As a dancer living in a major metropolitan area, I often receive messages or see Facebook posts asking “Where do you dance in SF?” Being that this happens fairly regularly, I figure I should just scribble it all down. So, behold:

Rich’s completely non-comprehensive mental list of places to go [swing] dancing in San Francisco (+ the rest of the Bay Area)

(Last update: Sept 1st, 2017)

Weekly Events

MONDAYS

• Shimmytown at the Verdi Club
• Mister Tipple’s Recording Studio sometimes has Le Jazz Hot gypsy-swing small group from like 7-10 for cheap-as-free.
• Fusion at Shades of Blues (not at all Lindy, but a solid dance venue though YMMV depending on the DJ)

TUESDAYS

•  Woodchopper’s Ball with rotating live bands
• “The Breakaway” dance in the east-bay in Oakland

WEDNESDAYS

• Gaucho plays for free at Amnesia @ like 7p-9p.
• “Cat’s Corner” weekly venue with rotating live bands
• Wednesday Night Hop way down in Palo Alto

THURSDAYS

• The 9:20 Special Dj’d dance – SF’s hallmark weekly Lindy venue

FRIDAYS

• No regular SF Swing venues, but Friday Night Blues is the longest-running Blues venue in the country if that is within your desires
• Rotating bands at The Terrace Room in Oakland that are usually, but not always, swing.

SATURDAYS

• See Monthly below…

SUNDAYS

• Daytime – Lindy in the Park. Free dancing in Golden Gate Park for 20 years. (Close to the De Young Museum and Cal Academy of Sciences)
• Evening – Often Swing bands at Amnesia.

Recurring Monthly Events

• Bal Haus – The Balboa-focused monthly dance (1st Sat of the Month)
• The Bootlegger’s Ball – (3rd Sat of the Month)
• For Dancer’s Only – Way down in Sunnyvale (1st/3rd Fridays)
• “Mission Fusion” – Downtempo EDM Fusion dance (1st/3rd Sats)

Bands to check out While in sf

• The Rhythm Roustabouts (duh)- Best Swing Band in San Francisco. Evarrrr!!!
• The Hot Baked Goods – Band mostly made up of dancers
• The Fascinating Rhythms – Band mostly made up of dancers
• Le Jazz Hot – Gypsy Jazz
• The Cosmo Alleycats – Regularly perform at Local Edition and Club Deluxe – Standards+
• Clint Baker’s various groups and All-Star bands – Trad Jazz
• Gaucho (Play for free every Wed evening at – Amnesia) – Gypsy-ish
• Kally Price– Every other Sunday at Amnesia. Standards and non-standards

 

Oh, and there is plenty of other Social Dancing to be done that I personally don’t really do much of – Tango, Historic Dancing\Waltz, Zouk, Kizomba, Salsa and more – But I’ll leave that up to you to Google….