disco at the kindy- cc for next time please!

Had a disco at my daughters kindy last night, and wanted to get some snaps to share...
I didn't want to use flash, as it washed out the cool lights effects, wanted to keep it looking dark, but light on the subjects faces!
Whew!
I wound up bumping the ISO up to about 2000, whchi I would normally never do, the f stop was generally 1.8, shot with a 50m 1.8.

Obviously from the results, 2000 is way too high for my camera, the noise is horrific!!

If you had this situation, what settings would you use to keep the above statistics without the high ISO?

Note: Highly enegetic 4 yo's hyped up on suger and fun, they where zooming about like crazy things!:o:o:o

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There are no lights I see in those shots that some flash would have killed.

Think of it this way...kill the lights with some flash and get nice noise free shots, or kill the shots with a lot of noise.

I have shot a lot of dark party shots with no flash and have found that if I shoot with my tamron 17-50 open to f2.8 or 50mm @ 1.4. I shoot in AV mode aiservo high speed ISO never over 800 have lots of memory and fire like a mad man. You may shoot 500 to 1000 pictures and end up with just 50 to 100 keepers if you're lucky.

You should have used flash for sure if they let you!

I would have used 800 iso, lowest aperture possible and bounce flash. It's worked well for me!

ok, thanks guys! I had the seetings on manual, ISO 800 and f1.4 to start with but dark dark dark!
Tried flash and the was n prettines, it just turned it into a daytime pic, but that was just pop up, I didn't try out my 430 Will remember that for next time, bounce flash off ceiling.

Slow shutter and second curtain flash would still capture the lights and you wouldn't have that noise. Look at the Night Club shots thread. Really easy and it works well.

I don't understand how a flash would have messed up these shots. Your flash will allow you to adjust the setting, right? If ETTL is too much flash, turn it down 2/3 a stop, or more. I am constantly adjusting the power output on my flash. Even with Canon to Canon ETTL, it is still better to control things and not let the equipment do everything for you. If you take a couple test shots you should be able to set the power manually and get exactly what you want each time. Or, get a good diffuser and soften the light.