All you gotta do is Dance?

Gotta love the corporate luncheons. The small talk, the name tags, the assigned table, the soggy salmon, the hard rolls, it's enough to make you think twice about the "free lunch" you're eating. The elderly man in the chair next to me was sulking into his rice pilaf. "Young people these days," the old man grumbled. "They have no idea what real dancing is, they just sit in bars and rub up against each other, you call that dancing? When I was a kid, we could dance for real, there was always a live band, a good band too."

I considered what he said. The Crystal Ballroom with its famous sprung dance floor is typically host to surging throngs of jumping bodies.

The next week my uncle invited me out dancing. "So you're hitting up the club scene these days?" I joked, elbowing him in the arm. "Not clubs, way better. A bunch of us get together and go out swing dancing, maybe a little lindy, whatever's playing. There's a live band, It's a great time." I imagined old church ladies wearing florals hanging out in a rec hall or grange. I thought of cold pasta salad, sheet cake, and watery punch diluted by the melted ice ring.

"Thanks I'll pass..."

So when I found myself lining up outside the Imago Theater, to get into someplace called the Mambo Lounge, I was a bit confused as to where we were going. But there was a line and a wooden signboard on the sidewalk, so I went with it. We paid $10 to get in and joined a crush of people leaving a show at the Imago. After climbing about three floors up a back staircase that appeared to go head nowhere, we emerged into a huge ballroom. There was a band warming up on stage, (a real band) and people gathering for a salsa lesson. After learning a few basic steps, the place quickly filled with the Salsa dance enthusiasts of Portland. The atmosphere was laid back and so much more pleasant than any "club scene." I left at the end of the night having spent roughly $20. Way less than a night out! We immediately made plans to not only go back, but find out what the dance hall scene in Portland really has to offer.

Making new friends!

Reasons you should go out dancing:

1) You may drink some, but you'll drink way less. And you'll burn twice the calories!

2) Meet interesting new people!

3) Dance with people, without feeling like you are being physically violated at a frat party.

4) You can pretend you're on Dancing With The Stars

5) You can learn something new!

Where to go! (most of the dances are cheap cover, anywhere from $5-10, $15-20 if it's a special event, like New Years's Eve)

http://www.swingout.net/ Find out where the Portland swing/lindy scene meets

Norse Hall http://www.norsehall.org/

Crystal Ballroom (there is still real dancing here!)

Scottish Rite

Viscount Studio <---you can also take lessons here

Parkrose Ballroom

Portland Police Athletic Association

Andrea's Cha Cha Club @ The Grand Cafe