There are some benefits to having an LGBT swim club in the city. Sure, its members can teach you how to swim, and make you feel welcome in ways a straight team can’t. But perhaps more important than that: you occasionally get to see swimmers dancing in Speedos.
The Rideau Speedeaus’ Valentine’s Dance Party will raise funds for the club’s operations. They also hope the party, which isn’t the type of event the club usually throws, will encourage more people to sign up to swim.
“The atmosphere should be quite fun,” says Rémi De Champlain, chair of the Rideau Speedeaus. “[We want] to have the community get to know our team better and just to throw a fun party.”
The dance will feature the club’s first ever Best in Speedeau competition. People are invited to join the club members in sporting bathing suits to the dance (street clothes can be stashed at coat check), and at the end of a night of scantily-clad booty-shaking, somebody will be proclaimed Best in Speedeau.
At one point, some male members of the club will get on stage and dance to Demi Lovato’s “Cool for the Summer” and Ellie Goulding’s “Burn.” They will begin with somewhat more clothing on and eventually strip down to buns and Speedo bulges. As a special treat, the bathing suits may be decorated in honour of the occasion.
“Four swimmers will be doing a choreographed, funny, boylesque-like show to two songs,” he says. “It promises to be very fun, with sexy surprises.”
Perhaps the icing — or totally-inedible-but-fun-and-foamy shaving cream — on the cake is the shaving performance. There will be an auction with various swimming-related paraphernalia up for grabs, as well as the chance to have your favourite club member shave his legs on stage later in the evening.
Valentine’s Dance Party
Friday, Feb 12, 2016, 9:30pm
Centretown Pub, 340 Somerset St W, Ottawa
facebook.com/rideauspeedeaus
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