A recent article in The Guardian reported on a new phenomenon: Daytime Raving!
It tells us that the ‘Rave Generation’ who are hitting their 50s, are as keen to get out and shake their thing as they ever were. Only snag is that they can’t take the late nights and the tabs of Ecstasy any more. Body says no.
Club Veterans
Enter Day Fever, and other daytime rave events, catering for these club veterans. Day Fever started in Sheffield and was such a success it is now taking place on a monthly basis in Central London. The rave starts at 3pm, YES, 3pm, and ends at 8pm. As one older punter put it…
‘…you can meet for lunch, come here and then come home, go let the dog out, watch the 10 o’clock news. You’ve got your Sunday free.’
Dancing Not Shopping
The experience economy has also landed in London’s Tottenham district, where the huge old IKEA shop has been turned into a humongous 15,000 capacity venue with the super-cool name, Drumsheds. And guess what’s on the menu: Daytime raving.
The venue is primarily a daytime event space and would struggle to get licensing as a night club, hence packing the crowds in early for the big feelgood factor and it’s lights off by 10.30pm. Like Day Fever, I find it heartening to know that there are literally thousands of people out there willing and ready to embrace music, dance, joy and a collective experience.
Source one, The Independent
Source two, the Evening Standard
Flomotion and Day Raving
So what’s the same and what’s different about Flomotion and these daytime events? Day Fever, Drumsheds and other daytime raves run along the lines of conventional clubs and raves. There’s a bar, a DJ on stage, people dress up to go out, and there is likely some drug taking in the background.
Raving, either by day or night, tends to have one gauge: Full On. That’s part of the fun. The beat is compelling, the music is relentless, and it is only when you and your friends are dropping to your feet that you head for the bar, the toilet, some outside space if you’re lucky, or somewhere to escape for a while for a rest and a chat, before returning to the dancing throng.
Flomotion, in line with most conscious dance practices, is more like a yoga or Tai Chi session. There’s no bar, there’s no alcohol or drugs. It’s a proper sober experience, which would be deeply unappealing to some; deeply appealing to others. I would argue Flomotion is as much fun, if not more, than a rave or club experience. The dancing is no less uninhibited and joyous.
There is no ‘DJ’ at Flomotion. I make the playlists, give a general shape to a Flomotion session including some facilitation and guidance. I then join the dance and become part of the crowd, moving between facilitation and dancer.
At Flomotion lots of people dance in bare feet, or else trainers. Clothes are informal and comfortable rather than smart or party-style.
Most conscious dance practices, apart from some Ecstatic Dance practices, don’t even aim to emulate the rave experience. They might more accurately be described as movement meditation or ‘awareness’ practices.
Somewhere in the Middle
Flomotion takes place on a Saturday evening with its associations of party and relaxing at the end of a busy week. It has some elements of the rave experience as well as those of a conscious dance practice. Having run clubs and raves for some years, I still have a penchant for house music; the dizzy, unifying feeling of a packed dance floor in which a sea of bodies move as one to the sound of a booming bass.
I am also tired of late nights and hangovers, and value the opportunity to take a group pause in the high energy as part of the experience. At Flomotion, we dance in the first ‘set’ have a couple of tracks to rest, recuperate and relax. Then we are guided back into movement and the crescendo builds again before releasing into meditation at the end of the session. The whole thing happens without talking, another difference to the rave experience.
Like the daytime raves, Flomotion takes place between 6.30pm and 8.30pm and then everyone’s invited out for a pizza in the neighbouring restaurant. To say it is fun is an understatement.
Something Deeper, something Wider
Flomotion includes the hedonism of clubland, Day Fever and Drumsheds. In many ways it is the offspring of these experiences. It also offers something else.
We enter the dancing slowly, giving time to invite ourselves to become aware of all that we arrive with, a chance to fully land in our bodies; to stretch and yawn, to be present.
There’s a consistent reminder to move in any way you like; to not have to get anything right or impress anybody. There are chairs in the dance space and an invitation to take breaks as and when your body needs it.
We are given the opportunity to dance together, in pairs, in the bigger group and to dance alone. There is time to integrate the experience, to make room for awareness of thoughts, feelings, soulful longings and body sensations. And time for joy.
Community
Daytime raving, night-time raving, festivals, clubs and conscious dance like Flomotion, are all about community. Put a load of people in a room, crank up the music, get bodies moving together, and you’ve got a community experience. We bond when we move together, wherever that is.
Flomotion has built a community because people come back, time and again to have the experience, and we have it together. The community is open so new people come, and they are immediately included as part of the group experience. At the end of the dance, we go round the circle and share anything about how we are feeling, or what our experience has been.
From my many years of clubbing and raving, I would say hedonism or the pursuit of pleasure, was the key driver in the experience. It worked, I loved it … it still works for many millions of people worldwide.
Call it aging, searching, discovering alternatives, I began to look in different places to meet this need for music, dance and collective experience. I landed in the conscious dance practices of 5Rhythms and Ecstatic Dance. From there Flomotion grew.
If you fancy a bit of ecstatic raving, a Saturday night dance, a super-friendly crowd, a chance to go at your pace, to be quiet and to be loud … and a bedtime before Midnight, come and join us, you are very welcome: