Super Silent

It may sound like a goofy idea, but the Silent Dancing night was a total success. There were a few hundred dancers and about as many viewers at the late-night, last-minute addition to the festival.

The really cool thing about is was that there was finally actual boogie-ing by the masses on the floor set up in Yonge & Dundas Square. So far — other than the demonstrations and dance lessons — the special set-up parquet floor has mostly been used for seating by the crowds during the day performances, and has been standing room only for the evening affairs. Not so at midnight Sunday, when the fest’s head of programming, Chris Lorway, counted down from ten 10 and everyone hit play on their MP3 players and began to dance to the pretty fun set created especially for the event by New York DJ AC Slater.

“It’s good as a spectator and a participant,” said Derek McCallum, 24, an “almost” architect from Toronto. “It’s a lot cooler than I was expecting … It’s a nice use of public space in Yonge Dundas square, which doesn’t happen a lot because of the issues with the corporate ownership here.”

“It’s neat because you’re kind of in two worlds, separate and together,” said Sarah Harris, a 20-year-old U of T student, who was intrigued because she read about the origins of the silent disco in Matt Mason’s recent book, The Pirate’s Dilemma.

“It’s really cool. I’m also a dancer and this is really good floor that they have set up. How often do you get to do that outside?,” she said.

“I want to have one of these parties in my place,” chimed in her friend, Caitlin Grieve.

With the choreographed lighting from the balloons in the square, it did feel a bit like an outdoor club. But more than that, it was spontaneous and fun. People shared earphones with those that didn’t have. Every festival in town could use more of these types of moments. Judging by the delighted response from the various Luminato execs and staffers on hand, they felt the same way.

-Raju Mudhar

Comments

[MK]

Wish I had known about this event. Was looking forward to dancing to the Count Basie Orchestra, only to have the floor taken over by bystanders who became affronted when we tried to dance amongst them. I eventually ended up dancing off to the side of the stage in my regular shoes (because the surface of the square played havoc with my dance shoes) and did some damage to my ankles because of it.

Is it too much to ask that the dance floor be reserved for dancers at these events?