BALLROOM DANCING IN PARIS
 

We just started taking ballroom dance lessons and love it. We leave for Paris (3rd trip) Wednesday and are packing our "dancing shoes." Any recommendation/suggestions where to go specifically for ballroom dancing?

I have not done ballroom dancing in years, so do not have first-hand knowledge of this, but know some resources for you which should help in case no one else can give you specifics.

First, what kind of dancing do you want to do? I know a lot more for Latin dance which is tres trendy now in Paris, much more popular than other things. So, if you can go that, I can mention some other places. However, if you just mean waltz, foxtrot, etc, I don't really know of a good place as some places that used to have that a few years ago have now stopped (and switched to salsa). For example, La Coupole is a good place for dancing and used to have some of that but now they only have DJ and salsa, as I understand it. Salsa is on Tuesday nights (lessons begin at 9:30 pm to 11:30 and after that is just dancing). So if you want to go for that kind of dancing, finding salsa is a lot easier (or chacha, sambo, tango, etc). Other Latin dance places are Barrio Latino and Balajo. They are pretty popular, especially the former, and not sedate. Wellknown as a bar and restaurant as well as dance spot (DJ). There is swing at le Caveau de la Huchette near the Seine in the Latin Qtr.

As for traditional ballroom, there is a well-known place (with lots of expat Americans, it seems to me) in the Marais called the Centre du Danse de Marias which has various kinds of dance lessons, including ballroom. So I imagine if you stopped by there, they could help you out with where in Paris you might go. They do have a web site and perhaps an email address on there you could write. As I said, I wouldn't worry about them not knowing English.

www.france-danse.com

Christina. WOW! Thank you so much for your detailed response. It will help me a lot! I'm printing your response and taking it with me. (We took salsa/mambo, tango, swing and "foxy" (form of foxtrot).

well, that sounds more possible then if you do swing and some Latin. It may be too late as I see you are leaving 6/18, but here is a good website for rock,swing, etc dance in France and it will give addresses and club info:

http://danse-a-2.com/

It is only in French, if you can read that, there is lots of info on there (I'm on their email list and they send me discounts and notices, etc). If you click on "salsa" or "tango" or whatever at the top white box, you can find out events.

Balajo is in the Bastille area, as is Barrio Latino. Both are really well know and you should be able to find out where they are easily. Barrio Latino is at 46 ru du Faubourg St-Antoine in the 11th. Here's one article that gives you an idea:
http://www.parlerparis.com/travelwri...riolatino.html

Balajo has been around a while -- some say it's not chic anymore, but lots of people still go there. it's at 9 rue de Lappe in the 11th arr. It is mentioned on here, as well as other Latin dance places:

http://cityguides.salsaweb.com/paris.old/clubs.htm

Those prices are in francs so I think a little old and you know how quickly such info can be out-of-date, but it's a guide.