Is it all About History?

I have a fondness for old things. I don’t know, sometimes I think I lived a previous life in the 20’s or 30’s and that it was a particularly good life because some part of me longs for those eras. The way this manifests itself is through a love of old ballrooms and a love of old dances. I’ve spend the last six months learning swing, Lindy Hop, Foxtrot, and Rumba just to get a little closer to the object of my affections. Tonight, though, we’re going to a modern venue – The Atrium in Southport, IN.

According to their website, the Atrium is the sort of place you can dance, have a company Christmas party, a sales meeting, or a bar mitzvah with equal effectiveness. Going in I had my doubts and after the evening was over those doubts more or less held up.

There’s a certain tired utilitarianism about a place that’s rented out for every sort of event. The Atrium looks nice in a fluorescent-lit, tired kind of way. The dance we attended took place in one of the ‘conference rooms’, a space that could be adjoined to the two next door if you had a party of 800 to seat. The dance floor (if you can call it that) was tile – the same sort you might find in a public restroom only slicker.

For those of you who swing, you know that slick isn’t so good. We’ve started to toss the Lindy basic into our EC triple swing and coming around the back half of the circle was murder in suede-soled shoes. On at least two occasions we nearly fell and our timing suffered. Also I’ve come to understand that each venue and each club that holds dances has a different ‘flavor’. The flavor of the group at The Atrium was definitely late 70’s through mid 80’s with lots of hustles and more than enough line dancing. It was a fun evening but it definitely ends up on the lower half of my places to go list.