After surviving their children’s bar and bat mitzvahs,
it dawned on a close-knit group of mothers that a few of them never really got a chance to dance at some of the biggest parties they’d ever thrown.
Then Lisa Hartman, one of those moms, had a brainstorm: Why not organize a dance for others who felt shortchanged on the dance floor at a wedding, bar or bat mitzvah? And why not make it a female-only event, eliminating the protests of dance-phobic male spouses and partners?
“The idea of 100 women, all wonderful and lively and just alive in one room, dancing for no reason except to enjoy each other’s company, just makes me want to giggle,” Hartman said.
“We’ve had all these cycle events we’ve attended lately — weddings and birthday parties. I don’t want this to devolve into something like ‘celebrating life’ or ‘Living each day as if.’ But life is full of pain and sorrow, so if we can make an opportunity for just having fun, then why not?
So she floated the idea among the 10 members of her monthly women’s poker group, and then with a wider circle.
For every woman who protested, “So I can’t bring my husband?” there were four others relieved and elated at the thought of a girls’ night out.
A handful of women volunteered to help organize the dance. They immediately eliminated the notion of hosting it themselves, using the same logic that motivates parents to host birthday party sleepovers in motels (namely, cleaning up is someone else’s job.)
They chose the Soiled Dove Underground at Lowry largely for its enormous dance floor, parking lot, bar and kitchen. Then they began recruiting their friends, via e-mail invitations and word of mouth: A nominal cover charge pays for Latin line dance and salsa dance lessons, and a live disc jockey to play what organizer Bobbie Marks’ daughter calls “old-people music” — Led Zeppelin, Beatles, funk, vintage Motown, 1970s and ’80s rock and disco, Latin jazz and salsa.
“My daughter, at 17, has watched this whole process with great amusement and interest,” Hartman said.
“She says she looks forward to a time when she has female friends who aren’t competitive or mean. Actually, she has a couple of really tight girlfriends, but when she looks at Robbie and me and the other women involved in this, all of us close friends and all of us laughing together, she wants that kind of relationship for herself.” Claire Martin, The Denver Post
Chicka-Chicka Dance Party
6 to 9 p.m. April 6, The Soiled Dove, 7401 E. First Ave., Denver; $7 door charge (cash only).
