Lesson: 7 pm
Dance: 8 pm
Every Monday night

$8 for lesson & dancing; $3 for dancing alone

Oddfellows Hall
1125 Cerrillos Road
690-4165

A few weeks ago, Alex De Vore’s column about the meanies at El Mesón’s tango milonga caused quite the uproar in our Letters to the Editor section (as well as the Calls to Alex’s Cell Phone section). Some claimed that tango dancers are actually really nice; some claimed that Alex is right, that tango dancers are jerks; some claimed that Albuquerque’s tango community is much nicer than its Santa Fe foil; and still more claimed that everyone should ditch tango and come to swing dancing nights instead.

We find the last option most enticing. Conveniently, editorial intern Ramón A Lovato is a regular at Santa Fe Swing’s Monday night swing dancing at Odd Fellows Hall, and he hooked us up with a sweet batch of pictures from the most recent monthly swing event with live music (swing dancing lessons are every Monday, and on the first Saturday of every month the group brings in a live band for an 8 pm lesson followed by dancing until 11:30 pm; the next Saturday night concert is May 1). And guess what? No one objected to him snapping some snaps! (For sure, these people look pretty friendly & appear to be having a marvelous time.)

All photos by Ramón A Lovato

SFR was there to capture the event; check out the slide show below, and past the jump are videos of some of the best acts.

Sarah performs a really, REALLY amazing tapdance routine to “Like a Virgin”… no seriously, AMAZING.

Robbie Pino and Amea Jensen are better than Beyonce and those other chicks any day.

Santa Fe’s own burlesque troupe, Zircus Erotique, broke out the gold lamé for an ’80s-oriented performance.

If all workout videos were like this, I would be in the best shape of my life! I wouldn’t be able to quit!

Show us what has left the back of your eyelids burning. Send pictures
of visual trespass and peculiarities to copyeditor [at] sfreporter.com,
subject “eyedropper.”

This is a very special edition of the Eyedropper. We brought our cameras along for SFR’s 35th Anniversary Summer Blast Block Party at the Santa Fe Community Convention Center, where there was so much to see. If you weren’t there, you should have been. Try harder next time. Here’s the best of what you missed.

Here we have Zane and Corey Hula-hooping. I am simultaneously taking this picture with my camera phone and whooping the hell out of them in our Hula-hoop contest.

Here the dog that lives with me (right) is whooping me with his Hula-hoop skills. He will not be fed anytime soon.

Here we have a baby, not drinking. Although I can’t speak for whether it wants to or not.

Contrary to what editor Julia Goldberg says, the Eyedropper is nice and kind. She loves dancing and she especially loves people who dance without shame. The Eyedropper picked the top four best dancers at our 35th Anniversary Blast, although there were many, many excellent dancers in the running.

Seemingly taking his cue from my awesome Hula-hooping skillz, the third-place best dancer rotates around (and around) the dance floor with the best of ‘em.

Second place is a tie between a gypsy couple and a man wearing a Hawaiian shirt. Let it suffice that both acts are indescribably good. The man wearing a Hawaiian shirt video gives a preview of SFR’s No. 1 Best Block Party Dancer, so look out.


Finally, we have the winner. 1,000 points goes to you, tiny baby girl dancer. Who are your parents? Or where are they? Never change baby dancer. You roll on the ground with the best of ‘em.

As has been surely evidenced by the above, the 35th Anniversary Block Party was the best ever. You should be ashamed if you missed it. Ashamed.

What does the guv do now that he has all that free time not being secretary of state or commerce? Dance! Dance like he’ll never dance again.

He fails to mention his new passion on twitter, only saying something about “1st annual state tribal summit at Acoma Pueblo,” and everyone knows there’s no such thing as a 1st annual anyway. Come clean Bill.