I'm not going to pretend that I know anything about dancing. Coordination and rhythm are two traits that just don't exist in my gene pool. Fortunately, I live in a culture where "dancing" very often involves very little skill. Furthermore, most people who witness me "dancing" are a little too out of it to fully register how hopeless I look doing it.
At Dartmouth, it's pretty easy to blend in as a non-dancing dancer. Even if I could dance well, the typical dance party that occurs in a frat basement is far too crowded for me to bust-a-move, so to speak. Add in the usual ingredients of a Dartmouth night of debauchery frat juice + pong paddles + basement dwellers belting latest Taylor Swift song + facetime + onesie and/or other article of flair + theft of miscellaneous item from miscellaneous frat/sorority and the act of dancing gets a little overshadowed.
Visiting dance clubs while abroad can be a bit of a culture shock for those who have become accustomed to the Dartmouth way. My first significant exposure to "going out" culture outside of the United States occurred over my sophomore Spring, when I participated in the Spanish FSP in Buenos Aires. Over my junior Winter I left the Dartmouth bubble even further behind when I worked in Nairobi, Kenyan.
In any situation where you are exposed to a new culture, it's natural to compare it with the one you left behind. In Buenos Aires, I was surrounded by Dartmouth students who were similarly perplexed by the city's night life.
Sarah Grossman '11, remembers that our FSP group tended to stick out a bit when we went out.
"Nowhere but America is it socially acceptable for people to grind up on each other," she said. "In Argentina you could always tell who the ugly Americans because a) they were dancing dirtier than anyone else and b) they were drunker than anyone else although my only frame of reference was Argentines versus Dartmouth students."
The tendency of American girls to be friendly to new acquaintances often got us into trouble; Argentine guys would interpret the smallest hint of friendliness as an invitation to start making out with us. Argentine girls were used to this behavior and therefore generally acted more prickly toward the opposite sex.
As funny as we must have looked, Argentines had some quirks of their own. One of the most entertaining phenomena of Buenos Aires dance culture was its interpretation of American hip-hop. One club, Lost, had "break-dancing" competitions every Thursday night, followed by dancing to outdated hip-hop music.
Adam Bledsoe '10, recalls our visits to Lost with amusement.
"They would be playing 5-year-old rap and hip-hop songs and everyone in there would be wearing outdated basketball jerseys," he said. "Seemed like the hip-hop scene there was just a few years slow."
Most clubs in Buenos Aires played a somewhat eclectic mix of Latin hip-hop, slightly outdated American pop, and techno.
Buenos Aires Playlist - 09S:Daddy Yankee - Llamada de emergenciaMakano Te amoYves LaRock Rise UpLa Factoria PerdonameDavid Guetta Love is Gone Wisin y Yandel Me estas tentando
In Nairobi, my support system in this city was much different than the one I had in Buenos Aires. Most of my friends, including my housemates, were interns at the United Nations compound near my office. They represented many nationalities (only one out of approximately 30 was American), and were generally older than me and far removed from the college mindset. Many of these people had studied or worked in several areas of the world and looked at some aspects of Nairobi night life with criticism, rather than amusement.
Nairobi is one of the most economically stratified cities in the world, and this is evident in the city's night life. Depending on the area of the city you visited, the crowds frequenting each club were strikingly different. In Westlands, for example, one of the city's more upscale residential areas, at least half of club-hoppers were foreigners.
Another very visible aspect of these clubs was the presence of prostitutes. Some of my male European friends were taken aback when they were led to believe that they had a connection with a young Kenyan woman, only for her to later ask them for "kitu kidogo" ("something small," in other words, money). Female prostitutes were much more common in clubs frequented by foreigners than in clubs filled with the locals.
In the city center, clubs were frequented mostly by young Kenyans. My French friend, Ann-Sophie Brieux mentioned that while the "scene" in Westlands "was pretty boring and sad sometimes," her experiences in local clubs were more enjoyable.
Brieux said that she was impressed by some of the Kenyan men's dancing skills.
"I was surprised how great Kenyan men can dance. I felt African men are at ease shaking hips and following the rhythm," she said.
Kenyan men were comfortable dancing with each other, much as women in the United States will dance with their friends if no men are on the dance floor.
The music selection in Nairobi is much more varied than in Buenos Aires or in the United States. Whether in a matatu (60s style vans that largely comprise Kenya's public transportation system), a bar or a dance club, it is not at all uncommon to hear a Michael Bolton song played directly after a Swahili rap song. At first I was surprised to hear artists such as Shania Twain, Cyndi Lauper, 'N Sync, or Britney Spears playing in Nairobi. After a while, however, I learned to expect anything and everything.
Nairobi Playlist 10W:Marlaw - pii pii Michael Bolton - Said I loved you but I liedP-square Do MeBob Marley - Three Little BirdsSean Paul - Hold my HandBracket - yori yoriJay-Z - Empire State of MindD'banj - fall in love
