The dance party scorecard
Structuring my thinking around inherently chaotic experiences
To help me structure my understanding of what makes a dancefloor magic (or not) I’ve been iterating on a scorecard and finally made a version of it that I’m somewhat happy with. It’s even got a mnemonic acronym: DPARTI (as in dance party). It helps — when I’m on a dark and foggy dancefloor sweating buckets while fighting for air and space to dance — to have a simple list of evaluation points I can use to see more clearly. It gives clarity to the chaos; it makes the invisible structure of an event visible. It’s like x-ray vision for seeing the bones of a party.
Here’s a screenshot of the scorecard:
On magical dancefloors, these components work together in a self-reinforcing way to create truly memorable, even life-changing dancefloor experiences. I’ve been lucky enough to experience a handful of magical dancefloors and they all share these elements.
No dancefloor is perfect. I often fantasize about Frankensteining together the perfect dancefloor by stitching together parts from my favorite experiences, but I don’t think perfect exists (yet). My intent in writing about this topic is that I might help evolve understanding of how the magic happens so that some future dance party entrepreneur does manage to put together the perfect night.
I also hope to increase the sophistication of buyers. Like the Michelin Guide’s impact on restaurant consumption, I hope that a good guide to fine dancefloors will result in money flowing to the places that deserve it, and fewer dollars going to tourist traps in Las Vegas, Ibiza, and the like.
This scorecard isn’t something I’m ready to etch into stone. There will be future iterations on it, and I hope by putting it out into the world that smart critics will emerge to help me see the flaws in it that I will address in a future iteration.
totally agree with the idea of dancefloor criticism as a way to increase the sophistication of the clubbing public
Super interesting idea. I appreciated its use in the article about DVS1 Wall Of Sound. As a former gymnast who is used to the idea of being scored, and a foodie who appreciates rated restaurant reviews....applying a similar system to dancefloor experiences naturally has appeal...lol.