Dance Your Way Home: A Journey Through the Dancefloor
Emma WarrenWhy do we dance together? What does dancing tells us about ourselves, individually & collectively? And what can it do for us? Whether it be at home, '80s club nights, Irish dancehalls or reggae dances, jungle raves or volunteer-run spaces & youth centres, Emma Warren has sought the answers to these questions her entire life.
Dancing doesn’t just refract the music & culture within which it evolves; it also generates new music & culture. When we speak only of the music, we lose part of the story – the part that finds us dancing as children on the toes of adults; the half that triggers communication across borders & languages; the part that finds us worried that we’ll never be able to dance again, & the part that finds us wondering why we were ever nervous in the first place.
At the intersection of memoir, social & cultural history, Dance Your Way Home is an intimate foray onto the dancefloor – wherever & whenever it may be – that speaks to the heart of what it is that makes us move.
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Emma Warren has been documenting grassroots music culture for decades. She is the author of Make Some Space: Tuning Into Total Refreshment Centre (2019), which was a MOJO book of the year & was re-released by Chicago record label International Anthem; her pamphlet Steam Down: Or How Things Begin (2019), which was published by Rough Trade Books & was named an Irish Times read of the year; & Document Your Culture: A Manual (2020).
Warren was a founding contributor to Jockey Slut magazine, worked on staff at The Face & worked as an editorial mentor at Brixton youth-run publication Live Magazine. Her monthly radio show on Worldwide FM ran for six years.