Our Crowdfunding Groups
It’s a foggy Saturday morning on Sproul Plaza. The year is 2004. As you make your way past the iconic Savio Steps and wander through the skeletal trees lining the entrance to campus, you notice a small group of people faithfully lugging a strange assortment of run-down equipment across the plaza. Two massive amplifiers, a car stereo system, and a boat battery? What could they possibly be doing? They set up camp outside the Golden Bear Café, and the tinny sound of a muffled trumpet begins to emit from their speakers. You watch with growing delight as you realize their mission: to dance. This was Lindy on Sproul’s beginning.
Started by one dedicated grad student with a dream, Lindy on Sproul has since grown to become a central pillar of the East Bay swing dance community. Each Saturday for the past 14 years, rain or shine, we have provided a safe public community for new and seasoned lindy hoppers to social dance. Many people hold this place near and dear to their hearts. Some took our beginner lesson on a whim and now run professional swing dance venues in Oakland. Some regularly attend to relax from a stressful week and catch up with friends. Still others are growing in their dance journeys and use our social dance floor to discover new things about themselves and this historic art form. Will you consider making a gift to help continue our tradition?
Lindy on Sproul is run by a dedicated troupe largely made of 25 undergraduate students. Our distinct style of teaching, both for beginner and intermediate dancers, has been passed down through the years from graduating senior to excited freshman. Our DJs spend hours browsing through dusty collections of jazz compilations to find the perfect list of songs, while our hosts welcome anyone showing interest in our dancing with open arms. We are unique in that we charge no cost for our venue, and we do not plan on closing that door any time soon. For the past 10 years, we have also run UC Berkeley’s own swing dance decal, SwingCal. This 1-unit class offers a more in-depth introduction to lindy hop, complete with cultural history, hours of structured lessons, and guest teachers (who are often alumni).
We’re currently gearing up for our annual event, Berkeley Lindy Exchange. Founded in 2015, this weekend-long event aims to provide social dancing for college students. The weekend consists of amazing local live bands, beautiful indoor dancing, inter-collegiate meetings, competitions, and so much more.
We are planning to use our raised funds to provide monetary scholarships for these aforementioned workshop weekends. A few selected students will be given the opportunity to attend premiere classes with renowned swing dancing instructors, meet fellow dancers from around the world, and hone their skills in a challenging setting. The budget breakdown is as follows:
A new speaker to use for playing swing music at social dancing events [$150-200]
One pass to Fog City Stomp, a workshop weekend in San Francisco [$200]
One pass to Swingin’ at the Savoy, another workshop weekend in Oakland [$200]
Various dance passes to smaller events around the Bay Area [$200-250].
Additional money will be used for advertisement purposes, such as printing flyers and banners [$100].
Please make a gift today! Every dollar helps us support dancers in this wonderful journey of learning about themselves, improving their dance skills and meeting new dancers on the way. Thank you for your donation, it means a lot to us!
If you have any questions, email us at lindyonthesproul@gmail.com or send us a message on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LindyonSproul/ or instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lindyonsproul/ . Feel free to reach out to project managers for specific questions as well.
We will post a personalized shout out on our Facebook page, with a photo of us from Sproul.
We will send you a personalized thank you card for your donation.
We will do a “jam” for you at Lindy on Sproul on a Saturday that you are at Lindy on Sproul.
We will send you a video from Lindy on Sproul, thanking you for your donation.
We will send you a video of a 30 second-1 minute short specialized choreography with a thank you message at the end.
