Swinging back to the 60s
We have a fantastic client who hosts a dinner party each year, and this year they chose the 60s as their theme!
As this is a repeat client and event, the way that we keep our entertainment fresh with a similar audience, same location, event structure and entertainment request (they like to hire our themed welcome staff and dance performances) is by being as authentic to the theme as possible. This allows for greater differentiation between events, not just the same thing just dressed a different way.
With this crowd, authenticity was particularly important as the client was a retirement village – most of the crowd were literally there in the 60s(!), so careful research was needed to be done to make sure we were as true to the era as possible. Much of what was online representing this time was actually edging into 70s themes (this seemed to be a more dominant era), so made sure I was careful with this, and of course asked my grandma (happy to support being a big fan of the arts!!)
We started with the costume, leading with knee high, white boots. Many of the guests commented on these, saying they used to wear some just like it! Next was fabric – many of the fabrics that represented the 60s were bright colours and busy patterns, which for a group of dancers is too heavy on the eye, and again eering on 70s. I looked further and found that the colours traditionally used in the 60s were a little more muted as it was close to war time, so trending was mustard yellow, plum purple, army green and poppy red. I found a pattern for some dresses that had a mini skirt and bell sleeves (iconic silhouette for the 60s), got behind the sewing machine and to work!
Our entertainment for this event usually has the same structure, but we’ve found this works really well for this event. We always like to start with a meet/greet in costume, as it gives guests a chance to take photos with us (often a little trickier later in the evening as there’s lots to do like food, beverage and dancing!), and it builds excitement for what’s to come. Our dance numbers are a little varied each year depending on the theme – sometimes we will do larger group numbers, or a few smaller groups. This year, we went with a strong group number and a few go-go sets with the band – this was so much fun and very 60s. One of the audience who was a go go dancer in the 60s was there to give us a few tips – what an honour!
When it came to choreography, as the costumes were quite uniform and the era was known for enthusiastic and heading into groovy moves, we had to think hard about this. The organizer of the event used to own a dance school, so well polished and clever choreography was a must - luckily this is what we do best!. Our choreography was clean and tidy, used a variety of formations, and had a few cheeky gimmicks which the audience really loved. We also rehearsed and researched a few moves to include in our go-go sets, to make sure they stayed theme appropriate.
It was such a fun event, we felt so lucky to be able to revive this era for the audience and also to be asked back again to bring flair to this annual event.