>I definitely enjoy Swing and West Coast Swing.
>While you can always go to places like the Rose Bowl or maybe
>Bradleys for some WCS, they are both Country Western Bars. It is very
>difficult to attract a large crowd to go to one of these bars.
As Enio said when he was here, we need to organize club outings; there's
more to dancing than just taking dance classes! I have scheduled a lot of
"dance field trips" in August (see the calendars), but we ought to schedule
a few trips to the *huge*, *incredible* C/W dance nightclubs in
Indianapolis (see the DI web page) that are filled with young people
dancing. If you haven't noticed, modern C/W music has undergone a
rennaissance - it's heavily influenced by Swing, R&B, etc., and it's all
GREAT dance music. What other kind of popular music encompasses nightclub
2-steps and waltzes as well as East & West Coast Swings?
Let's get a club trip arranged to this INCREDIBLE event that I've attended
for the last 2 years:
Chicagoland Country and Swing Dance Festival,
August 16-18, 1996
Holiday Inn O'Hare
Rosemont, IL
The 1996 Chicagoland C/W & Swing Dance Festival attracts some of the
country's hottest competitive couples and dance stars! Our Saturday
evening Master's competition will once again prove to be one of the
season's best!
New this year is the addition of a hot new Swing workshop series with
special swing stars like Barry Jones, Cody Melin & Resa Henderson,
Barry Durrand & Lisa Austin, and reigning UCWDC Master's Champions,
Robert Royston & Laureen Baldovi! Great swing workshops with some
special swing competitions in Hustle and Jack & Jill! The event
also features a separate Swing ballroom for all the evening dances!
Over 100 dance workshops from the best instructors across America,
plus the dazzling Masters and Champions competitions, the '96
Chicagoland promises to be better than ever. All the Chicago
dancers are gearing up for it. The Holiday Inn where the dance
is being held is already completely sold out and 50 rooms have
been reserved for the event at a nearby Ramada Inn.
>I'd like to see a nightclub have a Swing night with swing, blues...
>Chicago and St. Louis have a great swing dance scene. I think we need to
>bring a little of that home to Chambana.
>The first thing, though, would be to find someone who would be willing to
>DJ a Swing dance. Then we'd have to find a nightclub to go to.
Let's get Danny Gallichio, a Chicago Swing dance DJ and past president of
the Chicago Windy City Jitterbug Club, to come and DJ a dance. I think -
don't quote me on this - it would cost $300. I can get you names of lots
of other Swing DJ's too.
An incredible place to have a DI Swing dance would be Radio Maria's. It's
a restaurant near the Blind Pig. The place is closed evenings, and it's
bubbling over with character - it would be a perfect location.
Let's organize some trips to the Chicago Rebel's Swing Club dances in
Chicago. I contacted them and they will give us member rates for admission
if we bring a group. Their 1996 dance schedule is on our web page.
We are halfway between Chicago and St. Louis, which have a combined total
of 10 Swing Dance clubs. On my own I have already sent out feelers to some
of these clubs to see if there would be interest in organizing a big Swing
Blowout here in C-U and inviting them all to come. Let's find a big hall
and develop this as an idea to kick off the start of a C-U Swing club.
Mark