We negotiated the many carpeted steps to the dance floor like two new born foals who hadn't got used to owning legs yet. We arrived at the wooden floor and stood watching the daunting circuit of speed-skaters, drunk students and roller-virgins to the sound of 'Boombastic'. We saw a gap and courageously leapt in to the fray. I did a very convincing impression of an aeroplane with it's tongue out (for extra concentration) for a good few hours and thoroughly enjoyed myself the whole time. You'd think going round in a small circular pattern for hours might get boring but they already thought of that. After an hour they make you go the other way. That had us back in 'foal-mode' for the rest of the night. I consider myself to be an intelligent person but I couldn't apply the rules I'd learnt about how to turn right to turning left. I was run off the rink by an over-enthusiastic speed-skater at one point and as I waited for a gap to jump in and rejoin the race, I saw Michelle coming round the corner. She had a look of pure concentration on her face that made me wonder if it could be possible that she was also enjoying herself.
It got busier as the night went on until it was just one big roller-traffic-jam. A group of students all sporting fluorescent tutus insisted on holding each others hands as they wobbled round the rink. As not one of them could skate this meant a pile up of raving ballet dancers on wheels approximately every 30 seconds. As soon as they were up, they were down again - all of them. Funny lasted till about the 4th time then mild annoyance was quickly followed by roller-road-rage. This was definitely not in the spirit of the roller disco. Badly done Amelia.
An air of confused reverence grew as the DJs asked us to clear the floor and make way for....something or someone, it was all a bit muffled. The 'Britneys' and all the men in matching T-shirts started line dancing on wheels! They were frankly upstaged by a group of girls pulling some Beyonce moves later on but at the time we were very impressed.
The wedding disco DJs, the dated decor and the lady-skaters dressed up like 'Brittney' school girls took me right back to my youth when I used to go to Roller City' in Rochdale. I loved that place. I loved the darkness of it, the thrill of the speed-skaters as they nearly took your arm off, the Slush Puppies and the 90s dance chooons! Apart from the Slush Puppies (which were sadly missed), it was almost exactly the same. 'I've got the key, I've got the secret' was followed by 'This is the rhythm of the night'. Entering into this time-warp, I felt two things simultaneously: that I was the same as my 14 year old self, that the passage of time is illusory and age immaterial and, secondly, that the uncanny similarity of the two experiences highlighted a slight but pronounced difference and that difference was me, my 'olderness'.*
*This is exactly the kind of over-analytical thinking that makes it difficult to fully embrace the wanton-abandon of a roller-disco and why it is so important to me to release the 'less thinking, more doing' femme-fatale of fun trapped inside me!
Did roller disco change my life?
All in all, it was a really fun night full of giggles and a roll down memory lane. There were all sorts of people there, there was dancing on wheels, there were cheesy 90s dance tunes and a great atmosphere. On the other hand, there weren't any Slush Puppies, it was way too busy after 11.00, it was expensive and I wasn't brilliant at it straight away.
Rating: 6/10
Comments: Fun, but not enough to turn me into a fun person.
Development Opportunities: Combine roller disco with hula-hoop dancing (detailed later) and be the first super-flexy, hula-sexy, hippy on wheels!
No comments:
Post a Comment