Underage Dances
Dancer: Lwimbo
Dance Location: Alaska, Whitworth Street West, Manchester
This is a dance that...makes you feel awesome.
I would dance it with my two sisters in Alaska's Bar, which isn't there any more - it's an estate agent now. It was a good place for getting in underage, and a pre-drinking place for The Hacienda. We'd have one Bacardi Breezer between the three of us and then just dance.
We'd practice at home so we could do the moves all together, but then you could be free and show off a bit. Dancing is like a different form of expression. At school there was all these rules but on the dance floor you didn't have to conform.
We had these Caribbean dances that we would do. We would do the Butterfly, where you move your legs in the shape of a butterfly. You can do it fast or slow but you have to make sure you don't lose the shape. It feels good to dance it. You feel connected to other people like you - you feel the rhythm and the music together and you know that black people all over the world are doing the same dance.
We'd dance to things like 'Tease Me' by Chaka Demus and Pliers. Tease me, tease me, tease me baby, till I lose control. Tease me with your love until I lose control. Take away all my body and soul, oh girl.
Me and my sisters still go dancing together all the time.