La Calypso

Do you like a 10:1 guy to girl ratio? Do you like drinking soda? Do you like looking at yourself in mirror while you do your sexy dance? Then La Calypso is the club for you! I was not ready for any element of the going out experience in Dakar. First off, not one of my advisors I have had throughout my planning said anything about there being a club scene here, meaning all I packed were casual day clothes. You would think I could pull something together to resemble what one would think a Saturday night outfit would be in Dakar (and I kind of did-turned a skirt into a strapless flowy top and put black pants on underneath) but  in no way did I slightly fit in, at least not at first.  When we arrived at La Calypso, pretty much every other young woman was scantily dressed- short tight dresses or short shorts paired with a low cut top. I was so confused, Senegal in my eyes was supposed to come hand in hand with modesty. These girls were anything but. When we entered the club, we found a booth and ordered some drinks. I was the only one out of a group of six of us to order a beer. Now you might be thinking they ordered mixed drinks or even shots and I was just safeguarding my wallet with a beer but they all ordered sodas! Sprite, Fanta and Coca for all! I was so confused and I felt like such an alky but to each his own and mine was Flag.
  Tom had warned me before we got to La Calypso that most people just danced in front of the mirror checking themselves out the entire time, apparently vanity is not a crime here. While we were sitting in our booth, sapping on our drinks, I was able to witness the mirror dances. I was half surprised Billy Idol's "Dancing With Myself" never got played while we were there. On that note, the music that is played at La Calypso is great- if you like old school 50 Cent, Ludacris circa 2004, Rihanna's first hits, or even Justin Bieber. At least the DJ mixed these pop hits with some bumpin' beats or else I don't know how the rest of the night would have gone.
 As people started filtering in and the energy in the club raised as people drank more soda, the dance floor was starting to fill up- my queue to get out of the booth and show the Senegalese some of my sweet dance moves. I think at first the others were thrown off to see a Toubab dancing and if I may so myself, probably not like they've seen any other Toubab dance before.  Two of the girls even taught me a popular dance here that consists of popping one hip up and down while first holding up your right hand close to your face and flipping your wrist with an open hand then switching to the left. The move even has a fun little chant you sing when you do it, "Yousa, Yousa. Yousa, Yousa." At one point when I pulled out this dance move two beautiful girls with shaved heads came over and joined in. Then the music really picked up and it was like they were challenging me to a dance off. In my head I said "BRING IT" and started doing some wild moves. The highlight of my night was when they started laughing with me and giving me high fives. I knew if there was one place in Dakar I would find myself being able to be completely free in the first week, it was on a dance floor.