Dancing Anyways

As far back as I can remember, there has always been music playing in the background.

I grew up in the bedroom kid era, and I swear 99% of my time was spent either listening to music or recording it. I made mixtapes off the radio on my boom box, and later made mixtape CDs for my friends. Music has always been a love language for me. If you know me and I love you, you have definitely been sent a playlist. I love almost all music, minus a few modern-day country songs.

I started out listening to what my parents listened to, so a lot of classic rock and folk rock: Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles, James Taylor, John Denver. Then I got into whatever was on the radio. Growing up in Orlando, that meant 106.7 and 102 Jams. Hollerrrr. Being in a small town outside Orlando was actually an incredible experience because there was so much diversity. We had so many amazing music scenes: screamo, hardcore, incredible hip-hop and rap, and early house music.

Before I was 18, I had already started getting into nightclubs. I had a girl squad in high school and we all went to college together, and we loved going out and dancing. Getting ready at each other's apartments, pregaming, always with an amazing playlist running in the background. That was half the fun. I miss getting ready with my girlfriends.

When we all went to college in Gainesville, I was super into hardcore, and then I discovered indie and electronic music. I was changed forever. My friends and I were absolutely feral, in the best way. Every night was a different place, a different DJ, a different group of people. We'd survive on Parliament Lights, $2 PBR tall boys, and whatever indie/electro dance song was making everyone lose their minds that week. We dressed fiercely too. We wanted to look like the Club Kids out in L.A. I was, and always have been, a scene kid. We danced for hours. We weren't trying to make content, and there are hardly any pics left thanks to MySpace. We were just having the time of our lives.

After college I worked nights in the pharmacy at a hospital. I'd get off at 11 p.m., go home, change clothes, and head straight to Ybor to go clubbing. I knew all the bartenders, promoters, and DJs. Those were my clubs, my second, really weird and wild family. Looking back, it's kind of crazy how normal that was for me. Music and dancing weren't something I did on weekends. They were just part of my everyday life.

That's also the version of me my husband met.

Then life changed. Marriage, kids, moving to the mountains, all the things that naturally come with growing older. I wouldn't trade any of it, but I definitely missed that feeling of walking into a room where everyone was just there to dance.

When we moved to Boone, I found this amazing community of women, and it reminded me how much we all still need that. We spend so much of our lives taking care of everyone else. I wanted a place where women could come exactly as they are, forget about everything for a few hours, and just dance.

So I taught myself how to DJ on an iPad, and I'm hoping to actually learn how to use a real turntable this next school year.

Dancing Anyways isn't about pretending we're twenty-one again. It's about remembering that we're still allowed to have fun. It's about hearing a song that takes you back, discovering one you've never heard before, dancing with strangers who become friends, and leaving lighter than you came.

My music is basically the soundtrack of my life: indie dance, electro, house, hip-hop, throwbacks, guilty pleasures, songs you forgot existed, and songs you've never heard that you'll Shazam before the night's over.

At the end of the day, that's all Dancing Anyways is. A room full of women, really good music, and permission to let go for a while.

We all have a lot to do. Let’s dance anyways.