A shot in the Dark

I was shooting some portraits the other night with my home studio set up when the power went off.I was stuck.My model was upset (my daughter),the studio was as dark as anything and we tripping about the cords and boxes and the evening was a total loss.Strobist's use the camera add on flash units off camera to shoot with.No electrical plug in and the likes.No wires cascading across the floor.Just batteries and wireless transmitters.I  bet if I  had this type of a set up not only would I have gotten the shot but I would have had a very interesting lighting effect with no ambient light.