CityLife

Your Mama's Cookin' launches at The Ruby Lounge

Jonny Walsh and Lora Avedian

When you go out to a nightclub, what sort of things do you normally do? Dance with your mates? Try your luck with the opposite sex? Jump up and down and then fall over when your favourite song comes on?

Of course you do. But what about eating cakes, learning how to knit or dancing the lindy hop?

Probably not, unless you’re one of the regulars at Your Mama’s Cookin’, which launches at its new venue The Ruby Lounge tonight, bringing with it a hitherto absent element of creative craftiness to the High Street club.

A typical evening at Your Mama’s Cookin’ will see the doors flung open to a tea and cake reception at around 8pm, followed by a lesson in the ins and outs of looped stitches (ie knitting) by resident yarn-specialist Rebecca Manley.

The interactivity doesn’t end there, though; from 10pm onwards guests can take part in a lindy hop lesson courtesy of Don and Helen Woodwiss.

For the uninitiated, the lindy hop is a jazz-based variant of popular 1920s limb-shaker the Charleston.

The ‘hop’ evolved almost 90 years ago in New York but has experienced something of a resurgence of late, even, at one point, appearing in one of those trendy late-90s GAP adverts.

“The dance lessons are a major part to the night, we like to think they are what make us different from any other event in Manchester,” says co-founder Jonny Walsh.

“With everyone being encouraged to join in and regularly swap dance partners, [the night] is ideal for those who want to dance away their inhibitions at the same time as meeting new people.

'Hedonistic'

“We like the idea that you can learn to dance with everyone in the room, and then afterwards, if you feel inclined you can ask someone to dance.”

All of which sounds fairly individual in the clubbing landscape, but where did the idea for such an innovative night come from?

“I started YMC with Lora Avedian at the Lost and Found squat, in an old meat market in the Northern Quarter in 2006.

“The idea sprang from our love for 1940s and 50s dancing and music.”

“Jump blues, early R’n’B, and, later on, rock n roll were the original modern forms of dance music.

“They reflected a time when young people, en masse, first had the chance to escape the strictures society imposed.

“As a result, it still remains fantastically hedonistic music, perfect for a release in the form of dancing.”

But why should people come along to Your Mama’s Cookin’, when around town there are a multitude of nights that offer hedonism without the need for nifty needle or foot work?

“The whole gist of putting on the event was to offer people something different from the often mundane ‘turn up get pissed, dance to a guy that’s pretending to DJ’ vibe that still goes on.

'Wide variety'

“It’s not like we think we’re more sophisticated or ‘owt. We’re just giving people other options. Early doors, you can come down and join in the activities, or come a bit later for main club event.”

Besides which, with its focus on vintage music, dancing and pastimes (knitting is about as retro as it gets), the night was never likely to appeal to town’s lairy 2-4-1 hellraisers.

Instead, a mixture of those with a keen interest in 40s and 50s music, and those for whom attending was a matter of curiosity, are likely to be found on the YMC dance floor.

“Part of the appeal of putting on the night is the wide variety of people who come along. You would never think that most of them love 50s music if you saw them walking down the street. That’s what we love about it. You never know who’s going to turn up.

“We get all sorts down, which is just the way we want it.

“The whole idea is to broaden people’s musical knowledge and tastes... to show people how much fun this music can, and should be, whether you want to dress the part and immerse yourself, or simply come in to get down.”

“Ultimately, our night’s about fun. We never lose sight of that.”

Your Mama’s Cookin’ is on February 12, 2010, at the Ruby Lounge, High Street. 8pm-3am. £5.