New Yorkers don't dance

The mission seems simple enough: get people at a concert to dance. And not just swaying and bopping their heads in that Shaun of the Dead way, but full-on grooving. The conditions are perfect: Little Jackie (a.k.a. Imani Coppola and Adam Pallin) is performing at Mercury Lounge. The band’s exceptionally danceable brand of funky hip-pop—not to mention its duo of Supremes-esque backup singers—no doubt has the power to make the young, artsy masses move. At the bar I meet Kevin Burns, 28, who works in finance, and ask if he plans on getting down. “Sure!” he says. But later, when I glimpse him in the crowd, he’s barely swaying.

He’s not alone.

As the band starts the set with one of its catchiest numbers, “Crying for the Queen,” I push my way to the front, dancing and singing the entire time, ignoring the truly horrified stares of my fellow concertgoers. “But why?” I want to scream. “You’ve paid for a ticket to stand still?!?”

Scott Bradlee, a 26-year-old jazz pianist from Queens I bond with on the floor, explains it best: “People are afraid of cutting loose, afraid of getting to their inner instincts. As we grow up, we’re afraid of being outside the box.”Not me—not tonight! Positioning myself directly in front of the band, I writhe with the passion of a raver on E. Hoping my energy is infectious, I bounce around, swinging my hips, smiling widely and tossing my arms in the air. Facing the crowd instead of the band, I grab the hands of unsuspecting, nervous-looking women, insisting that they twirl under my arm. During one very quiet lull between songs, I yell out, “Let’s dance!” Not even the slightest positive response—just scornful, indignant stares.

WTF, people? I search for answers in the crowd. Juan Campbell, 24, reckons New York music fans are “too self-conscious,” and says that he’s hesitant to get down if there are only a few people dancing. “I want to watch the performance,” he says. “It sucks in New York,” confides Raffy Fornarelli, 29, while swaying sexily to the music. “At a recent show in London, everyone was dancing, clapping, getting into it. In NYC, I stood up to dance, and the guy behind me said, ‘Are you gonna stand the whole show?’”

Well, I’m not putting up with any crap like that. I am going to get this crowd to grind. So when I hear the first bars of Little Jackie’s summer-dance-party single, “The World Should Revolve Around Me,” I throw every ounce of energy into inciting a full-fledged groove riot. Glancing around, I notice people are—dare I say it?—warming to my obnoxiousness. And I think I can detect something in their eyes begging me to get them involved. In the end, I’m able to influence a substantial pocket of people, and when the tune is over, the dancers almost magnetically pull together to discuss what had apparently been exhilarating. “I saw you dancing,” says attorney Dan Amato, 27, “and I just decided that you needed some company, and then my friend started dancing, and her friend. It was like you gave people permission.”

You’re welcome, New York.

Little Jackie’s The Stoop (S-Curve Records) is out Tuesday, July 8. They play the KCRW.com showcase on Wednesday, July 9.

Dance to Little Jackie

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