Togetherness plus 80s dance

I love teaching 80’s Dance Workshops

Sharing Belinda Carlisle’s impassioned Summer Rain and Dead or Alive’s creepy disco delight, You Spin Me Right Round at Bello Winter Music Festival, was no exception.

Festival Fun

Bello Music Fest is run by Glenn Wright and the excellent crew who also do Mullum Music Fest.  Bello is the cooler (as in 80’s winter wear), smaller (as in less need to activate the internal inflation mechanism on your Reebok Pumps, to haul ass in cushioned comfort to the next venue), and just as magical as it’s cousin festival in Mullumbimby, Northern NSW.

The Cassettes’ Bello Workshop took place in the beautiful Cedar Bar, a renovated church with white everything.  How dreamy.  A divine setting for rocking out and experiencing god in the form of solid gold beats, on a Sunday morning.

Liberated Kooks

Men, women and children of all ages channelled the bleating high notes of Carlisle by miming lambs.  We all rocked the running man.  And every time we heard the lightning, every time we heard the thunder, every time we heard the wind blow, we made beautiful geometric shapes with our bodies to match the lyrics.  As such, the music and the movement blew right through our hearts.

I laugh at these songs, because I love them so bloody much!  I sincerely feel every beat…so much so that it just turns into hilarity and joy all mixed up in movement.

Connection + Dance + 80’s

I like to sneak short team building activities into The Cassettes workshops.

At Bello, the workshop dancers were sharing ‘one amazing moment from the festival so far’, when a woman with brown curly hair exclaimed over the buzzing chatter, her curls bouncing with enthusiasm, “This is it right now!”  Gee, high praise coming from something as special as Bello Winter Music Fest.

I Heard a Rumour

As you may have detected, dance and even the 80’s are not actually my first priority within the workshops.  It’s the people and their humanness.  They’re so tender and funky.  Whenever I go to festivals or big events as a punter or with The Cassettes, I see a sea of humans wanting to connect and have genuine fun together.  And I just think this is not too much to ask.  Which is where dance and 80’s comes in.

I’m proud to provide something that people from all walks of life step into, and quickly feel connected to themselves and the festival; in an active, I-am-deeply-involved-and-included-in-this-moment,-and-remarkably-sober, kind of way.

Find out more about having a Cassettes 80’s Dance Workshop at your festival or special event.

Big thanks to the ever-inspiring Cassette dancers and co-teachers, photographer Alex Moffat-Clarke and filmmakers Kris and Jess McFadden.