Swinging The Night Away

"A Live Wire
Barely a Beginner
But Just Watch That Lady Go.
She's On Fire
'Cause Dancing Gets Her Higher
Than Anything Else She Knows."

- "Dance the Night Away" by Van Halen


I used to be an officer of a ballroom dance club many years ago. Though I probably didn't become as such under the best of scenarios, I took a shot at it and dedicated myself the best I could. We held car wash fundraisers. I made several different fliers to try to advertise. I took over the web site duties and completely redid the club's web site. I attended various dance venues in the area, including The Ballroom and Spotlight Dance And Fitness. I enjoyed a lot of the dances and especially liked the bolero, I think. Due to various factors, I left the school that housed said club and eventually left the scene as a whole. Ballroom became something I could whip out at weddings to semi-impress and never returned to a formal venue. That is, I never returned until last Friday.

One of my old high school friends dates the manager of Midtown Stomp, a swing group who offers lessons and a venue, the Eastern Star Temple, to dance the night away. Right off the bat, the Temple's ballroom looked perfect: good, solid floor; stage that felt like a high school gym; and an architecture that screams 1930s with its seemingly purposely faded and textured paint. Even the men's and women's restroom portals looked perfect for the occasion. I half-expected an Auburn to roll up with someone in a 'coon coat walking up the steps.

Pam and I watched the lesson and practiced a bit. Something I retained over the years is that any dance usually has its basic step, and anything else you add to that just depends on how you execute it. So, once I saw and recalled the basic step, I began to remember other moves as well. Later in the night, I got schooled that we were doing East Coast Swing, not West Coast. Apparently I had forgotten more than I realized, but knowing what I was learning helps me to recall it better.

As the lesson wound down, Jordan and the rest of the gang poured in. We chatted a bit, watched others dance (especially the competition-level dancers), and danced a bit ourselves. For a bit, they played recorded music, but the highlight was the Jive Aces playing live. A rather cool band from England, the Jive Aces, all dressed in yellow zuit-suit type suits, played all sorts of swing and other related music. They didn't restrict themselves to just east coast swing tunes, though; at one point, Pam and I danced a fox trot. Their varied repetoir allowed for all sorts of swing and period dances, and we got to see quite a few of them.

I had fun. I had many concerns going in and left with none. A rather huge crowd attended with a varying range of ages attending. Jordan mentioned that, because of the Jive Aces, it'd be the biggest draw. It's good to see dancing of any sort still alive and doing well these days.