in movies and on TV, it seems like there are always people dancing at parties that are being held at someone’s house.
I have been going to parties for four decades, and I have never, not even once, been to a party where people were all gathered in the living room dancing.
I have been to parties where people were gathered in little groups, talking, drinking, eating, swimming, playing pool, watching sports on tv, and listening to music. But never dancing. Dancing goes on at clubs, weddings, and proms, but not at people’s houses. Have I just been going to the wrong parties all these years?
Been to a fair amount of house parties, especially in the 80s, no widespread dancing noted, such as you described. Music, yeah. Alcohol, yeah. Most people in clusters doing their own thing.
Not very much at all like parties portrayed in most TV/movies. Never one did I ever hear others say or reference “the big party” as some must-attend, lest ye be ostracized event. The best get-togethers tended to be pretty spontaneous.
Yes. Not by me, but I have definitely attended house parties and witnessed dancing, by like a whole roomful of people, sometimes the whole house. One New Years party many years ago they actually broke the floor (at least one of the main floor joists cracked/split).
Yes. But, I was in the band, but, yes, it was a house and there was drinking and dancing. Actually, I’ve been to many if you consider a frat-house a “house”, which I guess you would.
Never in my experience. You might have a few people dancing, especially outside if there’s someone playing live music in the yard, but the house won’t be packed with people all dancing the way you see in movies. Like you’ve seen, generally if people want to dance a lot they go to a club, a party mostly has people talking or doing some kind of party activity (like drinking games). I think some of the posters are missing the specific bit of “all dancing”, meaning everyone is gathered together dancing in one room - it’s certainly not uncommon to find some people dancing at a party, but the ‘movie/TV’ trope that I think you’re referring to has most or all of the party dancing at the same time (aside maybe from someone passed out or slipping off to a bedroom).
I don’t get that from the OP. He seems to be saying that no dancing at all goes on at house parties. In any case, I don’t think it’s a trope on TV shows or movies where everyone is dancing together in one room. Usually some people are dancing in the biggest room, while others are sitting around talking or gathered in the kitchen.
When I was in grad school, a large proportion of the house parties I went to had dancing as a major feature.
In at least one case, the beat of the music happened to be close to the fundamental resonant frequency of the floor, with the result that one could literally see the floor moving up and down from the people dancing on it.
I’d say it was common, when I was a Young Folk, to have a room at a party which was the dancing room, and pretty much everyone was dancing. But I hung out with a theatre crowd which was Chock Full 'O Extroverts so that might have something to do with it.
Last party I went to that had a dancing area was a fiftieth last year, where they hired a band. They have a big house, so they could get away with that
Me too. The way to get a house party with dancing is to invite a bunch of dancers to your party and play music that they dance to.
In my experience, the majority of people won’t dance in any context, and of the remainder, they’ll maybe dance for a song or two. So any party that’s not pretty narrowly focused on dancers isn’t going to have much dancing.
I remember a small handful in college where there was a sort of “dance floor” area where there were people dancing, but it was by far the exception rather than the rule.
Most parties involved people drinking and just sort of milling around between little clusters of people. Even the parties where people were dancing, it was like 5-10 people in the dining room, while the other 30 were in the living room, out on the patio, or in the kitchen talking.
Yes, especially if we’re counting frat parties. But also others where bands or DJs were playing.
In high school, I went to a house party where a couple bands were playing. There were so many people jumping around that the floor started flexing which lead to more teenaged jumping. I didn’t know the host but later heard that the damage was so bad, the house was deemed uninhabitable and condemned by the city. I never confirmed that but that house was gone with a new one in its place within a year.
For the purposes of this discussion I wouldn’t count a frat house as a “party”. I mean, I was in a fraternity, and we were known for dance parties (with our own Bus-Stop-styled line dance). But after four years of “Party Every Weekend”, it was back to reality.
And that’s what I love about this thread… it’s another reminder that reality as portrayed in the media isn’t our reality. I grew up expecting life to be like TV and movies (okay, I was a sheltered optimist…)
BUT…
Those people we watch on the screen, their optimism, their witty remarks, even their struggles; it’s all scripted. And if we expect our lives to be like that, we will be disappointed. And that’s part of growing up, to deal with that, reject that and build our own life.
But the all-too-common portrayal of parties in the media make The Default Party as a wild dance party, with unlimited alcohol, loud music (sometimes with a band, or “one of the gang” as a DJ). And
Sorry about the “And”… didn’t notice that til I finished some house stuff. Oh, and the first line should’ve read “I wouldn’t count a frat house as a ‘HOUSE’ party”. It’s not a house where ordinary friends are going to have friends over to, post-college.
And… let’s see, what was I…
And, of course, Something Significant always happens at the Archetypal Party. A nerd gets up the courage to dance with his crush, a jock picks a fight with the sullen outsider, or there’s a fight between the jocks (oh, and one of them drunkenly breaks a glass coffee table), or there’s a Meaningful Conversation with a soon-to-be-Significant Other on the couch (where the music is somehow muted just enough that you don’t have to scream right in the other person’s ear).
It did take me a while before I came to grips with the fact that I wasn’t going to find parties like that. And that I could have a good future without my life looking like movies/commercials/TV shows.
When I was in college most of the house parties with the track team involved dancing since it seems to be what young women like to do when there is space and music they like. The parties with the football team were much more of the standing around drinking type and the parties at the frat I hung out with typically had at least a room of people dancing. So in my experience the amount of dancing is proportional to the percentage of women at the party.
I was at a party (I could pinpoint the year if I bothered to look up the song) where the entire party sang and did the choreography to the Macarena in the living room. Only at little bit ironically…