History is made at night

Good article on disco by Paul Lester in the Guardian this week: 'For Steven Collazo, the musical director of Odyssey, disco was a time ...

From Herts and Essex News , 15 February 2007: Raving the day! Illegal ravers were stopped dead in their tracks when police broke up an even...

The Daily Express has been a fount of right wing bile for many years. Here's a classic example of its historic racism, a leading article...

The Trinidad Carnival this week has commemorated a key point in the Carnival's history - the Canboulay riots of 1881-1884 (the picture ...

It is Carnival time in Brazil , now a major cultural celebration, but one which people had to struggle to establish: 'By the turn of the...

When was the warehouse party born, that is a party in an industrial space rather than a specially designed dancehall or ballroom? One candid...

Extracts from 19th century ballroom manuals: From a New York publication 1864: "Loud conversation, profanity, stamping the feet, writi...

'I was in a shit environment that I hated doing stuff I didn't want to do. I loved dancing, it was the first time [for] northern mal...

There is a dancefloor utopia, the fantasy of a Boogie Wonderland, a Saturday night that never stops. They Shoot Horses Don't They (a 193...

I want this site to reflect people's personal experiences of dancing and musicking, so I've designed a short questionnaire which I...

The lamps shone o'er fair women and brave men; A thousand hearts beat happily; and when Music arose with its voluptuous swell, Soft eyes...

"On Sat 6th Jan a group of local people, along with others, occupied 139-141 Church Street [Stoke Newington, London] with the intentio...

I'm not sure that central London gig venue The Astoria Theatre is still under threat - the fear that Derwent Valley Central (a property...

In his essay on the Temporary Autonomous Zone (TAZ), Hakim Bey considers 'TAZ as festival', the party as liberated space and time: ...

"House rent parties were a facet of Harlem life even before the Depression. An outgrowth of parlor socials and church suppers held to r...

Last month saw the death of Mick Mulligan , the English jazz trumpeter described in the 1950s Melody Maker as the King of the Ravers - and t...

Naturally the hype about Nu Rave is bound to give us older ravers cause for wonder. Simon Reynolds , reflecting on The Klaxons , notes the a...

Rituals and other social occasions are defined by different mixtures of particular musics, intoxicants and behaviours. For Burns Night (25 ...

"Hammersmith Palais - the legendary London music venue immortalised in song by The Clash - is to be demolished. The decision to close t...

" The Copacabana, the famed New York nightclub that entertained the smart set with a young Frank Sinatra in the '40s and was the ...

Account One, Manchester Indymedia : "Last night (21st Jan 2007 ) about two thousand party goers were attacked by police whilst attempti...

"Pleasure creates life. We do not want forced, guilt-ridden pleasures anymore. We want no more pleasures severed from total sexuality, ...

I have amended the tagline of this site from 'the politics of dancing' to 'the politics of dancing and musicking'. On this s...

Pinal County prohibition on outdoor dancing is as ridiculous as it is out of date Pinal County must be sponsoring its own rendition of the 1...

From yesterday's London Paper : Clubbers at a London venue where Pulp filmed their Common People video (pictured) have launched a campai...

Midnight No Light No Time No Work Midnight Secret Surprize Power Midnight Quote: Midnight Notes Photo : Singapore December 2006 by Abril...

"In 1757 the following Bill, presented by Sir John Fielding, was passed by Parliament: 'Any house, room, garden or other place whic...

Metropolis in Motion is fighting to legalize dancing in New York City by repealing its arcane cabaret laws. They say: 'Ever since NYC M...

Some memories of early London ‘sound system culture’ in Notting Hill, late 1950s and early 1960s, a period punctuated by the 1958 riots as b...

Under the headline “An extraordinary ball — men dressed as women,” the cutting [from a local East End newspaper of 1879] tells of a dance he...

‘Some claim this dance received its name from a devil in woman's shape who appeared in Seville in the twelfth century, and who labeled i...

'Dancing, particularly upon Sundays, had been the rage among young people before the war, but after the Occupa­tion was banned both by V...

1. Bristol area, 1611 'The village of Rangeworthy, a few miles north of Bristol, was a detached part of the large parish of Thornbury… I...

Regulations posted in the dance halls of Lansing, Michigan, c. 1920: Rules and Regulations for Public Dance Halls 1. No shadow or spotlight ...

People have always come together to move to music. In the process communities have been created, social divisions challenged, pleasure exalt...