Dance Party
Everybody Dance Now!
Welcome to week two of the brand new shiny Toonstack that is now available here on substack and also over on Cartoonstock! In honor of this exciting union, I thought we should have a dance party. I, Hilary Campbell, will use any reason to have a dance party. Finished your to-do list? Have a dance party! Ate a cookie? Have a dance party! Got out of bed? Have a dance party!!! I have been known to instigate dance parties in my family. It's not hard to do, but you have to casually say things like, "More wine, anyone?" or "Do you know all the words to Mamma Mia, Aunt Ginny?" Then you sneak away, start the music and pretend like it just came on by itself. Woah! Instant dance party! If you haven't had a dance party recently, whether by yourself or in a group, I highly suggest reading the following cartoons then putting on The Monster Mash.
Is it too early for a Christmas dance party?
Ah, yes, dance. A language of form and movement. Expression in its rawest form. Pure emotion pouring out of every step. Dance is ingrained within my very soul, my body can not contain the vibrations surging forth, as the music of my mind plays louder and louder! Do you understand? Do you see why I cannot stop now? I don't care if we are at your Uncle’s wake! I must dance!
I thought we all agreed that to be a “good” dancer meant to be an enthusiastic dancer, because we all understood that everyone looks like a dork out there on the floor. But then TikTok happened, and now everyone has rhythm and poise and grace all of a sudden? What happened to the covenant, dorks one dorks all? Remember the covenant!
You ever feel so good* you just want to break out into a dance until the sun comes up? It’s like our pal, Brian here. Look, he’s not contravening anything specific in the company policies regarding Inter-Office Dance (which fall under sub-sections B through E), but he has made the cardinal sin of using finger-guns before noon. This is punishable with a formal warning and a stern dressing down by someone who refuses to move their spectacles from the end of their nose.
Anyway. Let’s dance.
*drunk on breakfast ouzo
For more of my life than I’ve been a cartoonist, I’ve been a dancer. Dance was my first love and my first job: at 14 years old, Ms. Paulette (of Ms. Paulette’s Ballet Studio) made me an assistant teacher for the younger students’ Ballet classes in exchange for a few free classes. (I was more into Jazz than Ballet, but Ms. Paulette told me I should teach what I was worse at –life advice I remain skeptical of.) This teen gig set me on a decade of dance teacher gigs: I taught Hip Hop in public school auditoriums and church basements; I taught Step Dance (the kind where you stomp, clap and slap your body, not the Irish kind), I even coached a Cheer squad. (And I have the Bronx Math Panthers T-Shirt to prove it. While we’re on this point, I’d like to clarify to everyone who sees me wearing this shirt that the Cheer squad was not Math Panthers from the Bronx, they were Panthers from Bronx Math Junior High School.) The point of me telling you this is that I’m looking for a job, so if you know any Middle School Dance, Cheer, or Step squads who need an aging cartoonist reliving her youth to shout 8-counts at them in an underfunded public school, I’m your girl.
Toonstack Newstack!
Amy Kurzweil wants to link you to yet more things: She is going on a book tour, so check out the tour schedule, and join her in person somewhere.
Navied Mahdavian’s graphic memoir, This Country: Searching for Home in (Very) Rural America is out, and it’s gettingrave reviews!
Ellis Rosen’s DINK! is the perfect gift for the pickleball enthusiast in your life!
Check out Jason Katzenstein’s Patreon!
Amy Kurzweil teaches cartoon classes on Patreon! Sign up now to get the recording of every past class!
Check out Sofia Warren’s advice newsletter, You’re Doing Great!
See more cartoons from Ellis Rosen’s weekly Junk Drawer!
Hilary's next Cartoon Workshop is 11/3 in Manhattan!
Join Kendra’s online class in November and get some drawing time.