Sunday, October 28, 2012

No Dancing Allowed


Sounds like it's time for a Japanese re-make of Dirty Dancing.

From Time Out Tokyo...
Ask anyone from Osaka, and they can tell you what's happened to the club scene there: it's dead. Since 2010, the police have been taking the fueiho law at face value, busting all-night parties and shutting down clubs that are permitting dancing without a proper license. What's more, the trend seems to be spreading.

Big-name techno DJ Takkyu Ishino had only just started his set at O/D in Fukuoka on the morning of April 15 this year when the club was raided by police and the party summarily shut down. 'Dance is not a crime,' he wrote on Twitter shortly afterwards, a statement that's since been retweeted nearly 3,900 times. 
This sense of helplessness, a keep-your-head-down-and-everything-will-be-okay mentality, pervades the club scene here. Venues routinely post 'No dancing' signs, with some even sending staff onto the floor to ask customers to stop moving to the music (I wish I was making this up). Nightclubs advertise themselves with vague descriptions like 'entertainment space', and expressly forbid any use of the word 'dance' in advertising copy.

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