Fieldwork Diary Entry (April 15, 2014)

Tonight I finally attend No Lights, No Lycra held at the Tour de Force Theatre Company  in Hackney. Below is an excerpt taken from the NLNL Meetup page

At the heart of No Lights No Lycra is the belief that everyone can dance. NLNL is a global dance community providing an inclusive and non-judgmental place for people to explore this notion. NLNL brings people together to experience the freedom of self-expression and joy.

No Lights No Lycra is a casual free-form dance class in the dark for the pure joy of dancing. There is no light, no lycra, no teacher, no steps to learn, no technique, just free movement. There is no need to book a place, just show up when you’re in the mood for a dance! 

Bring: water bottle and comfortable clothes to dance in.

No Lights No Lycra is:

• a place for people to come and dance freely in a friendly, non-threatening, drug and alcohol free atmosphere.
• an event that occurs in a dimly lit room: with the lights low people can truly dance without worrying about what they look like
• a time to dance independently in the company of others – in order for people to truly lose themselves in the music it is important to keep talking to a minimum
• not about technique and being a ‘good’ dancer, it’s about the experience of dancing with no one watching and the joy that this brings
• a place to exercise at your own pace while having fun.
• promotes a healthy mind and a healthy body.is about making dance accessible for everyone
• an inclusive event – open to all ages, genders, backgrounds and demographics
• a place to shake out the stresses of the week, let go of your inhibitions and completely be yourself
• 
  

Firstly a bit of background about NLNL. The event was founded in Melbourne, Australia in 2009 by two dance students who wanted an event where they and other like-minded people could dance freely without inhibition.  Since then, NLNL has become a world-wide phenomenon, with events being hosted regularly around the world from Aarhaus to New York to Hong Kong to Paris.

On their Meetup page is also some video footage of a NLNL event in Australia in 2013. I watch this to get some idea of what to expect of the event:



Whilst I am keen to get to NLNL for the sake of getting on with fieldwork, I am also nervous as I cannot even remember the last time I went out dancing socially freestyle. I have been out dancing in the past year, but to vintage style events where the dancing followed a theme. As NLNL is somewhere that allows you to dance specifically for one hour only, in the dark, without speaking to anyone, I feel a bit trapped even before I've started.

It will be interesting to see if this feeling of being trapped is my perception only or is manifested through the event for me as well.