Following directly on from our Saturday night of tenpin bowling and stuffing our faces at Starlite Diner, next stop was the infamous Danskraal ‘langarm’ dance venue, tucked away in Ellington’s old premises down Northumberland Street in Bellville.
The reasons for going there were pretty simple a) Retha’s brother happened to be hanging out there that night and b) Chantelle and I felt like maximizing our first night out in absolute ages! So Retha, her friend Monica, Chantelle and myself bid the others farewell, hopped in our cars and drove down to the location where we were rather stunned to find just how popular the venue is, having to drive all the way down Northumberland Street just to find parking!
A fair cover charge of 30 Rand got our wrists stamped and we stepped straight into the world of Afrikaans culture, making me, the only ‘soutie’ of the group, stick out like a sore thumb, particularly because I was saying everything in English anyway! :)
The venue was packed and I must say that I was stunned at how nicely the guys had converted the bit of a dump Ellingtons premises into a more than decent, stylish dance venue that caters for its patrons with a nice, sizeable dance floor, excellent lighting and some great sound. Even the place’s layout works well and you can see just why the venue is as popular as it is – especially when you consider the target market being white Afrikaaners from their late twenties upwards.
Actually, on that note, I was kind of glad of the club’s demographics as this was exactly what Chantelle has been looking for in a venue, especially now that we’re in the phase where we really have outgrown the whole ‘student’ vibe. So with the crowd right, and the music seemingly spot on for both singles and doubles dancing, Chantelle was in the mood for shaking her booty – meaning I got to strut my stuff as well.
Now a little known fact is that I rather enjoy going out for an evening of dancing, no matter the venue or style, but unfortunately the more known fact is that almost everyone seems to know about my particular lack of dance prowess, meaning that there is seldom anyone willing to go with me in the first place! :)
Now admittedly I have ‘langarmed’ before, but it has been so long ago that I’ve completely forgotten how to do it right, meaning that I even needed to get a little refresher course from Retha as we twirled around the dance floor smacking into anyone who ventured within a couple of meters of me. Alas, despite her best attempts I just couldn’t get the hang of it and so when I took Chantelle and dragged her into the flowing circle with me, we still managed to bump into at least 90% of the other dancing couples!
As always, the girls complemented me on my enthusiasm on the dance floor, scoring me a perfect 20 out of 10 for the evening – it’s just that I scored -10 in every other single category :( (Thankfully the nicely positioned bar was always on hand just in case I needed to drown my sorrows)
Luckily for me it wasn’t all techno Afrikaans tracks though as the DJ mixed things up quite a bit, meaning there was a fair variety of music and genres to shake your hips at, the result of which was that all four of us had a thoroughly enjoyable evening, before eventually deciding to call it quits and head back home to GB around 01:00 the next morning.
It also didn’t help that the DJ seemed intent on ignoring the newly christened Spanish tourist Maria’s – Retha in disguise – music request, which only served to bring loud calls of discrimination from the four of us ;)
Oh, and on a side note. My calves are now sore. Definitely a sign that we should get out and do this more often!