Love Bites: Dance With Me

This month’s columnist reflects on embracing dancing at parties and the embarrassment that ensues

Article by Annie Bowles | 11 Dec 2024
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“Dancing at house parties is over,” my friend Nadia concluded. The rest of us nodded like bobble heads. “You go to the club to dance; you go to house parties to chat.”

We agree, chimed our internal platonic polycule hive mind. The six of us – my girl group from university days – were attending a party that night, hosted by a gaggle of cool London types. At previous parties of the sort, one or more of us had reached that potent mixture of starstruck and drunk and made a fool of ourselves, either by aggressively grinding on the dancefloor or stripping (or both). 

Determined to save ourselves from fatally flawed exhibitionism, we repeated our mantra. We got ready together, in our usual way. Nadia angled her cheekbones high towards us to ensure proper blending. We questioned, yet again, what to do with Aggie’s hair? Oria applied her slow, quiet lick of eyeliner, an inky stroke to her hairline. Naomi wrestled herself into a corset, her breasts proud and high. Catherine bopped to Aaliyah’s self-titled album on Aggie’s speaker, patting glittery eyeshadow on her pale lids. I fussed and fretted over my outfit, always ready first. Coat on, bag in hand, I waited for the others to come into the night. Some rituals are sacred without scripture. 

At the party, our psalm of just a few hours past was inexplicably forgotten. As one, we flooded into the room, frothing. We shrugged off coyness with our jackets. I claimed the phone on the aux and led the procession of gyrating and vibrating. Every track was a hit (except Rather Be by Clean Bandit, Nadia let me know. “Who am I to resist the pull of nostalgia?” I replied). An unspoken connection dissolved inhibition in favour of fun. We danced without judgement into the early hours, long overstaying our welcome.

In the morning, eyes ringed with smudged mascara and sleep, we barely acknowledged our transgression. The hive mind need not repeat what it already knows.