Dance club party

What makes this an experience?

Our party takes kids on a journey from a quiet social setting to a lively dance club bearing your child’s name. The experience starts with some mingling and fun activities to break the ice, followed by warm up dance lesson to keep the excitement building. The group then ‘travels’ to the dance club. Watch jaws drop as they re-enter the warm-up room, which has been magically transformed into a full scale disco experience.

Dance club birthday party preparations

It pays to plan ahead. Your guest list and party theme are intertwined. We recommend drawing up your guest list only after you have picked a theme and thought about what the party will involve and the space you have available.

Planning your party space

For the best effect, you will need two rooms – a meet and greet room, and a dancing room. The meet and greet room could be a family room or TV room, while the dancing room could be a basement or garage which has lots of open space to move around.

The guest list

For young children gender is generally not an issue, and our experience is that this party is equally popular with girls and boys. The list should be appropriately sized for the dancing room you have chosen.

Invitations

Dance club birthday invitations are an easy do-it-yourself project if you have a computer and color printer. We have put together an idea to get your creative juices flowing. We also show our favorite online option.

Do it yourself:
Project - dance party invitation: Here is a simple but fun invitation, perfect for your child's dance party and easy to make yourself. Just open it in PowerPoint, fill in your details and print it on some nice card stock. [click to download]

Have someone else do it:
Want something more fancy, or just do not have the time or inspiration to do it yourself? There are literally thousands of options online, from budget to divine. We've hand-picked our favorite online option which you see here. This comes from the huge collection of unique birthday invitations at FineStationery.com. Do a search for 'Disco' and you will not be disappointed!

Ready to decorate?

A truly unique birthday experience starts with the decorations. Some effort here will help  bring your guests into the world that you are creating. We generally prefer not to spend a lot of money on elaborate decorations, rather our focus is on projects we can do ourselves and inexpensive store bought items that have a big bang for the buck. 

What will you need

Consider the items below as our wish list of decorations. Pick and choose what works best for your space and budget. The placement of each item will described in more detail in the sections that follow.

To make:

- Mirror ball "Happy Birthday" sign

- A sign for your dance club

To buy:

- Balloons (preferably metallic)

- Metallic fringe curtains (available at Oriental Trading)

- Disco ball scene setters (available at Oriental Trading)

- Dangling star swirls (available at Oriental Trading)

- Black lights

- Mirror ball or other spinning disco lights

- Fog machine

Room-by-room guide

The meet and greet room: limited decoration is needed here. Some balloons or a homemade Happy Birthday sign will do. Below is a simple, but fun sign project.

Project - birthday banner: Find clip art of a mirror ball and scale the picture to fill an entire sheet of paper. In the middle of the mirror ball place the first letter of your birthday sign. Repeat the process for each letter, creating one sheet for each letter. Hang the sheets in the wall for a fun addition to your decorations. Here is an example we have created in PowerPoint. [download ppt]

The dancing room: We are going to hang some decorations now and some during the party (described later). Below are suggestions for items to put in place before the party.

- Floor-to-ceiling metallic fringe curtains for the walls. These are often used as door hangers, but work great as a wall covering. A couple on each wall is sufficient

- Metallic disco ball scene setters also for the walls

- Dangling star swirls hanging from the ceiling

- Black lights (inexpensive incandescent bulbs can be used)

To be put up later in the party:

- Floor-to-ceiling metallic fringe curtain for the kids to walk through at the club entrance

- Sign marking the entrance of the dance club. This can be a fun project for you and your child. Our version is shown below

- Spinning disco light or for the purists a mirror ball

- Fog machine. Inexpensive versions of these fun party favorites are easy to find at discount retails during Halloween

- Balloons will not be hung, rather we will use them for our version of a 'balloon drop'

Project - dance club sign: We constructed our sign on black foam board, with a simple message: "Madeline's Dance Club". The lettering was hand drawn with gold and silver metallic Sharpie markers, which contrasts well with the black background. Musical notes and stars were then drawn in to liven it up even more. As you can see by how worn it is, it got a lot of use even after the party! If you can place a black light nearby, fluorescent paint can be used for more pizzazz.

Act 1, Scene 1

We like to think of your party as a production.  If your party is successful, your guests will be transported into your theme (and you may even get some applause at the end if parents stick around). So, if the party is a production, this is the script.

Scene 1: Upon arrival guests are escorted to the meet and greet area where they can mingle with other guests. A family room is a suitable venue. There is no access to the dance club room at this point. Guests are offered various activities which will keep them busy while they wait for all guests to arrive, and will give everyone a chance to get acclimated. For guests either done with activities or not interested in them, I recommend a TV showing pictures of the group, or perhaps age-appropriate music videos (this will ensure no one goes running off to the dance area).

Suggested activities:

Face painting: no need to hire a professional. Buy a decent kit and limit the options to simple designs

Tattoo stickers: always a crowd pleaser for the younger crowd

Jewelry making: foam with widgets are an easy party project

Nail painting: but only if you have time for the nails to dry

Colored hair spray: best done in a bathroom

Scene 2: When everyone has arrived and had a chance to do an activity, it is time for the warm up.  At this point everyone is lead to the dance room and told they are going to a place to warm up for the “Dance Club”, and that there will be some warm up dances, games, and chances to win prizes. This will grab their attention.

