Starting on 9th October and every second Wednesday of the month after that, the Southgate Club will be the venue for a monthly night celebrating a dance that originated in California in the late 1920s - and the dancers get to choose the music!
Kevin Kilkenny invites us to Balboa Nights - a monthly evening of Swing Dance styles in sun soaked Southgate, all for a fiver.
BALBOA is a dance that originated on the busy dance hall floors in California during the late 1920s and throughout the 1930s.
These dance halls sprang up as the railroad advanced along the West Coast with a branch culminating at the Balboa Peninsula. Everyone was doing Foxtrot, but after the Great War new dances such as the Black Bottom, Ragtime and the Charleston became popular. However, there was no room on the dance floor and the dance hall proprietors made rules and put signs up saying 'No breaking at the chest' and 'No Turns'. So they recreated the fast moves from the Charleston with these constraints in mind. Hence the creation of Balboa :-)
It later evolved into BAL-SWING when the East Coast Lindy Hoppers, such as Dean Collins and Frankie Manning, influenced the dance when they came to Hollywood
We're a small dance community and this new event is an even smaller group of improver dancers looking to practice and share the joy of the dance to existing and those yet to experience BALBOA.
Use the button below to find out more, register your interest to go and subscribe to updates.