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the secret papers Saturday, it's a Saturday
Saturday, it’s a Saturday
The fi nal rush usually starts on a Friday,
with stage props going up, setting up DJ-specifi
c mixing tables and making last-minute
hotel bookings. Then comes the day itself
- Saturday - used for bringing fi nal touches
to the night’s art production, picking up DJ’s
from the airport, settling them in their hotel
rooms, taking them out to dinner and fi nally,
bringing them to the club. Then comes the
fun. 100%, dirty dancing fun.
This, since September 2003, has been
the weekly routine of Lorenzo and Cosy
Mosy, the brains behind Dirty Dancing, a
night held every Saturday at Brussels' Mirano
Continental.
“We were increasingly growing tired of
the archetypical linear beats and commercial
dance prevalent in Belgian clubs in
the 90s” Lorenzo tells The Word “and decided
to take matters into our own hands”.
They both, on their respective sides, started
throwing little one-off bashes around the
capital. Lorenzo’s were called Futurepop
whilst Cosy Mosy’s were known as the Blow-
24 — THE THIRD WORD
up Club, whose fi rst night at Mirano- rather
amazingly - saw sets by LCD Soundsystem,
2Many DJ’s, Polyester, Darko and Cosy
Mosy himself. One thing leading to another,
Lorenzo booked Cosy Mosy for his own parties
for three nights. At the end of the second
night, they both sat down and decided they
should collaborate.
“Dirty Dancing really began on the back
of our belief that people wanted to go back
out” goes on Lorenzo “The 90s had seen
the advent of grunge and AIDS and, come
the new millennium, there really was an
undercurrent of change in people’s mentality
towards going-out”. With their vision
of a more wholesome clubbing experience
– complete with fashion shows and art exhibitions
– Lorenzo and Cosy Mosy’s Dirty
Dancing nights seemed to be the breath of
fresh air every self-respecting clubber was
waiting for at the turn of the century.
“Instead of expecting people to go towards
music, art or fashion, we thought it best to
bring it to them” he says, as way of explanation
for Dirty Dancing’s collaborations with everyone
from fashion designers Shampoo & Con-
ditioner, Mademoiselle Jean and Idiz Bogam
(“one of the most memorable Dirty happenings”
he says of the latter’s fashion show at the
club) to, more recently, illustrator Seb B. But
the music remains the main draw…
Felix Da Housecat has played seven times
(“ he came to the club one night in March
2007, said he wanted to play and, after telling
him I’d only accept if he did a three hour
set different than the one he usually played
at festivals, called his booking agent over
and that was that”), dance fl oor legend Laurent
Garnier has played once (“it took us four
years to book him”) and Booka Shake has
also played at the club (“ he thanked us for
booking him” says the incredulous Lorenzo).
We're suckers for anything remotely involving
passionate-about-music folks and
these two most certaintly fi t the description.
Keep it coming! (NL)
www.dirtydancing.be