen to the music on the other device.
• The link will be open 10 minute prior to the listed time if you have any questions or trouble. Please be on time!
• Dancing will start at 5 after the hour.
• Mute your audio when you arrive.
• A host will give some brief instructions and then a 3-2-1 countdown for you to hit play on your playlist.
• Dance your quarantined heart out!

IF YOU HAVE NEVER USED ZOOM:
Restart your computer if you haven’t done so in a while.
Click the link on your phone or computer.
Give yourself a few minutes for Zoom’s quick, simple download.
Accept the pop-up to use your computer’s mic and speakers

If you have any questions or issues please contact us by email at ddppchicago@gmail.com or on social media @DDPPchicago.

Stay safe and healthy!

Coming to you live from Spotify!

We love DDPP Chicago. Every time we walk into our space at Damen & Bell Plaine, it feels like we’re getting a mini hug from the universe letting us know things will be okay. We’ve been running for almost 12 years now (holy cats!) and the world has changed a whole bunch since we began.

Little known fact: Everyone who runs DDPP does it for free, from the goodness of their heart and for the sake of dance. DDPP makes us whole, it keeps us young and we gain as much from running it as we hope you get from attending.

Here is a fact that is probably obvious – the current crew isn’t great at blogging. We are HERE for sharing Spotify mixes and posting on social media, but remembering to update the blog just isn’t our strong suit. And every time we forget, we feel it because this is one of the places where we celebrate the most important part of what we do – which is YOU.

So for now, we’re shutting the blog space down. We still want to connect you to the mixes because blood, sweat and tears (of joy) go into making them and quite frankly, they keep us moving and inspired when things get tough. Any mixes we get from folks who are not on Spotify we will do our best to recreate them on our Spotify account (ddppchicago). And we will share every mix that comes our way in our stories on our instagram page, which you can find in our highlight reel!

Thank you for your patience with us – hope to see you on the dance floor!

Hearts & High Kicks – Danielle, Catherine, Courtney, Cherise, Mallory & Liz

Happy Birthday DJ E=QC^2

Den Mother Cher aka DJ E= QC^2 celebrated her birthday (12/16) with us on Dec 8th and we are so grateful! Although this has been a tough year, she appreciates every moment and was excited to share a part of her journey with us.

DJ E=QC^2 brought us her usual fast paced booty shaking mix with an interesting collaborative twist. This year she broke her mix into parts. Birthday Playlist Formula: 1/3 (composed of 2018 hits) + 1/3 (a combination of expressions and phrases that DJ. E=QC^2 has said in the classroom this past year) + (1/3 was a collection of songs voted on through Facebook polls) = 100% of AWESOMENESS!!!!!

We danced in circles, twirled on our haters and even got in our feelings (just a lil bit). Below is a breakdown of the mix.

1. Buy U a Drank- Class
2. Boogie Wonderland- Class
3. Level Up- Facebook
4. Fitness- Facebook
5. Another One Bites the Dust- 2018
6. Why Do Fools Fall In Love- Class
7. Karaoke- 2018
8. Gives You Hell- Class
9. Taki Taki – 2018
10. Make Me Feel- Facebook
11. Blow- Facebook
12. In My Feelings- Facebook
13. Cut to the Feeling- Facebook
14. Best Friend- 2018
15. Vogue- Class
16. Uptown Funk- Class
17. Shallow- 2018

Happy Birthday DJ!!!!!!

Oh and here’s the playlist link…please give it a gander!

 

DJ Crunch Berry Serves Sugary Goodness

I can’t hear Crunch Berry without thinking of the smurfs. Smurfette is truly a confounding character to me. Is she happy living among all these smurfer dudes? Hard to say. One thing is for sure, she would LOVE dance dance party party. And if there were ever a mix for Smurfette, it would be served by DJ Crunch Berry.

Crunch Berry played a mix that can only be described as jubilant. There is nothing like throwing your hands up in the air to I LOVE IT and seeing that everybody else in the room is throwing their hands up too. Thanks for a great second to last dance, Crunch Berry! Hope to get down to your mixes in the New Year. Get the Playlist Here!

 

Just Strolling Around with DJ. EA Sportz

A few Sundays ago (Nov 4) DJ EA Sportz took us on a splendid journey through her mind. You know how it is when you have your headphones in and certain songs come on that just inspires you to dance in the middle of the street.

FYI it is never wrong to dance in the street, and I fully support this decision (but maybe dance on the sidewalk or find a street with no cars you know safety first). Thanks DJ EA Sportz for making our commutes more enjoyable.