DETAILS
Parties
Thursday Night at 30 W North Avenue
Join us for a chill, fun opening night celebration! We will all gather at 30 W North Ave, AKA the Mobtown Ballroom Pop-Up location, for food, drinks, dancing, and board games. Please bring some board games to play (labeled with your name so they don’t get lost)! The bar and kitchen will be open, so plan to grab a bite or a nice cocktail. We will play music for those who want to dance, and we will hang out and get to know fellow attendees!
Friday & Saturday Nights at the Mobtown Ballroom (861 Washington Blvd)
The evening will kick off with a cocktail hour from 8-9pm. The Sunny Side Jazz Band will play from 9pm-12am, followed by a DJ to keep you dancing until you are truly tuckered. Competitions will happen during band breaks and during the late night DJ set.
Sunday Soul Party at 30 W North Ave
We like to reward ourselves when we’ve worked hard to have fun. The Sunday night soul party will be a DJed dance/hang out time. The bar and kitchen will be open and there will be plenty of room for you to dance around with your new friends or lounge at a table and bask in the glory of having danced for a whole weekend.
History Tour
Friday at 12pm starting at the Billie Holliday statue at the corner of Pennsylvania and W Lafayette
Hannah Lane and Charlie Wieprecht are our two in-house local historians and dance instructors. Born and raised in Baltimore to be Jazz fanatics, they are going to take you on a walking tour of a few Baltimore neighborhoods with notable Jazz history. Please FILL OUT THIS FORM so that our guides can update you in the event of any changes.
PLEASE NOTE: This tour starts at the Billie Holliday statue at the corner of Pennsylvania and W Lafayette and ends at 30 W North Ave. Please note that the tour is ONE WAY. We recommend coordinating with other attendees and leaving some cars at each location.
Classes and Auditions
Classes
There are 8 hours of classes at this event, and there are two tracks. Each class gets the same amount of time with each instructor. We called the classes “intermediate” and “advanced”, but realistically, we divide the group down the middle according to how many students can comfortably fit in each room. What does that mean for you? It means that you will have people more experienced and less experienced than you in your classes, and that will be great. You won’t click with everyone, but you will with plenty. Ideally you won’t evaluate your worth based on the level you are placed in, and you’ll make the most out of each class for both yourself and the people you’re learning with.
Auditions
Anyone taking the advanced track needs to audition. Auditions are at the Mobtown Ballroom from 7-8pm on Friday night, and 11am-12pm on Saturday morning. We try to keep them quick. You’ll dance with 3ish people while we watch, and then we will announce who is being placed in the advanced track. Please note that all the classes will be good; the advanced track doesn’t get anything more special than the intermediate track. Everyone is still shaking off the covid bones, and we have a lot of dancers who started during covid and have very little concept of their relative experience outside of their own scenes. We encourage everyone to be nice to each other and themselves, and to not take oneself too seriously. We hate it when track placements upset people. All that said, please don’t argue with the staff or volunteers.
Competitions
Open Mix & Match
You sign up for the Mix & Match by yourself. In the first round, you will dance with three people who you are randomly paired with. You're judged as an individual, and everyone dances at once (so you won't be alone with your partner on the dance floor; pretty low pressure!). Those who make it into the finals will be randomly paired with one person and judged as a couple. The finals are jam-style, which means you’ll get a few chances to show off with your partner without anyone else dancing at the same time. Sign up here!
The Slow Dance Competition
This is just what is sounds like; it’s like a strictly, but all the music will be slow. You enter with a partner and you dance to slow swing music. It's not a blues comp, though dancing is dancing and it's fine if you throw some in. First round is an all skate, finals are jam style.
Invitational Mix& Match
This competition is by invite only. I you weren’t invited, don’t fret! There are a lot of good dancers out there, and we could only include some of them. The competitors will be randomly paired with a partner for a spotlight dance. It will be participant judged.
Endurance
Anyone can jump into this competition; it’s free and you don’t need to register. Jump on the dance floor when it starts, and just dance. Rules: you have to do Lindy (no bal or water-down-made-up-nonsense like east cost swing), you have to swing out a lot, and you have to be on beat. We will increase the tempo as we go. Last couple dancing wins. Back in the day, endurance comps were the best ones to watch. Post-covid, we shall see.
Venues & Parking
Mobtown Ballroom - 861 Washington Blvd
The Mobtown Ballroom is our main venue, and it’s where both main dances and the intermediate classes will be happening. Here is the deal: It’s all street parking, and normally that works out great. This weekend we are sharing parking with the Orioles games on Friday night (7:05), Saturday night (7:05), and Sunday afternoon (1:35). Parking will be tight, and here are our tips: 1) Pay attention to signs. Parking is only restricted during the games, but that includes both main dances and Sunday classes. Parking is not restricted West of the Ballroom. 2) Plan to carpool or take a ride share if you can. This also helps if you plan to drink! 3) If you do want to drive and park nearby, plan to arrive early so you beat the Orioles fans. The neighborhood is residential, so please be respectful and save any loud partying for inside.
Lithuanian Hall - 851 Hollins St
PLEASE NOTE THIS CHANGE: The Lithuanian Hall will be used for the Intermediate track only (NOT ADVANCED; they are now at Mobtown). The neighborhood is residential and parking (only street parking) is tight. Our advice is two-fold: 1) Arrive early so that you can find parking. You may have better luck parking a few blocks away and walking, so anticipate it taking a little time. 2) Pay attention to signs.
30 W North Ave - AKA North Avenue Market
30 W North Ave, AKA the Mobtown Ballroom pop-up location, is all street parking. Lots of it is metered and lots of it isn’t. It’s much more central than the other two venues, so it should be easier to carpool or bike. If you drive, leave yourself a few extra minutes to find a spot.
Lunch
We have a 1 hour lunch break on Saturday and Sunday. Bringing lunch is the best way to ensure you have enough time to eat it, but we will have a list of nearby spots (coming soon!).