Dance-O-Mat is a dance floor with coin-operated lighting and sound courtesy of a converted washing machine; a creative mashing of a dance studio or club with a laundromat.
Dance-O-Mat has been created in response to the loss of many of the dance studios and performance spaces around the city.
It is located at 222 St Asaph Street (near Manchester Street) from 15 March until early May. With this project, Gap Filler seeks to give the Christchurch community a unique dance experience whilst bringing life to our broken city – something to lift the spirits and raise the heartbeats of the people. Gap Filler hopes the floor will see a lot of use by individuals, dance groups, schools and performers from across the city.
We want everyone and anyone to feel free to use the Dance-O-Mat between the hours of 8am and 11pm each day – we hope to see office workers, retail staff and perhaps some of those demolition guys down here on their lunch breaks each day, dancing away. People can come along, plug in their mp3 player into jack, put their $2 into the coin slot on the washing machine and dance for 30 minutes. We are also encouraging dance groups and performers to make use of the dance floor. There will be a weekly blackboard booking system at the site, so if people wish to book the floor for a specific day and time during the week, they can. Most importantly, if the space is in use when people turn up, we are encouraging everyone to welcome others to join in.