Dancing Under the Stars, Inside

Gary and I made a recent trek down to West Baden, Indiana to the West Baden Hotel Tea Dance. The drive down was gorgeous; a little too cold to spend too much time outdoors, but just right for watching the scenery slip by drinking Starbucks. Ahhhhh.

The venue was simply fabulous, a lovely tiled dance floor topped by a domed ceiling worthy of any sultan. It’s enormous; Gary probably has all the facts in his blog post so I won’t, although I would like to comment about the fireplace. It’s huge. The best part is the gnome at the top. Now I ask you, how many fireplaces have you seen that had its own guardian fire elemental? Very cool.

OK. So we got there, settled into our seas by the floor, and got some tea goodies. I wasn’t a big fan, the cookies were more like round cakes and most of the food was beast infused, and being a veggie there wasn’t a whole lot for me, but since I knew we were eating dinner afterwards no big deal. They did have coffee. I was happy.

I was looking across the expanse of lobby when I saw what looked like a princess gliding across the carpet. Well. She floated right up to us and asked if she could sit at our table. Her name was Betty, and soon her escort joined her, Bill. They were very good dancers and more than that, wonderful people. They had lots of stories and were fun to be with. They are the queen and king of hearts for the dance club in Indianapolis called the Continentals. We’ve been to a couple of their dances, probably the most welcoming dance club we’ve ever attended. Too bad it meets on Sunday…we have to get up the next day so we don’t often attend Sunday dances, and, the Continentals lean towards ballroom.

The tea dance too was mostly ballroom-eque; Gary and I were dying to do a WCS or jive but the music never was quite right for those, but oh well, we ECSed a lot, even threw in some lindy stuff, we did a rumba or two. It was fun to watch the other dancers, they were all good.

We had a lovely dinner afterwards.

Driving home I thought about how those tea dances started out to be a way for young people to “get those crazy dances” out of their system, and now they seem so formal. Maybe someday we will be doing our hip hop WCS and people watching will say awe, aren’t they cute doing those old time dances.

The Luck of the Draw

This weekend Kelly and I attended a tea dance at the West Baden Springs Resort in West Baden, IN. I've visited the resort before and marveled at its dome and turn of the century décor. In fact I got a chance to visit once before the place was officially opened to the public. The IHLF (Indiana Historical Landmarks Foundation) held a few tours of the property to raise capital for restoration before a buyer could be found. The only thing I got to do was walk the gardens and stand beneath the still-under-reconstruction dome. It was an amazing experience and it's only gotten better.

Today West Baden Springs is an operating hotel and it's been restored to a close proximity of its old glory. The Tea Dance was held in the atrium, that is to say under that 200 foot span of dome I mentioned earlier, to the tune of a big band out of Louisville. The acoustics – well, to be generous they were horrible. Though the hotel hosted dances under its dome it never was designed for the dancers' listening pleasure. The sound echoes and bounces and gets lost in space making it difficult if not impossible to keep track of the beat. Add to that you're dancing on a marble terrazzo floor – murder on the feet.

Still there's something about dancing under a dome that was built in 1907 that makes the poor acoustics and sore feet worth enduring.

We talked to a few people at the dance, most notably a lovely lady from Louisville who was kind enough to compliment our swing. When we mentioned being from Indianapolis she asked about the Indiana Roof Ballroom and we happily told her it was one of our favorite places to dance. She nodded and looked a little wistful, then told us that Louisville doesn't have any of its old ballrooms still in operation.

Sometimes in the hustle and push of day to day life I forget how lucky we really are to be dancing in Indy. It's easy, deadlines bear down and life can take some bad turns. After this weekend I've got one more thing to remember when those bad times come around. We've still got The Roof, Madam Walker, Fountain Square Theatre, and the West Baden Springs Resort. They're three grand old ladies of the past, still doing what they've done for almost a century and doing it with style. There are places where the marquees don't flash any more, where the quirky hardwood floors have been torn up, where the beaux art facades all met the wrecking ball, and where the sound of a mediocre dance band doesn't shake ghosts of Tommy Dorsey and Cab Calloway loose from the rafters. We're lucky not to live in one of those places.

I'll try to remember that the next time I catch my toe on a floorboard that doesn't quite lie flat or when I have to deal with parking that's more of a suggestion than an actuality. When I do, I'll smile and think. "Lady, you got style." And I'll hope the next tune is a lively one because the old girl always did like 'em that way.