Smuggled booze, awkward dancing, clumsy kissing and the burning stare of a watchful teacher are experiences that may spring to mind when you think of secondary school dances in the UK. However, if you were a pupil in mid-1980s Chicago, you might find house music heroes such as Frankie Knuckles and Ron Hardy rocking up on a weekly basis to turn your school gymnasium into scenes of sweat-drenched jacking pandemonium.
In her new book, Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through the Dancefloor, Emma Warren describes such a scene as “the dance music equivalent of having Jean-Michel Basquiat drop into your after-school art club, or Serena Williams cover Friday afternoon PE”. It’s one of many beautifully detailed and captivating moments in a book that captures unique and untold, yet pivotal, dancefloor moments throughout history and the significant impact they have culturally, socially and politically.
