I know... what a funny title! But I find that I have to drive all over central Illinois to go dancing cause things in my semi-home base died a quick death, so I'm POOR. I hooked up with a fella who doesn't DO ballroom slow but will do swings and freestyles... so I'm bored. I'm hoping that when fall classes get going that more dances will be available in Bloomington-Normal, but I doubt it.
Ya see, THE VFW 454 stopped having bands every Sat night, so we have few options and end up at Mackinaw Vineyards. Which is cheap enuf but you're dancing on concrete and if hot shot big name bands are there... there's no room after dark to dance even on the concrete.
There's usually a Friday dance at THE EAGLES CLUB in downtown Bloomington with MARK AND MELISSA (DOUBLE TROUBLE). They were attempting to do line dancing/country/some ballroom on first and third and then ballroom/swing on the second and fourth Fridays, but it was confusing. So, they just play for whichever crowd shows up. And if the line dancers are there and rudely taking up the floor, there's not much room for swing or line-of-dance dances. These are the same line dancers who took over DUKE'S DANCE AT THE MOOSE LODGE and so many many of us didn't renew our membership cause there wasn't any room to dance something other than their line dance.
Maybe TRI-LAKES BANQUET HALL will keep their country dances going with fun bands and the chix/fish fry every other Sat. night.
CHEEKS BAR AND GRILL still has bands but not much room for dancing, but we still do it.
Then there's the BRING BACK DANCE GROUP with Mickey, John, Laura, Patti in charge. They have a monthly DJ dance either at The Lafayette Club or Normal Community Activity Center. Check out their website for their schedule. DJ BRAD usually sets up what songs he's playing to make sure all types of partner dancing is done. But that doesn't mean you still can't do hug n waddles or freestyle or line dancing. The group learned that in order to be the mix of DUKE'S SINGLES DANCE and CATHY'S MILLER PARK BALLROOM DANCE (both dances are dead), that they would have to allow ALL types and styles of dancing to keep the crowd numbers up to pay the rent. That means more fun for EVERYONE. I've never seen them throw anyone out for doing THE ELECTRIC SLIDE to their swing song... so try it out. Their next dance is Sept 21 at the Normal Comm Activity Center. Their weekly class/dance starts up Sept 10 with a special quest star WCS teacher... see their website.
Hopefully a big huge HALLOWEEN dance will be Oct. 12 at the Normal location.
My friends, ISU JAZZ ENSEMBLES 1 & 2 will hopefully have a dance this fall, but we're not sure when. I'll keep you posted.
Lots more info coming. I'll start posting all the lists I get from Sambra, Jan, Susan... and join MEET-UP Central Illinois Dance Group (or something like that) . We post everything we can.
Til then... it's a Sunday night and I'm with 4 adorable dogs who need a potty break.
KEEP DANCING Y'ALL....
