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A monthly bit about the history of Swing Des Moines

Whatever happened with Crave?

Some recent statements have been made that are forcing me to revisit this topic, which I know has been explained ad nauseum.

Last fall, Crave approached DJ Swingin' Goat to see if he would DJ a weekly swing dance at their location. The Goat said he would only consider it if they would allow us to promote it through Swing Des Moines. It would remain their event, but we'd use both logos and both company names in the promotion. Sure thing, they said.

As anyone who went to Swing Night at Crave knows, the location was far from ideal from a dancing standpoint. The drinks and food were expensive, the dance area was somewhat lacking, etc. From a management standpoint, though, it was, in a way, ideal. We had no risk. Another business wanted to do a swing night and they just wanted us to facilitate it.

We discussed it among ourselves and decided that we were in for however long it lasted.

Which was several months, until Crave underwent a change of management and decided to focus on being a restaurant and not a bar, so they got rid of a lot of the activities that detracted from the restaurant aspect.

The event was Crave's all along. Their idea, their event, their decisions.

Swing Des Moines has been looking around for a suitable location for a weekly event since, but to be honest, we've been distracted by other happenings, both within the organization as well as in my own personal life, and it hasn't taken top priority. Our standards for a weekly event would include affordable drinks and food, a nicer dance floor, etc.

We would have never picked Crave as the ideal spot for a dance, but it landed in our laps. It would have been irresponsible to turn it down, when there was literally no risk for us!

Unfortunately, after the managerial changes at Crave, certain Swing Des Moines detractors have taken it upon themselves to persist in saying that Swing Des Moines failed at a weekly event. While Swing DSM has had its share of failures (as will happen with any organization that is taking risks and trying out new things), this is just not one of them. I'm not sure of the motivations of this person, who I used to consider to be a friend.

(Dancing Downtown - now THAT was a failure!)

Anyway, I hope that sets the record straight.