I just got home from an amazing night of fine dining, music and dancing at the swellegant Waldorf Astoria Hotel. It all started a few weeks ago when my friend and fellow lindy hopper Lauren asked me if I wanted to volunteer to be a dancer for this classy fundraiser in November. I’m always happy to dance for a good cause, and Lauren’s a friend, so I said fine. Little did I know what a smart choice that was.
It turns out, this was one of those $1,200 a plate fundraiser dinners, in this case collecting money for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, an amazing non-profit that has raised over two billion dollars
to fund research to cure Type-1 diabetes. Along with the auction,
raffle, and donation drive, the evening featured THE penultimate band
of the neo-swing era — Big Bad Voodoo Daddy.
Lauren, myself, and six other dancers were there to kind of get the dance party started and to dance with anyone who looked like they wanted to dance. A role that I think we performed admirably, I have to say. All of us were decked out in fancy vintage wear, and doing our best to wow the crowd around the dance floor. I gladly danced with any ladies who looked like they wanted a turn on the floor.
And BBVD has not changed a bit, with an energetic front man, a killer horn section, a talented piano player, and rockin beats. Not my first choice for dance music, but they were a lot of fun.
Toward the end of the evening, the crowd had mostly dispersed. But the band was still in full-gear, playing at least eight more songs just for us. It was like having a private dance party with a kick ass band in the most fancy hotel in Manhattan. And it was for a good cause.
What an incredible night! I love my life sometimes.