At No Lights No Lycra, an Australian dance event that has spread around the world, participants let go of their inhibitions and dance in the dark.
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Sounds simple, but as students at Prahran High School recently discovered, the playlist is decidedly less so.
"I think that was the most challenging thing for them, agreeing on the songs," Assistant Principal Shannan Roberts told AAP.
A recent lunchtime session opened with Mr Blue Sky from 1977 and ended with Madonna's Material Girl from 1984, while Carly Rae Jepsen's more recent Call Me Maybe "went off like a frog in a sock", Roberts said.
Year Eight student Lucinda Ray helped organise the event and while she studies dance outside school, she said No Lights No Lycra is different.
"Having no lights on and just dancing and singing without anyone correcting you or caring, it just makes me feel like I can dance however I want," she told AAP.
The 12-year-old is one of five students at the inner-city Melbourne school who have undergone a training session to learn how to deliver the dance events.
They have planned another No Lights No Lycra for the end of term, along with an event for the school's 60 teachers and staff with a nineties playlist, "because everyone's just so old," Roberts joked.
The student organisers invited everyone they could to the inaugural dance, and Lucinda made a point of inviting some of her shyer friends from different grades, too.
"It just brought all of the different communities in our school together, which was really nice," she said.
Roberts has noticed that body image issues are especially prevalent at the moment, something she hopes No Lights No Lycra could help with.
"Dancing with no one watching is a beautiful celebration of bodies, all bodies, moving in happy, healthy and positive ways," she said.
No Lights No Lycra founder Alice Glenn ran the first event 14 years ago, and has since seen it spread to cities and towns across Australia with outposts in places such as Tokyo, New York, and London.
The Victorian government recently provided $250,000 to launch No Lights No Lycra in the state's high schools.
The initial aim was to get ten schools on board, but dozens have already signed up in Victoria and across the rest of Australia.
Ms Glenn is now chasing more funding in the hopes of expanding into even more schools, providing the cathartic exercise the event has become known for.
"A lot of people use No Lights if they're having a hard week or a hard time in their lives, it provides this really amazing outlet for those emotions," she said.
Australian Associated Press
