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What if you went out to a tavern for lunch, and it turned into a funky dance party?
The HandleBar is about to become St. Louis’ first host venue for “Lunch Beat,” a midday, one-hour, pop-up dance club.
Lunch Beat was created in Sweden in 2010. At the first event, 14 people ate lunch and danced in an underground garage, but it has since grown (and moved above ground), and has been held in 55 cities worldwide to date.
It’s a party, but it’s a party with rules.
“First Rule: If it’s your first lunch at Lunch Beat, you have to dance.
Second Rule: If it’s your second, third or fourth time lunch at Lunch Beat, you have to dance.
Third Rule: If you are getting too tired to actually dance at Lunch Beat, please have your lunch at some other place.”
They are not joking around about the dancing. Apparently you cannot stand around and watch other people break it down at Lunch Beat. At any given moment you must either be scarfing down lunch or shaking what the good lord gave you, with the emphasis on the latter.
Lunch Beat encourages the venues to serve a vegetarian meal, and that’s no problem for the HandleBar, says bar owner Tatyana Telnikova. She says she’s not yet decided whether to offer the standard fare on the bar’s menu or to create a special Lunch Beat menu, but either way, vegetarian options abound. Consider, for instance, the potato pierogi, the veggie pelmeni, or the “Blake E Fresh” Pizza, topped with pesto, feta, goat cheese, and caramelized onions.
“Fourth Rule: You don’t talk about your job at Lunch Beat.”
This is key. Lunch Beat is intended to offer a clean break from the drudgery of the working day, and guests are not supposed to mention where they work. This may make small talk more difficult, but hey, you’re not going there to talk, you’re going there to dance like this guy, but hopefully not this woman (at right).
“To have fun, normally people drink and dance and the night goes on as usual,” said Telnikova, “but to have an impromptu party during the day is a really good break from the week, and maybe even a way to kick off the weekend on a Wednesday.”
“Fifth Rule: At Lunch Beat everyone present is your dance partner.”
This means several things. For one, you don’t have to bring a partner or dance posse. For another, you’re invited to spin around on the dance floor without feeling like you’re invading anybody’s space – everybody will be invading everybody else’s space, like a bunch of amoebas sliding around a test tube. Just go for it.
Music will be spun by DJ Boogieman, who, says Telnikova, is the bloke who thought to bring this event to StL.
“He likes to play old-school ‘70s disco and funk,” says the bar owner of the DJ, “music everybody tends to like. If you have any sense of rhythm and love for life, you’ll be able to dance.”
Telnikova, as the HandleBar regulars know, is an evangelist for dance.
Yes, most of us look like fools when we dance. But, as they say in Zimbabwe, “If you can walk you can dance. If you can talk you can sing.”
Why not break up the day, fire the endorphins, burn calories, meet fun people, and shake your tail feather? Lunch Beat, according to one observer of the midday dance parties that are becoming popular in Manhattan, also serves “to counteract the numbing effects of an increasingly digitized culture.”
Of course you could also just grab a quick salad somewhere and cruise Facebook on your Smart Phone.
At the HandleBar
4127 Manchester
June 19
And every Third Wednesday
Noon to 1 p.m.
Free admission; Lunch items not free