You arrive in the warm up room which is your dance club, only it is fully lit and not all of the decorations are up. The atmosphere is fun, but with the lights on, not awe inspiring (remember this is intentional).

You now lead the kids in some fun warm up dances.  The chicken dance, hokey pokey, and freeze dance are all good choices.  We recommend that during the freeze dance, you tell them what to pose as various things (eg. super hero, High School Musical character, animal, etc.) and hand out prizes for the best poses. By the end of the dance, everyone should have a prize. Disco ball necklaces are a great option.

Finally, the announcement comes that everyone did well, and it is time to go to the dance club.  They are excited because, although the warm up was fun, in this age of Miley Cyrus, High School Musical, and American Idol, they will be wondering if this is ever going to turn into a real dance party.

Scene 3: This is the critical moment of the party that we call the transition. If you pull this off, you will have created the wow factor. Two things happen: 1) the kids are lead well away from the dance room where they are told that the club requires a ticket and a stamp for entry.  After parading around the house a bit, they eventually come to a ticket agent who gives each child a ticket and a stamp or pen mark on the hand which can be read with a blacklight.

At the same time, in the dance room is being transformed into the Dance Club. A sign is put up at the entrance, an extra metallic curtain is placed in the doorway to the club, the lights are turned down, blacklights are turned on, a spinning disco light is revealed, fog starts to fill the room, and music begins to play: All of this happens in the course of 2-3 minutes and the room is transformed.

Scene 4: The children are led to the dance club where their stamps are checked and they are admitted one by one (enjoy the reactions as they enter – its priceless). You can now kick back a bit, and let the children dance to their hearts delight and enjoy the club.  When the timing seems right, turn the music down and funnel the children up for some food and cake. After the meal, the guests can be allowed back to the dance club where they can dance until it is time to leave.

Food for thought

For children’s parties, food is not a big part of the presentation, and so it is best to keep it simple. Pizza or chicken fingers, a selection of fresh cut fruit and vegetables, and juice boxes will generally keep the kids and parents happy. The cake, however, is your opportunity to get creative.

For our cake we used a fun star-shaped pan. The cake was chocolate with white cream cheese frosting. On the cake we mimicked the scene from our paper plates, which showed a mirror ball and three dancers. We found silver and purple sugar crystals which served as a great medium for the mirror ball.

                 

Birthday-in-a-Box has a selection of candles perfect to top off your cake. How about High School Musical or Hannah Montana?

Favor ideas

We love sharing ideas about parties, but we are only able to do so because of the commissions we receive from our affiliate partners.  We hand pick the products we promote, focusing on value and that ‘wow factor’ that we see as essential for the experience. If any of the products are of interest to you, we would be grateful if you would visit our affiliate partners through the links on this site. See the Final tips and shopping list tab for a summary of the products mentioned.

Final tips and pointers

You may find that after a few songs, the kids are dancing a little less. We recommend our version of a balloon drop. Fill some large trash bags with non-helium balloons. If the party slows down a bit, unload these in the middle of the room for some immediate energy. The picture to the right shows the aftermath of our balloon drop.

Music choice will very much depend on the exact age and interest of the birthday child. We have found that classic disco music strikes a chord with children, and Kids Bop has some good kid-friendly version of popular music that can be downloaded. Whatever you choose, make sure you listen to each song all the way though for appropriateness.

Shopping list summary

Invitations:

www.FineStationery.com. If you've opted not to make the invitations yourself, you can't go wrong with the selection available online. Here is our favorite, but search for 'Disco' at www.FineStationery.com for more options.

Decorations:

	Solid Latex Balloons Combine purple, black and silver balloons for trendy disco colors		Solid Crepe Streamers Match your streamers with your balloons to complete the disco look
	Mylar Disco Balloon An extra special balloon perfect for your dance party theme		Mylar Music Balloon Add some flare with the Greatest Hits balloon
	Mylar Guitar Balloon A fun addition to your balloon display		Mylar Jukebox Balloon Another great balloon choice for your theme
	Personalized Banner Welcome your guests disco style		Disco Banner Decorate your dance club with this perfect accessory
	Disco Party Centerpiece A groovy accent to any party table		Disco Ball You will definitely need some kind of disco ball or dance lights
	Placement Make mealtime fun with personalized placemats

Activities:

	Dancer Pinata What party would be complete without a pinata?		Face Paint No need to hire a professional. Get a decent kit and do simple designs yourself.
	Friend Tattoos Always a crowd pleaser with the younger kids		Glitter Nail Polish A lot of fun for young girls, but allow plenty of time to dry
	Hair Mascara A perfect and fun accessory for a dance party		Body Jewel A wonderful finishing touch for your little dancers

Favors:

	Disco Favor Set Everything you need to send off your groovy guests		Rock & Roll Favor Set If you prefer, go for the Rock & Roll favors
	Disco Ball Necklace A must-have favor for your dance party		Luggage Tag Personalized, laminated Disco luggage tag
	Bag Tag Personalized, laminated Disco bag tag		Bookmark 70's inspired personalized bookmark
	Button Round Disco button can be printed with names or a brief message		Magnet Round Disco magnet can be printed with names or a brief message
	Zipper Pull Great for decorating hip jackets, backpacks, sports bags and may be personalized		Stickers Each sheet includes 12 Disco Personalized Sticker