Your first dance party was a success... now what? It's time to get organized in the process. We stayed at this level of dance party for a LONG time. What moved us from getting organized to Get Serious level had more to do with what we found at goodwill randomly than any intention. The length of the dance parties extended slightly, but they were rarely if ever more than 30 minutes. Friends became a common theme for the dance parties. If friend were over and it got dark, a dance party was almost a guaranteed requests.
Budget: $50-100
A good Bluetooth speaker is a probably the best investment at this stage if you haven't already made it. My go to speakers are a pair of Kunodi Bluetooth speakers that can pair to each other for stereo. They are waterproof, just charge them before any dance party and you're good for the night. You can start with one and pick up the second one later. I go into more detail in my Bluetooth Speakers page
After that, a single LED "Laser" light is a great addition. Our first light was something similar to this DJ Party Light. Things have really improved since then. The one that sits over my shoulder in the office is one of these "Party Lights". It's there to throw lights when I practice mixing music (and to spice up any call that gets a bit boring). Read my guide Dance Lights for more details on these early lights.
Of the first 15 dance parties we had, probably 5 of them fizzled out due to the kids getting distracted with something else. That wasn't bad though, they kept asking for more dance parties. It's just the nature of kids and shorter attention spans. This is why the ability to setup quickly is super important at this stage. Being able to have a dance party going in 2 minutes that last 10 minutes is a big success, even if the kids then get distracted by something else. Often times, the distraction was starting to play a game of some kind that the lights made even better (Kick the Can was a favorite).
With dance party lighting comes the desire to be in a darker room. That has some concerns about being safe in that space, so take time to think about it in advance. Red spectrum light doesn't mess with the eyes and I take advantage of that when needed. I have a set of rechargable lights that can produce red light by holding the button down. In a pinch, I'd probably grab my bike tail lights and put those into any areas that needed a bit of illumination like the entry/exit points or obstacles.
Then it's just a matter of paying attention to what's going on and making sure everyone is giving each other space. We did many early dance parties in our back yard and that meant the kids had room to run through the lights. I had to teach them that they needed to look where they were going and keep track of where others were.
As you start having "Gear" to setup, take time to think about how you can make setup super quick. I installed two L brackets onto our patio cover that I could drop the light brackets into. There was a spot near each where I could put the USB Battery Pack to power lights(If your buying a battery pack, buy one with two USB outputs on it so you can add a second light later).
This made setup take about 3 minutes. It was more of a "Where is a charged battery pack and the lights" than the amount of time to get setup.
You can stay at the Get Organized level for a long time. As I said, my progression beyond this level really was the result of stumbling across a fog machine at goodwill than any specific intention. Adding a second light, second speaker, are great and incremental steps here that keep the dance parties super quick to setup. If you really enjoy it, might I suggest Getting Serious?
Cover Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash