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Club dances for cause

December 7th, 2010 Posted in Arts and Life

By Jessica Black

LOGAN–With a spring-loaded floor and a live band the USU Big Band Swing Club grooves in Elite Hall for their annual benefit dance.

The Club’s mission in putting on this benefit dance is to make sure the historical building stays in use. Their website gives links to its event page and states that this is the fifth year they will be holding a dance to raise money for the hall.

Erica Black, Big Band Swing Club president, has been working this year to make sure the attendance for this event is high enough to raise money and keep the building up and running so they can continue to hold their events in the hall.

“We give all the proceeds to Hyrum City, which they put into the Elite Hall maintenance and restoration fund,” Black said, “So essentially we help with the costs of owning the building.”

Black said the main reason the club started holding this event was because Hyrum City told them the building cost to much and they were thinking of closing their doors. The only problem with that is losing the best dance floor in Utah she said

According to the Facebook page made for this year’s event, tickets are $10 a person or $15 a couple. The club will also be teaching free dance lessons at the beginning of the dance. The club’s motto states they are dedicated to providing each member with the opportunity to develop their skills in the swing dancing patterned after the styles of the big band era, as well as sharing with the community the “rich American heritage of this unique dance style.”

The building has also been registered on the Wikipedia National Register of Historic Places in the Cahce County, Utah Web site, where the building is listed with buildings such as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saint’s Logan Temple and the USU Old Main Campus Building.

“The building’s been around forever.” Black said, “The reason it’s so important to us and why it should be so important to the community is because it is one of the only spring-loaded dance floors left in the state.”

The plaque that rests right outside the building states it’s one of the only buildings left with this feature. It said the springs in the floor create a bounce for hundreds of dancers. According to the plaque, this feature alone is the thing that attracts dancers from all over Cache County and northern Utah.

Black said, this historic site is something that has aided in the bringing the community together. It’s not unusual for older members of the community to come to the Benefit Dance, and the monthly dances held at the hall, to share stories of when they were young and would come to dance on the spring-loaded floor as teenagers, she said. Many come on their anniversaries and celebrate the day they met at a dance that was held at Elite Hall.

Marcea Hess, events coordinator for the club, said the club worked very hard each year to bring up enough funds to keep the building running. She said they get people from all over Utah to attend the event and one of the greatest things about the venue is the “chill and relaxed atmosphere” that comes with the building.

“I’ve never danced on a dance floor like it.” Hess said, “The spring loaded floor is my favorite part.”

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