Are young people attending discos and dance halls looking for a relationship or just a good time?
For those young people not in a relationship one of the main meeting places are discos and dance halls. Two women interviewed in a Dublin disco are more interested in having a good time than going out with the intention of starting a relationship.
One of the women has no problem asking a man to dance,
Guys ask girls to dance don't they, so why not reverse it?
She considers sex an important part of a relationship but would need to know her partner well and she is not interested in one night stands. Her friend believes,
It is better to get on mentally with somebody and I mean of course it is important, but I would prefer to get on well with somebody, in the head than really in the body.
The women are critical of the men who frequent nightclubs in Dublin’s Leeson Street,
You inevitably meet married men who’ve either taken their rings off at the door or tell you they are not married.
They are also critical of the women who attend Leeson Street, Tamangos nightclub in Portmarnock and Flamingos nightclub in Stillorgan. In spite of having their own money many of these women expect the men to pay for all their drinks.
A man interviewed also goes to dances to enjoy himself, rather than start a relationship. He has no problem with one night stands,
There is a lot of enjoyment in it for both of them and if neither of them want anything else out of it I can't see too much wrong with it.
When he goes out with his girlfriend he adopts a typically male role, even though he considers her an equal. He goes to the bar and buys the drinks and likes to decide what happens.
I would hate to see her taking over the role of saying what goes on.
In Nenagh, County Tipperary, two women discuss the men who frequent their local dance hall.
The first woman is critical,
I can't stand this boozing obsession and then going into the dance and looking into your pint and the bar is closed and they make straight for the women, so it is a turn off definitely.
The second woman is bored with the men of Nenagh and the mundane Friday night rituals,
The same guys coming up to dance . . . you are used to seeing them all, the same faces, the same clothes, same smell of beer off them.
Presented by Ciana Cambell and Ferdia Mac Anna, 'New Moves’ was a six-part series aimed at 16 to 23 year olds. The first programme was broadcast on 29 March 1982.
This episode of ‘New Moves’ was broadcast on 26 April 1982.
