Dance the Night Away With Your Sweetheart at SF College on Valentine’s Day
Learn some new steps, enjoy classic big band and jazz tunes, and dance the night away with your sweetheart at the Valentine’s Day Swing Dance, 6:30-9:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 14, 2016, in the lobby of the Fine Arts Hall at the Northwest Campus of Santa Fe College, 3000 NW 83rd Street, Gainesville.
Doors open at 6 p.m. and admission is $10 per person or $20 per couple. Tickets are available at the door, in advance through the box office, 352-395-4181, or online at http://www.sfcollege.edu/finearts.
Finger foods and non-alcoholic beverages are included in the admission price.
From 6:30 to 7:30 p.m., two experienced dancers will offer lessons in swing dance, a partner form that probably originated in African American communities and then evolved multi-racially with the swing style of jazz music that was popular from the 1920s to the 1950s.
Beginning at 7:30 p.m., the SF College Big Band and Jazz Combo—both directed by Professor Steve Bingham, Ph.D.—will feature music from or inspired by the swing era, including “Blue Skies,” “Route 66,” and “Fly Me to the Moon.” Vocalists from Professor Lynn Sandefur’s classes will add spice to the music as the dancers twirl throughout the lobby.
“This is the least expensive and most fun Valentine’s Day event in North Central Florida,” Bingham said. “There’s plenty of room in the Fine Arts Hall lobby to dance and mingle.”
The event is sponsored by and is a fundraiser for Musicians United, the music club of Santa Fe College. Club members will be selling roses and dances with band members as well as chances to direct a tune, sponsor a song or dedicate a song to your date. Proceeds will help to support the college’s music programs.
Under Bingham’s direction, the Santa Fe College Big Band has been honored with an invitation to perform at the International Jazz Festival in Montreux, Switzerland, and has performed at Carnegie Hall, Epcot, Florida’s Lakeside Jazz Festival and CityWalk Universal Studios.
For more information about the Valentine’s Day Swing Dance, call Bingham at 352-281-4035.
For more information about the Santa Fe College Fine Arts programs or the Fine Arts Hall, call Fine Arts Department Chairperson Alora Haynes at 352-395-5296.