DJs

Chapter 26 of Search For a Dancer, a memoir of a week spent in Iceland in November 2022

Suitably refreshed and inspired from my visit to the pool, I took care of some business (this blog doesn’t write itself, you know) at the apartment and then went out for some late afternoon off-venue entertainment before dinner and my evening visit to the theatre.

Taking my usual route to the “upper” city centre (Skálholtsstígur-Þingholtsstræti-Spítalastígur-Ingólfstræti) brought me to to the corner of Bankastræti where the bar/restaurant Prikið is situated. As I came nearer I could hear a steady thumping thrum of a EDM track. Getting closer, through the window I could see a young woman, hair whirling as she moved to the music. Another dancer, this one oblivious to her surroundings and lost to the moment, as it should be:

I continued on until I was once again in the basement of Smekkleysa. Amidst a pile of instruments, a hapless DJ duo was punishing the small crowd with uninspired beat selections.

One patron, however, was in Nirvana:

After the DJs gave up, the place started to fill in anticipation of the afternoon’s featured act, Groá. Three young women whom I had seen perform in 2018; punk-ish rockers with a definite touch of anarchy in their performances. There was expectant hush in the crowd as the women set up their instruments:

And there, in the milling crowd, was a woman who I thought I recognized:

Search for a Dancer Index…