On the 4th Wednesday of every month, the Orlando Swing Band plays at the Beardall Center. The band is a full size, community based, swing orchestra that plays for the public every month for… wait for it… only $4 per person admission! I don’t know of any other place around where you can dance to a big band for such a low rate. How do they do it? Again, they are community based. In exchange for practice space at the city owned facility, they offer a monthly public dance. However, attendance at these dances have been pretty rocky over the years. I think it is high time to revitalize it!

I think a little background is in order. The Beardall Center is a historic 1920′s era school building located in downtown Orlando. That’s right, I said history in Orlando… and even more shocking, it has a large parquet wood dance floor. So with a live big band and a vintage venue, it seems we have all the makings for a great swing dance night, right? Well, almost. While once a school building, Beardall is now a senior community center. This tends to shy people away. But you have to realize, it is a “community center” and it has absolutely nothing to do with assisted living. Granted, the crowd there has traditionally been older, but they are always friendly and welcoming. After Dawn and I discovered the night years ago we put the word out to the swing dancers. Since then, the 4th Wednesday dances have had mixed ages varying month to month. The band traditionally catered the older crowd playing both a mix of swing and ballroom. However, we’ve been told by the band several times that they would cater to the swing dancers more if more came out. For a number of reasons, it’s been difficult to get constant attendance at Beardall from the swing crowd over the years.

In the past few months, we’ve seen a significant decline in attendance from both the swing scene and the older patrons at the 4th Wednesday dance. There could be many reasons for this… vacations, off season for snowbirds, etc. What I can say is that last month was the slowest night I’ve ever seen there. Outside of the 7 or 8 swing dancers in our crowd, and the band, there were only 3 other people in the room. One was a friend of a band member and the others there to watch. In the second set, the band played solid swing. The small group of us danced and had a great time!

I’ve always felt that this night has a lot of potential. With other local swing dances booming, let’s get this community dance night back on track! The next dance is on August 22nd (7:30 to 10pm – directions). Come out and dance and hang out! Pass the word along and tell your friends! We’ll be there with a group of dancers so there is sure to be people to dance with.