Our Dancing Day

I bloody love dancing, it’s brilliant, but before I get to that I need to give you some history.

Let me set the scene…..

The year is 2002.

I’m in 6th form.

The most important event of the academic calendar is upon us.

The school talent show.

Me and two of my lesser talented chums (lets call them Pete and Andy, cus that’s their names) were entered as Belfast’s answer to the Beastie Boys. 3 MCs and 1 (inflatable) DJ. It was agreed that as I had once appeared in a ballet and clearly had the most dance experience, I should be choreographer (it was a Christmas Carol, I was tiny Tim and it was a non dancing role) I ran a tight ship. I rigorously drilled and pushed them through a rehearsal schedule that would’ve made Joe Jackson proud. We had a slick routine that would surely be imitated by generations of youngsters in front of the mirror. We were set to be heros, we had masterminded a performance that would go down in school legend.

It was the evenings grand finale, a minute into the routine and we are storming it! The crowd are going wild, there was no way this could go wrong, we were too good, too slick………..too cocky. As I acrobatically jumped with a mighty gusto from the DJ decks (a table) clutching my crotch in the most middle class white way you could imagine, I ferociously rapped into…………THE WRONG VERSE!!!

Confusion swept through every cell of my body. “Was it the train move next or the backwards fish?!?” There was a neat mix of terror and anger across the faces of Andy and Pete. Luckily, I’d rehearsed them so well they were prepared for this possibility and they dragged me through the rest of the routine. We finished, feebly, down-hearted, defeated. Andy and Pete never spoke to me after that. We finished our A-levels and went our separate ways.

This experience was a vital lesson and has prepared me well for dealing with life’s constant failures but I have carried this burden long enough and it still weighs me down 11 years on. Every man needs redemption and mine comes in the form of….

OUR DANCING DAY

On the 20th October (yes, THIS year, in a matter of weeks, nay, days!) we are taking over The Brudenell for an afternoon of fun, laughter, falling over, sharing food and most importantly, DANCING!!

WE’RE MAKING A MUSIC VIDEO

We are once again teaming up with the wonderful video fellas, Shot by Sodium, to make Hope and Social’s answer to Thriller and YOU are our lead dancers! That’s right, with the help of our good friend and proper dancer, Bryony Pritchard, we are going to teach you our very own dance routine……….I know, I know, you think we’ve lost it. Well, you might just be right, but wouldn’t you like to be there to witness the carnage?

Rich has been practicing his forward moonwalk (“isn’t that just walking forward?”) Gary’s got a child’s morris dancing uniform from the charity shop, I’m dusting off my ballet shoes, Goffy is dating a dancer and Ed and Si have been working on that routine from the movie where Tom Hanks is a kid and kisses a much older lady……I think it’s Disney’s version of The Graduate.

My name is James and I am a dancer.

You can be a dancer too.

Buy tickets here