Two weeks ago (03/10/2007) we kicked off the FlashDance season for 2007 with a bang at Pier 7 & as per usual much fun was had. Here’s my report – or you can just skip to the playlist below….. (If you don’t know what a FlashDance is click here)

(thanks for the video Marco! & flickr pix)

Like every time I do a FlashDance, there is this moment of dread that always seems to attack me a few hours before the event & leaves me wanting to hide rather than go put on a FlashDance. It usually involves the 1-2 punch of my reluctance to spend the time getting all my gear together (when I could be relaxing from my full-to-the-gills life) and all my fears about what may go wrong. These two issues always seem combine to overwhelm my standard optimisim & general enjoyment of FlashDance in the hours leading up to one. Luckily, this time around, the latter half of my moment of dread ended up saving the evening

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If you have any good pix, please mail ‘em, mine are lame as usual

Well, it has been a year since I started my little experiment with flash mob dancing & this past Saturday we celebrated in true FlashDance style with our 5th flash mob dance party! I guess it is no longer an experiment. FlashDance is BIG fun & I’m pretty damn happy about it. Thank you all so much!

After a year, I’ve come to realize that FD ties together a few threads of my life in unexpected ways and has become a much cooler thing for me personally than I ever imagined – call it the secret ‘Deep Agenda behind FlashDance
(Yes, I’m full enough of myself to have an agenda & I think everyone else should have one too!)

click here to watch a movie

Uh-oh soapbox alert! This is your last chance to skip ahead to the FD5 summary without hearing me philosophize….. Ok…. you’ve been warned

I’ve been thinking a lot about FD since the interview in SFist & realizing more and more that as much fun as it is just by being a kick-ass dance party, it means a lot more to me than that on numerous levels:

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Ahoy Flashdancers!

(If you have any good pix PLEASE email them… mine are lame)
Thanks so much for all of you who showed up to my latest FlashDance! (Saturday 9/30/06)

I think it was around 120 people dancing at its peak. There were many great moments but one of my favorites was a woman coming up to me and explaining that she and her friends meant to go to the Opera but decided that our FlashDance was more fun! Alix Rosenthal, the best candidate for District 8 Supervisor came by too which was cool. I didn’t recharge my battery after Burning Man & thus the power died, but it was just as we hit the planned shutdown time anyway…..

A Few Random Thoughts & Questions:

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Well kids, it’s official: My FlashDance parties are quite pleasant. I have come to this conclusion after FD 3 – around 120 people dancing away for a few hours on a gorgeous night at the big plaza in front of the Ferry Building. I thought the last location was the best, but this was maybe even better. This one was a a bit bigger than the last maybe 120 dancing at any given time, maybe 140 showed up over the course of the evening….

I was exhausted, I had spent the night before at the hospital with two of my dearest friends who were giving birth to an adorable little girl & had gotten maybe 3 hours of real sleep that night. But the vibe was so great, the people (you!) were all so fun, and the night was so beautiful, I was brought back from the dead & forced to shake it, as I am wont to do… THANK YOU ALL…..

For those of you who missed it, this here video says it all:

CLICK PIC TO PLAY MOVIE

& here are some more pix….. & here is someone else’s blog post (thanks general fuzz!) – complete with YouTube movie!

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So this past weekend I did my second flash mob dance party. The first one was back in November and was a big success. But then rain, followed by rain, with some rain, and yes f%$^&ng rain continued into March & I still never was able to have another one. Then came the slacking, busyness & finally fear of failure to postpone us into June. Yes, lest you think it is impossible, even our redoubtable hero fears the Great Fear (Other Than Sharks): Throwing a party where no one comes! It had been so long since the last, would anyone still be enthusiastic?*

 

But then a series of events convinced me that a new FD must happen: a series of outdoor dance parties (the How Weird Street fair, followed by Bay To Breakers (House of Lotus rocks!) & Carnivale in the Mission) reminded me that dancing outside to good music is the best thing ever. Plus the fact that every week someone would walk up to me and say “Hey – you’re that flash mob dance party guy. When’s the next one?”

So I decided to go for it & decided fatefully to do it in a VERY public location rather than safely in a park like the last one. I was waffling til my friend Sean (of the Dolores Park Movie Night crew) said “Dude, you’ve already done that! Go for something new!”. Thank god he pushed me!
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(larger versions of these pix below…)

On my last trip to Paris, my cousin showed me places along the Seine where almost almost every night they had a free open-air salsa dance party…. He explained that people just started doing it & it had become an institution…. I began dreaming of ways to do it in SF….

Then this Halloween, my Disco Ball costume became a walking street dance party & I had MANY MANY hours of spontaneous dance fun with complete strangers… I realized I could make my own dance party dammit!

So I did what any geek would do – I made a website; I sent out email to everyone I knew & I collected enabling technology

The idea was simple: I’d pick a spot; send out an email telling people when to show up at the aforementioned spot; & then I would meet them at said spot with a sound system. Much boogie would ensue. It was just so crazy it just might work. I call this idea FLASHDANCE – my flash mob dance party.

Within a few days I had 90 sign ups for my list. Within a week I had 275. People were waaaaay into it. It was time to try the first one… Click HERE for more…