EDINBURGH 2022: Katie Pritchard Guest Blog

Guest Blog : Katie Pritchard brings musical comedy show Disco Ball to Fringe

Katie discusses Disco and it's influence on her writing.

Musical Comedian Katie Pritchard makes her Fringe debut with Disco Ball, full of original songs and being unashamedly herself. Katie writes for Broadway World about how disco has influenced her writing and what she learned about disco in creating the show Disco Ball.

Ok, so, I'll set the scene - you're me, you're 7, and you just love to dance. Your special moves are teddy bear rolls, any kind of jumping, and the robot (still my top 3 dance moves today to be fair). Your Mum has a penchant for making incredibly loud lycra two-piece designs for you and your sister to wear to match, and you both have matching bowl cuts. You've got your new outfits on, and you're feeling pretty cool. What are you gonna do now? That's right - check your parents' vinyl collection to create the ultimate playlist for a LOUNGE DISCO!!!! The song starts playing, you have no idea where it's going to go, but within 4 seconds that Donna Summer disco beat has infected your feet and you can't stop moving. You've added in a cheeky little knee bend, and a flick of the hip, and then your arms are in the air like you just don't care, and you've got DISCO fever!! I'm sure we've all had the exact same experience? Getting so lost in music that it makes us feel so alive!

Disco is so amazing! Culturally it was an incredible movement because it created a positive and safe space on the dance floor for people subjected to racism and homophobia. Disco enabled Black, Latino, female, and LGBTQIA+ acts to define themselves in ways that other musical genres had not allowed them to. As Disco was getting more and more popular, the famous Disco clubs in New York opened up - such as Studio 54 and Paradise Garage - which allowed people from all walks of life, especially marginalised communities, to come together and get funky! Disco music is all about respect, inclusivity, unity, and love, especially love for the music and the dance floor. Disco even changed the way we moved - it was one of the first musical styles that didn't restrict the dances to be performed in straight couples. It celebrated all people dancing on the dance floor all together as a big group of funky legends! It's so beautiful!

AND Disco has influenced almost all music you've heard since - a lot of music uses Disco samples and influences! It influenced fashion, musicians collaborating from across the globe, the likes of which we're so used to now! It helped develop sound system technology - speakers, mixers, lighting, everything you'd expect in a club. It influenced song structures, DJ techniques, social liberation, the nightlife scene across the globe, so many dance crazes, and it influenced people to come together and champion and support each other!

Ok, so why call my show "Disco Ball"?! Great question, you in the blue spandex!

In Disco music we hear the lyrics and they feel good to sing along to! Disco is so emotive, it's unashamedly emotional in fact. The vocals are going full out Fiona putting their heart and soul into it, so we feel every single note! You hear these stunning vocals once and then they're ingrained on your soul, it's as if you've been saying them all your life! You just feel it in your bones. If we delve a little deeper, we hear the drums playing a four-on-the-floor, like a heartbeat, keeping us all together, making us all want to tap our little feet and prance around. Then we clock the syncopation of the bass, guitars, and hi-hats, making us feel like we want to slide our hips into a groove, we can't help it! This is the part of the track that makes us want to move our bodies like sexy little worms. Then there's a whole melee of instruments, all working together, it's not an overwhelming wall of sound, but each instrument has their part, and the song wouldn't be nearly as good if it was missing even just one of those instruments, but because they're all in there together, it creates an incredible aural sensation. Same with the dance floor, it might feel a little less exciting if it was just you on the floor, but you know with Disco music that'll never happen, you know the music will bring everyone together no matter what. You'll never be left alone! And while all this music and dance floor explosion is happening, there's a little ball covered in mirrors rotating on the ceiling above you, making you all feel proper cool like you're a superstar, but they're just all on their own up there, without anyone checking in on them.

And then the night finishes, the lights go off, and that mirror ball is just left to hang there waiting for people to want to dance and be in their presence again. Well, I feel an affinity with that little Disco Ball hanging up there all by itself, and I've decided I want to join the party! I'm gonna fuse that shiny, but lonely, little Disco Ball version of myself with the emotive innards of me and embrace myself in my full imperfect humanhood, I'm going to let people in instead of only reflecting other people's vibes out, and I'm not going to let anyone else control my light! If I want to shine, I'll shine baby!

If the Disco music scene has taught me anything, it's that there's a place for everyone in the music and up on the dance floor, and I can't wait to go out there and enjoy the party!

Photo credit: Karla Gowlett

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