- Putting dance back at the centre of the club experience with a Parisian mainstay.
- When you consider club culture's embrace of DJs as superstars, drawing attention away from the dance floor onto the booth itself, some may wonder what remains of dancing in dance music. But while the eyes of many are trained on the DJ, promoters like Nick V have been working to return dancing to the core of the club experience. On every second Saturday for the past nine years, his Parisian club night, Mona, has done just that. Each night opens with free dance classes or contests, drawing a mixed crowd of voguers, house dancers and regular punters, many of whom would not otherwise cross paths.
Mona was launched in 2008 when a saturated electro sound dominated the Parisian scene. But Nick V drew on his formative experiences in the city's gay clubs in the '90s—the only venues where he and his suburban friends could hear house music—before going on to inject classic strains of house and a communal spirit into the French capital's club landscape. An experienced DJ and a label owner to boot, Nick V sat down with Antoine Carbonnaux ahead of Mona's ninth anniversary party to discuss the importance of dancing and his recollections on the evolution of Paris's scene.
TracklistTim 2t - Rue 32
Hugo LX Driftin' Away