Portland Lindy Exchange

This past weekend I drove down to Portland, Oregon for the Portland Lindy Exchange. A "Lindy Exchange" is a type of big swing dancing weekend event hosted by various cities around (and outside) the country. It’s basically an excuse for lots of out-of-town dancers to converge in one place to meet and dance with everyone else. There are typically no classes or workshops — just big dance floors, great live music, and more DJ’d music late into the night. This was the first exchange I’ve been to, although later this year I plan to also go to at least the ones in San Francisco, Vancouver, and of course Seattle.

I’ll spare you all the boring details and stick to a couple of the highlights. One neat part of the weekend was dancing in Pioneer Courthouse Square on a sunny Saturday afternoon in the middle of the city with lots of people watching. This was one of the planned events so there was a DJ and sound equipment there and plenty of others to dance with. I’ve never before danced outside in broad daylight, or had a large audience of non-dancers like that, and it was kind of fun to show off.

Another cool experience was the venue for Saturday evening. The Crystal Ballroom, in addition to be gorgeously decorated on the inside, has the most amazing floor I’ve ever danced on. While a typical hardwood dance floor will have just a bit of spring to it, the wood floor at the Crystal is actually floating somehow on mechanical springs. It almost feels like dancing on a trampoline, where you can feel others stepping and bouncing around you. It’s actually a bit distracting at first, but when you get used to it it seems to give the whole place a unique kind of energy. Also, I really enjoyed the last band that played there, Coucou Bleu.