CHICAGO — Ratso holds court on top of a table painted with cheerful colors that shout “Chic-A-Go-Go!” His young fans watch, mesmerized. In a high-pitched squeal, Ratso asks, “What did the judge give the robber who stole a calendar?”

Leading the children in unison, Miss Mia, perpetually equipped with pep and a smile, answers, “I don’t know, Ratso. What did the judge give the robber who stole a calendar?”

“Twelve months!”

Giggles and groans fill the air after the button-eyed puppet delivers yet another from his repertoire of corny jokes. Soon after, Miss Mia introduces a Donny Hathaway song, which sends a mix of kiddies and hipsters to delightfully cut a rug. As the tune kicks in, and once the red light of Camera 3 shuts off, Miss Mia — full name Mia Park — gestures to the puppeteer that they’re off the air. While the dancers tap their feet, bop their heads and flail their arms to the rhythm, Jake Austen removes Ratso from his hand and places it out of view, behind a table. In one quick motion, Austen jumps behind Camera 1 and dons his headset, while his wife, Jacqueline (Jackie) Stewart, co-producer and a professor of cinema and media studies at Northwestern University, calls out directives from the control room. Park puts her microphone on the table and then boogies her way into the crowd, to direct the flow of dancers so that the cameras can get good shots. With her contagious energy and friendly persona, she pumps up the vibe of the dancing crowd, chatting it up with both the naturally hyped-up children and camera-jittery adults. The newbies to “Chic-A-Go-Go” are excited to boogie with Miss Mia for the first time, while the regulars ham it up with an old friend.

These are the multiple hats that the players on this public-access television show wear to make the engine run. Dancers of all ages have been hot-stepping with “Chic-A-Go-Go” for the last 10 years, and the non-stop party doesn’t seem to be slowing down anytime soon.

 

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Earlier in the day, Austen, the show’s puppeteer and other co-producer, who is also an author of multiple books and editor of Roctober magazine, explains the origins of “Chic-A-Go-Go,” while filling plastic bowls with potato chips in the hospitality room. “There was a ’60s show called ‘Kiddie-A-Go-Go,’ where kids were dancing around. I’ve always been interested in independent media. … Jackie and I watched a lot of dance shows, and we wanted to do something in Chicago.”

The combination of music, dance and the search for an indie outlet found its way to the Chicago Access Network (CAN), where “Chic-A-Go-Go” was born in 1996. The format of the show is similar to “American Bandstand” and “Soul Train,” where music groups lip-sync their songs while dancers bust moves all around them.