Lindy on Sproul

Lindy on Sproul is a popular almost-​weekly swing dance event in the heart of the Berkeley UC campus. The dance happens on Fridays and Saturdays. The Friday event is not weekly, consult the Facebook group
for the dates. The Saturday event apparently happens «rain or shine». I have attended both, so this review consists of two parts. Attendance is free, so are the lessons.
Review for the Saturday event:
Dance lessons start at 11:45AM (not precisely) and go on until approximately 12:30PM. There are two lessons: one for absolute beginners, one for intermediate dancers (the latter assumes that the regular swingouts are not an issue for the participants). After 12:30PM, the dance party starts with a «snowball» (starts with two dancing couples, one from each lesson; on a shout «Snowball!» the couples break up and each partner invites someone new to dance, very quickly everyone dances). The general dance ends at approximately 2:30PM.
The logistics: dance area are is paved with the concrete tiles that allow some careful pivots, the best follows were able, to my amazement, gracefully execute truly beautiful swivels. Still, keep your good shoes at home. There is practically no shade, so sunscreen is a must on sunny days. This is not the best time for parking in the downtown Berkeley; I used the Telegraph-​Channing garage ($ 6), but expect that better deals might be available. There is no water, so bring your own water bottle. The music came from a single speaker, sufficient for a small group.
The crowd: about 30 dancers, approximately evenly split between the leads and follows (the beginner lesson was almost all-​lead). About 20 of these were intermediate to quite advanced, the other 10 or so were beginners. This being Berkeley, there were (very) few female leads and male follows.
The fun: like the Lindy in the Park (Golden Gate), this is a very public event, as it happens in the middle of the main thoroughfare of the Berkeley campus. Your moves are thus frequently immortalized by multiple people taping the dance with their cell phones. I have also invited the onlookers to dance (with a mixed success). Small size of the group provides an opportunity to dance with few truly outstanding follows.
Review for the Friday event:
Dance lessons start at 8PM, dance floor opens at 9PM, pretty much on time. Berkeley is known for endorsing all sorts of questionable things but waging a war on car transportation, so allow 15 – 20 minutes for parking: the Friday evening in Berkeley is exactly the wrong time for this activity. Note that some of the garages close early and are thus unsuitable. Your best bet is the Telegraph-​Channing garage ($ 4 flat fee) if it is not full. Once parked in this garage, exit toward Durant street, and you will be less than two blocks from the event.
The dancing happens outdoors in the Upper Sproul area, literally on the street pavement. The pavement of the dance area consists of somewhat smooth bricks interspersed with bands of stone that provide very good friction — and make the turns hard. I generally preferred to stay on the bricks, which made some of the more complex moves possible. Still, this surface is hard on your shoes — and even harder on your knees. Keep your good shoes at home and limit your pivots.
DJ music sound is pretty good for an outdoor venue. On the night I visited three DJs provided a good variety of music.
There are two lessons, one for absolute beginners (at the bottom of the stairs in the future dance area), and one for more advanced dancers (at the top of the stairs on an even more atrocious surface). Both lessons are going at a quite slow pace, so dress warm on the cold nights.
The crowd of about 100 dancers consists primarily of Berkeley students with a fairly large proportion of the beginners yet included few truly great follows (and, presumably, leads). The ratio of leads and follows is about even; with some leads abstaining from many dances this makes for a slightly more follows actually willing to dance in the beginning. By the end of the dance the situation evens out. Note for the beginner follows: do not sit on the stone steps in a 60-​degree night, as you can get quite cold: more than one follow was very obviously freezing by the time I invited them to dance.
There is no water provided, so bring your own water bottle.

The Lindy on Sproul folks put on a free dance every Saturday afternoon (12 to 2ish) and three Friday nights a semester (9 to midnight). They have a decent portable outdoor sound system, and play a great variety of very danceable music.
The crowd is mostly young (a lot of Berkeley students and recent graduates), and pretty friendly; people don’t always ask newcomers to dance, but always cheerfully oblige when I do the asking. The only thing I don’t like, though unavoidable for an outside dance, is dancing on the pavement, which makes pivots and spins hard for someone who is used to dancing on a wood floor.
Overall, though, Lindy on Sproul is a lot of fun, and one of only a few good regular places to swing dance in the East Bay. And it’s free! I kind of wish I’d gotten into dancing while I was a student and spent more time on that side of town, but I’m still hoping to make it part of my weekend routine…