Dancing Questionnaire (14): Paul from Twickenham

1. Can you remember your first experience of dancing?
My mum used to have a Felicity Kendall exercise tape, which she would have in a little stereo on the landing, and I would dance along aged 5 or so. One of the tunes was In the Navy by the Village People and another was Being With You by Smokey Robinson, which I do still like today.

2. What's the most interesting/significant thing that has happened to you while out dancing?
I don't know, the first night I ever went out in Oxford I was punched in the face, Ol' Dirty Bastard had just died and we'd been in the pub getting pissed. We went to a club and I expect we were enormously obnoxious, my flatmate had climbed over the DJ booth and was screaming for Black Sabbath (he wasn't wrong), and I was wearing a bear-trapper hat and some other hat and my coat and my then-girlfriend's coat and her huge hot-pink scarf and running on the spot holding my two pints. Anyhow, they put on God Save the Queen by the Pistols, and I seized this guy by the lapels and screamed 'we mean it maaaaaaaaan' in his face, and he punched me, which I deserved, and the earflaps of the first hat protected me anyway.

3. You. Dancing. The best of times…
Electrowerkz, a birthday party, loads of tunes I thought I'd never hear out, mostly modernish freaky ragga ones, we did hear a lot of Supercat too. Any time the Specials have been on, actually, often drunk round someone's house and just prancing around.

(photo: Electrowerkz, Islington - All You Can Eat, October 2007 - photo from Darrell Berry's excellent clubbing photostream at flickr)

4. You. Dancing. The worst of times…
Just any time you're tired and bored and try and give it a go, in the hopes that you can gee the evening up and you fail.

5. Can you give a quick tour of the different dancing scenes/times/places you've frequented?
Pogoing in the suburbs, big beat when it was good (which it was), jungly skipping, ska skipping, roots rocking (principally standing still while hurling the upper half of your body up and down, very cool, obviously), and just twatty dancing at house parties, not to take the piss out of dancing or other people who want to dance, just to dance in a silly way, which is immense fun as we all know.

6. When and where did you last dance?
I don't know, I think it may have been a Meat Puppets concert but I often dance in my living room.

7. You're on your death bed. What piece of music would make your leap up for one final dance?
Wicked Mathematics, by Nicolette.

All questionnaires welcome - just answer the same questions in as much detail as you like and send to transpontine@btinternet.com (see previous questionnaires)