THE VERTICAL RHYTHM CLUB

The Vertical Rhythm Club is back!

Dates are 24th May, 21st June, 16th August, 18th September (TBC), 18th October (TBC), 15th November.

The venue for the 24th May is Bective Rugby Club, Donnybrook, Dublin 4. There is plenty of parking.

Doors open 8.30pm, with a beginner's "bluffers guide to swing dancing" class from 8.30pm - 9.00pm to give you some ideas for the dance floor and then the night gets into full swing. Door charge is €10, including the class. The music flows into the small hours. You're DJs in May will be Jess-a-Belle and Sinclair Ang.

Guys and dolls, GIs and flappers come along and join us for a night of raw, heady, hopped up Swing Time at the home of happy feet, the Vertical Rhythm Club! Experience a zoot suit riot with music so hot you can really get down. Loose yourself in the relentless, high energy ballroom of romance, with top hats and tails spinning to the Big Band sounds of the 30's and 40's. Marvel at spontaneous dance displays, and show off your own decadent dance steps. Dress to impress and prove it still don't mean a thing if it ain't got that swing. Throughout the evening, expect the unexpected – spontaneous dance displays by jazz, tap, lindy hop, and swing dancers. Pick a decade of your choice – 20’s, 30’s, 40’s or 50’s and dress to impress.

Check out this montage on You Tube by Paul Bushe showing our night of delight in the Spiegel Tent as part of the Dublin Fringe Festival.

What to wear?

You don't have to dress up - but you know that you want to! Looking for ideas on how to perfect Swing Era style........?

Think of the films Bugsy Malone, Cabaret, The Sting, Chicago, think 1920's flapper girls, think Speakeasies, think gangsters and molls, think show-girls, think 1930's Hollywood glamour, think burlesque, think peep show, thing 1940's land girls, think World War Two soldiers/sailors/airmen. Or into the 1950's - think Grease, think Rock n Roll, think Happy Days. Or just look on Google Images for ideas.

Shops to facilitate your search are Harlequins (near Grogans), Jenny Vander, Wild Child (now in Temple Bar), Retro in Market Arcade and A Star Is Born on Clarendon Row, only open on Saturdays, down an alley near Market Bar. And, yes, some of this autumn's fashion is inspired by the 1940's, so maybe good old Penneys can deliver.....!

What the papers say...

Daily Mail, February 2007 - "one of the most fun nights out I've had in ages....SwingTime, which encapsulates those 1930's and 1940's days of decadence, is making a comeback, and with it the velvet tones and glamour of Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin and Ella Fitzgerald. After years of formulaic and tacky night clubbing, there's really no better way to party...... Swing dancing is a dance of craziness and beauty.....After the class finished and the club started, the real fun began. The bar transformed into something resembling the Savoy Ballroom circa 1947, as the young, gorgeous and glamorous, clad in vintage gear, flooded the dancefloor.....It's easy to see the appeal of Swing dancing - the physical energy, the old world glamour and the heady romance of the dancefloor!"

The Sunday Independent, March 2007 – “girls dressed up like glamorous pre-war pin-ups .. men looked fabulous in sharp suits and spats….This is so hot…watching a tall, sexy man jitterbug across the dance floor, spinning his flexible partner with abandon. Outside on the cobblestones we danced our own version of swing … it’s about being able to just let yourself go.”

Babel, September 2006 – “There are so many types of jazz, but this is the kind that will definitely have your ass on the dance floor…..the closest thing I’ve ever seen to a jazz moshpit.”

Cork Evening Echo, July 2006 – “an interesting concept [that] goes a long way.”

The Independent, October 2005 – “the bar takes on the atmosphere of the ballrooms of America in the 1950’s…..it’s addictive …..the happy dancers take to the floor to swing the night away.”

Liberty, Christmas 2005 – “folk down here are havin’ a ball, that off-beat jazz can keep the feet movin all night. All you gotta do is make is up as you go along and have a good time doing it.”