Fieldwork Diary Entry (March 13, 2014)

During the fieldwork process I have decided to be transparent about my process where possible, knowing that in many instances I won't be able to be. Such as taking a photo of a dancing crowd where many of the faces photographed will not know that they are being documented. I have no ethical issues about this. In this day and age, technology and social media allow all citizens to capture and survey one another around the clock for no other reason than that is what we can do.

I have started making a list of potential people, a.k.a friends, to accompany me to field sites or who might know of potential dance places to recommend. When I look at the twelve names listed, it strikes me that only three of these have children. The other nine are single or are in partnered relationships without kids.

Is it a coincidence that the majority of people whom I am considering asking to go out dancing are without children?

Does going out dancing fall by the wayside once you have kids? Without having done an ounce of research into this area, I say Yes, wholly based on my own experience and those of other parents I know. This is something I intend to touch upon in fieldwork when looking at the demographics of everyday dancing. 

What having children can do to a person

In terms of potential dance events/sites, online research shows a plethora of clubs and dance events to go to in East London which are (seemingly) all quite different from one another. Examples include No Lights No Lycra; a dance event which encourages participants to show up in comfortable clothes and dance in the dark for an hour; the idea being that dancing in this way will help loosen inhibitions. 

Another event is Shiftless Shuffle, a weekly event held every Sunday afternoon in Houndsditch. It purports to be one of the best places to go for a club session in street fusion jazz dance. I have heard through word of mouth that it is a great event if you are truly interested in dancing.

                                   Shiftless Shuffle promo clip from the Jazz Cotech website

In comparison, events in my neck of the woods (Wimbledon) are thin on the ground with only two main places offering club dancing; Po Na Na and The Watershed.  Whilst events in East London seem based around dance, music or some kind of new experience in relation to dance, the Wimbledon clubs seem to the kind of places where twenty somethings go after the pubs have shut.  I do not want to visit them but my interest is piqued as to why there are so few dance clubs in Wimbledon as compared to East London.

I decide that I will visit a few dance events in East London, what is available in Wimbledon and also one in Central London so I can get some breadth of dance event experience, the different atmospheres and also have a comparison of how the social dancing is different (if it is) in these places. To determine whether people dance differently in Hoxton or Wimbledon, some things to consider are:

• Social and geographic demographic
• Age
• Perception of the individual as to what looks good on the dance floor
• Cultural influences of the individual, e.g. what music videos they watched, where they grew up
• Music tastes - what is considered 'good' to dance to?
• What the individual wears when dancing?