Rachel Sherman, A New Generation of Club Kids Is Born. They’re Younger Than You Think. NYTimes, Aug. 26, 2024.
At a recent dance party in Brooklyn, Berk Sawyer, wearing Nike high-tops and a white bodysuit covered in city icons like pigeons and a hot-dog stand, bopped his head to the heavy bass. Occasionally, he bounced so hard he tumbled to the floor.
Thankfully, at 13 months old and two feet tall, Berk was never too far from the ground.
Berk was running away from his mother, Rena Deitz, at St. James Joy, a lively all-age, block party in the Clinton Hill neighborhood of Brooklyn.
All around him, the brownstone-lined street was filled with grooving toddlers and their parents. Some nursed beers, some nursed. True to the party’s name, joy spread through a conga line, and through the swirls of dancers who paired off to salsa.
“It’s one of the few places you can come to dance with a baby,” said Ms. Deitz, 36, who used to seek out nightlife before becoming a parent, adding: “It starts to scratch the itch.”
St. James Joy is now one of a handful of dance parties around New York City where house music fanatics and babies alike find a dose of social life together in broad, pre-bedtime, daylight. It’s a city tradition that has grown in recent years. At multigenerational dance parties, attendees can listen to music by veteran New York D.J.s played on serious speakers — without any remixes of “Baby Shark.” It’s a small way for weary parents to find a dance floor release, while burning off energy with their children. And this summer there’s been no shortage of options.
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