Chicago hen party dance class Derby attitude first, footwork second
Slow tempos, a hard stare and the discovery that the difficult part of this theme is standing still convincingly. Nothing is choreographed before you arrive; the whole thing is composed on the day, in the room, around whoever turns up. One fee covers the lot — £176 across ninety minutes — with the venue cost of the hired room set out beside it in the same written quote. Sixty minutes, for a tighter afternoon, comes to £151 plus venue.
Chairs optional, attitude compulsory
The held pose at the end of a Chicago booking, which is always the shot that ends up as the group chat photo for the following fortnight.
Get the room held before the diary fills
A rough date and a rough number is enough to start. You get a call back with availability across both rooms and one written total covering the class and the venue, so nobody in the party is left guessing what their share looks like.
Still arguing about themes? Book anyway. A hen do dance class can change its subject long after the date is secured, and swapping a dance hen party from one era to another costs nothing but a message. No dance experience is expected of anybody, which is why this hen party dance class survives the shortlist when the other hen party activities fall away — and it answers the hen party idea nobody can ever quite land on.
Sharp shapes, built for people who have never danced
"The show gives us the attitude and the tempo. Everything after that is made up in the room for the people standing in it." Standing instruction to every teacher
Chicago works for mixed groups precisely because it is slow. There is no sprinting, no leaping and very little that punishes a bad knee — what there is instead is timing, angles and the kind of unified stillness that looks extremely impressive and takes about ten minutes to teach.
Ninety minutes opens the rest of it: often a second number, a section where half the room holds a pose while the other half moves through it, and time to run the finale with the cameras out and nobody watching the clock. Sixty buys one number learned properly, with an ending worth filming. Chairs turn up in a lot of bookings because they are the easiest prop in the world to borrow from the edge of the room, and the teacher will use them if the space and the group allow. Filming is yours to do; we keep no footage.
Stillness looks easy until twelve people try to share it. The longer booking is our recommendation for Chicago because the hard stare and the frozen angle only read as menacing once they are held together, and that takes repetition, pauses and a teacher with time to adjust a shoulder here and a chin there.
If somebody in the party has a number they have wanted to do since they saw the film, put it in the form.
Five numbers up for the part
All That JazzThe obvious opener and no worse for it — slinky, countable, learnable by anyone.
front of the queueCell Block TangoSix attitudes and a shared rhythm. Groups of six or twelve love this one.
strong contenderRazzle DazzleAll arms and showmanship, which flatters a group with more nerve than training.
if time allowsRoxieSlow, posed and unexpectedly funny once a whole room commits to it.
dark horseHot Honey RagTwo lines facing off down the middle of the room. A closer if ever there was one.
the finishSaid plainly: the list above is a set of candidates, not a running order. What gets taught is settled in the room on the day, and we promise no sequence in advance.
One number you are set on?Flag it on the form and the teacher weighs it up first.
Go to bookings ↑
How Chicago sits inside a Derby afternoon
The room on Chapel Street, Derby DE1 3GU is the one most Chicago groups end up in, largely because it drops you at the top of town within a couple of minutes of Friar Gate and the Cathedral Quarter bars, which is where the evening usually goes. The alternative, on Railway Terrace, Derby DE1 2RU, is the sensible pick when half the party is arriving by train from Ilkeston or Ripley and wants to dump bags and start immediately.
Costume is the group's own business. We hand out nothing — no hats, no canes, no fishnets, no feathers — so whatever the party assembles between them is what appears in the photographs. A black top and something that looks vaguely twenties does more work than an expensive outfit, and anyone who turns up in ordinary clothes gets precisely the same session.
Two letters from the defence
"What sold it afterwards was how little running about there was. My mum has a replaced hip and she was in the front line for the whole thing, doing the slow stuff better than the rest of us. The teacher worked out how to use her within minutes."
"Sixteen women, one price, and an address in writing a fortnight beforehand — after three months of organising, that was almost more welcome than the class. The chair sequence is the bit everybody still sends each other."
Want the same afternoon?Two minutes at the desk secures a date and a written figure.
Claim a slot ↑Six things people ask before booking
Anything odd or specific, ring 07534 019087 and speak to somebody who has run these rooms.
What does a Chicago booking come to? +
Ninety minutes costs £176 for everybody together, with the room's venue charge quoted in writing alongside; a sixty-minute class is £151 plus that venue charge. Numbers change neither figure.
Which numbers from the show might we learn? +
The teacher picks on the day. All That Jazz, Cell Block Tango, Razzle Dazzle, Roxie and Hot Honey Rag are the regular candidates; requests come first in the queue.
Are chairs and hats our responsibility then? +
Yes, the look is yours to assemble; we supply none of it. A teacher will use chairs from the edge of the room if they happen to be there.
Can a group of complete beginners cope? +
Easily — it is slow, posed material where attitude counts for more than footwork. No dance experience is assumed anywhere in the group.
Which room does a Chicago booking use? +
The address arrives with your confirmation. It is either the station-side room on Railway Terrace or the Chapel Street room further up the centre.
Does Chicago need the full ninety minutes? +
Usually, yes — it is the length we would book. Sixty is one number and an ending; ninety makes space for more, including the posed sections and an unhurried filmed finish.