Earlybirds Club: for ladies who want to get down and also get to bed on time

On a Friday night in Washington, D.C., 56 year-old Mindy Bohannon is the first person on the dance floor. “I love the music,” she yells, “and I can swing my arms while it’s still early!” It’s definitely still early — it’s barely 6 p.m.

Bohannon won’t be able to swing her arms for long, though. Despite the early hour, the dance floor at Union Stage, an underground live music bar, will soon be packed. In fact, the early hour is the point.

The real tag line for Earlybirds Club is: “A dance party for ladies who have [stuff] to do in the morning” — but they use a common expletive instead of the word “stuff.” Their pop-up dance parties run from 6 p.m. until 10 p.m. Anyone can come, but they’re primarily for women, trans and non-binary people to have a safe space to let loose. And then be home early enough to get a full eight hours of sleep, of course.

“We can’t be out all night anymore,” says Laura Baginski, one of the co-founders of Earlybirds Club. She loves live music, but hates that concert openers don’t start until 8 p.m. “I’m 50 years old,” she says, “I have no time for that.”

Baginski, who is from Chicago, started Earlybirds Club in 2024 with her high school friend, Susie Lee. “She and I shared this big love of music,” Baginski says.

Earlybirds was Baginski’s idea, but Susie Lee made it happen — she even asked her cousin, Helean Lee, to be the DJ.

“It was at Christmas dinner. I was hosting,” Helean Lee remembers. She had been a radio DJ, and she’d moonlighted at weddings, but she’d mostly hung up her headphones. She said yes anyway. “My MO in life is to — was to — never say ‘no’ to Susie,” Lee says, “and so I came out of retirement.”

Laura Baginski and Susie Lee thought they would throw one party in Chicago and that would be it. But Earlybirds caught on. “One woman said to me once, ‘If this were a cult, I would join,'” Baginski laughs. “That was great.”

So they kept the party going — at larger venues, in different cities. Now, tickets to the roving club sell out at venues across the country. And Baginski’s fun idea has become so much more — an ode to friendship and also a celebration of Susie Lee, who died of metastatic breast cancer in August at the age of 49.

“She was an incredible force of nature,” Laura Baginski says of her friend. “I mean, who starts a business with Stage 4 cancer? Susie Lee does.”

“She is the heart and soul of everything we do,” her cousin, Helean Lee adds. “It sounds so cliché like, living in the moment — or — dance like no one’s watching — I always cringe when I think about it, but that’s it.”

Susie Lee used to wear a hat that said “Be Here Now” — for Baginski, it was a reminder. “She really lived her life that way,” she says. “I try to honor her as best I can.”

And that includes throwing really good parties. When it’s not a theme night — they recently hosted a Prince-themed party in Chicago — Helean Lee plays a range of music: hip-hop, R&B and pop from the early ’80s up to about 2015. As soon as the party kicks off — again, at 6 p.m. on the dot — women of all ages waste no time joining Mindy Bohannon on the dance floor.

Like Lindsey Falasca — it’s her 40th birthday. “It’s a chance to celebrate with my girlfriends,” she screams over the music, “without spouses. Without kids. And have a damn good time.”

Falasca has three kids and says they’re going to gymnastics practice bright and early the next morning. “I need to sleep and I need to be awake on time. We have a lot to do tomorrow,” she adds, “but for now, we hang out.”

There’s also 65 year-old Siobhan Grayson. “Us older folks, we did this when we were younger,” she says. “I love that we can do it when we’re older.”

Marianne Tshihamba says she came to dance her butt off. “This is not about trying to show off, but to show out,” she adds. “I have counted only one pair of heels in the entire space.”

She’s right. While there is definitely some glitter — in one group the women have jewels stuck on their foreheads — most partygoers are wearing flats with leggings, or jeans. There’s at least one pair of Birkenstock sandals on the dance floor. The 40th birthday party friends are wearing t-shirts decorated with a sandwich and the slogan “Lettuce Turnip The Beet.”

Laura Baginski confirms that the vibes are impeccable. “People are ready to party and they are already having such a good time,” she says. And it’s not even 7 p.m. yet! “ We got a lot more hours to go,” laughs Baginski.

With the party in full swing and the room full of people singing along to the music, Baginski takes a moment on stage to address the cheering crowd — and remember Susie Lee.

“She is the reason why we’re here,” Baginski says into the microphone.

Earlier, off-stage, Baginski shared one of her favorite memories of Susie Lee at an Earlybirds party: It was towards the end of Lee’s life, when she couldn’t really dance anymore. But she was on the dance floor anyway, sitting on a stool. She had put lights on her cane, “and she would just shake her cane to the beat,” remembered Baginski. “It was so fun to see her do that.”

To the crowd, Laura Baginski now says, if Susie Lee were still here, “she would tell you, ‘Dance like a f***ing maniac tonight. Scream your face off to these lyrics.'”

Then Helean Lee drops the beat, and everyone dances.