The Best Dance Party in Greece...

Is to be had at a middle school of all places. Shocked? Appalled? I was both on Friday night when I went as an unofficial chaperone / fly-on-the-wall to "Dancing Night" (as the posters referred to it) at my middle school (that is, the one I teach at).
Upon entering the dance scene, I saw clusters of teenagers looking skiddish. Surely, I thought, they were avoiding boys with acne who might ask them to dance and gossiping about who was wearing what and dancing with whom. But as I walked up the stairs and saw the gym filled with dancing and scantily-clad students I realized "Dancing Night" was far from awkward. It was impressive.

Now I've been in Greece since September. I've made many efforts to "go out" and many times I've been "disappointed". I firmly believe that expectations lead to disappointment and in this case it was true: I wrongly extrapolated from the wild and crazy nightlife in Spain and superimposed that on Mediterranean country number two, Greece. Nightlife in Athens, however, is pretty tame. Yes, people go out late and stay out late (a 12 am to 5 am schedule), and yes, there is loud dance music and libations, but at mainstream clubs in Athens NOBODY DANCES. I have even gone so far as to interview Greek people at these "dance" clubs as to why they don't dance. The response I got was "We are a shy people".

Well, Greek youth is not shy. Not at all. These middle schoolers were pulling moves that have never before been seen on MTV and some that were directly appropriated from it. Girls were dancing on chairs and one even went so far as to pull a chair out in the crowd and stand up on it pedestal-style. A boy in the crowd got up on someone's shoulders, took off his shirt and started waving his hands in the air. Even the teachers could not resist dancing to the Greek pop music, myself included.

The best part and worst part was seeing my students. It was so endearing to have students run up and say hello, and so terrifying to see some students wearing next to nothing at all.

Needless to say the salsa dance club I went to afterward just couldn't compare.