What would you rather be doing at 10am on a Sunday? Staggering between your sink and bed, nauseous and headachy from a hangover?Or dancing, stone-cold sober, like a dag in the sun in St Kilda?Once you realise no one's laughing at you - or even taking any notice - morning dancing in public is a lot of fun.
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That was the verdict of attendees of a free dance party in Catani Gardens run by Hello Sunday Morning which aims to change people's relationship to alcohol.It was HSM's first Melbourne dance party.
HSM was started by Sunshine Coast man Chris Raine in 2009 as a blog about abstaining from alcohol for a year, and now has 38,000 followers on Facebook.It advocates taking control of your drinking, and reclaiming lost Sundays by doing yoga, meeting friends or playing sport.HSM's first alcohol free dance party at Sydney's Manly last July - was so popular that this summer they are being run at six spots around Australia, including Byron Bay, Brisbane and Fremantle.
YouTube star Tommy Franklin is the charismatic DJ cum dance captain - teaching moves like ??????swat the fly'', and ??????polish the dirty table''.
Nicole Cliff, 35, who is having an alcohol-free 2018, noted that in the past she would drink six or seven pots of beer on Saturday nights, and spend Sundays recovering on the couch.
She deduced on Sunday that she was having more fun dancing without alcohol. ??????Alcohol makes me depressed and less confident,'' she said.
Fiona Redding, 42, on Sunday was celebrating exactly five years of sobriety. In 2013 she was a mum who drank a bottle of wine a day.
She found HSM by googling ??????giving up drinking'' and embraced the supportive community of its online forums.But she loves HSM's new foray offline. ??????I think that deep need we have for human connection, we can't experience that online. There is something that happens when we are together with people, that can't be replicated online.''
Mr Franklin, 34, an unconventional dancing finalist of Australia's Got Talent in 2013, who waged his own battle with alcohol as a teenager, and now prides himself on drinking moderately, says dancing gets the good hormones flowing through the body and clears the mind.The HSM parties ''show people that you can have a really crazy time, without getting too crazy on the alcohol.
??????Everyone coming together and having a great time, just shows you don't have to be in a dark room late at night with litres of alcohol in your belly to have a really awesome time.''
