Yes.
Same same. Parties were either dancefests or make out events. You got to know which was which by who was hosting.
Certainly.
Some Dopers will remember attending parties at my place where such occurred. Have a band in, they play. People dance in the living room or on the lawn depending on how we’ve set things up.
No dancing, lots of drinking games.
Yes.
And later me and my dance partner went and made out on the beach. And it was in LA! I was living the movie dream.
I’ve been to very many house parties with dancing over the years. Numbers matter - noone’s going to dance if there’s, like, ten of you there. And drink. I find the dancing normally kicks off pretty late, once skinfulls have been imbibed.
Of course, I go to mostly gay-heavy parties. And the gays do love a wiggle.
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Maybe the “default” party wasn’t that, but the best parties were.
I went to a number of parties in Boulder Colorado in the 70s. My housemate was friends with a guy who was a contractor and made enough money to put on a good party.
No, but as someone upthread alluded to, a lot of times there isn’t enough room in a single room of a house for everyone to dance. Even at parties where there was some dancing, there has never been everyone – or even close to 50% – dancing where I’ve been to, outside of weddings and proms.
But I have been to parties where all the other hijinks ensued, like alcohol, music, singing, poker, carrying on, flirting/making out, (although not always all of them at the same party): just not widespread dancing.
Same here. The last house party I remember attending where people danced was around 1983.
Dancing like in the movies? No, because the dancing in movies sucks.
Our house is a Craftsman, with hardwood floors, and configured with a large dining room, living room, and an adjacent room, without dividing walls. So it’s perfect for throwing large parties with dancing, once the furniture is pushed aside. But it’s salsa, merengue, vallenato, casino, etc., not the crappy dancing in movies.
Just to be clear, what I am talking about is like what happens in almost all movies that involve teenagers/young people: the pivotal party scene that is almost the same in every movie.
In the scene, the hero has to make his way through a big room full of dancing young people (and his rival) to met up with the girl of his dreams (who is angry with him) and her skeptical best friend.
I always say to myself “What in the name of John Hughes is this? Teens don’t dance at parties.” Well I guess they do, at least sometimes.
So you’re not just asking if there was dancing, but also if this sappy John Hughes scenario happens?
No, because John Hughes movies are total bullshit.
No, my question is about whether or not people truly dance while attending parties like they do in the movies/TV.
Please don’t talk bad about John Hughes movies. There is a place where all your John Hughes dreams come true. It is a magical place where Samantha Baker, Duckie, Jonathan Bender, and Ferris never get old.
Oh you better believe it. I’ve been to waaay more than my share of dance parties and they are just like the movies, and then some. But I live in Southern California…
Yes, many times. Those are the best parties, IMO. It’s just more. . . festive (as opposed to just standing around drinking).
It’s pretty usual in my experience, at least when I was younger. I even remember an 8th grade birthday party (in the late 80s) having dancing. But, when I got older, certainly there was dancing at college parties, and when I hosted a number of parties myself in my 20s, there was always loud music and dancing in one of the rooms. Nowadays, most of the parties I go to (which isn’t all that many) are much more subdued, so I’m not really remembering much dancing, but in my teens through twenties, yep.
Sure, dance parties get less common after college, but then, parties in general get less common after college. Most adult social events aren’t “parties”; they’re “let’s get together to do X”. And then the primary focus of the event will be doing X.
Like, the last social event I attended was a D&D game. None of us were dancing, because we were playing D&D instead.
Being a Burner,* yeah, complete with a DJ. The music is mostly EDM (aka Oontz).
*A participant of Burning Man.
It was at just such a party in, I wanna say 1974, that I learned that I was NEVER going to be able to learn how to do the Hustle.
All the time in college and none of them were frat houses. I can remember one awesome night of dancing on a table passing a bottle back and forth that’s marred only by one of the other dancers being my ex-wife. Dancing at house parties largely went away with age. When all my friends who wanted to dance were of age to legally drink and weren’t poor students, we’d just go out to a club.