NOTE: For the most up-to-date information, click here for the 2017 edition.
Here’s a round-up of social-dancing opportunities IN Greenbelt and where Greenbelters regularly go dancing nearby. This list doesn’t include jazzercize, zumba, or other workout-focused solo dancing. Leave a comment if I left anything out or if you spot an error; let’s keep this up to date.

Goddard Dance Club: is perhaps the largest dance event IN Greenbelt, and it happens every week and offers primarily ballroom dancing. Nonemployees need a NASA employee to sponsor them (to sign a form for them). Dance lessons also available. The space includes a huge wooden dance floor.
Tea Dance at Beltville’s Studio Gemini: 1 – 3 pm every Tuesday afternoon. Admission $10, with complimentary dancing tips for beginners thru intermediate. 10800 Rhode Island Ave, Ste E, Beltsville, MD 20705 Ample parking. Hosted by Steve Antoniak, antoniak1@verizon.net 301-927-6796.

Blob’s Park Social Dance Club. The beloved Blob’s Park, formerly in Jessup, MD, may have closed but the dancers haven’t stopped. They’ve moved to College Park! Coming up – country, swing/oldies, rockability, cajun/zydeco. Follow them on Facebook, or get info from their website. The location is the American Legion Post #217, 9218 Baltimore Avenue (Route #1) College Park, MD 20740-1316. For carpooling to the Friends of Blobs Park dances, contact lore@simplicity-matters.org.

Hollywood Ballroom in Silver Spring, about 10 miles away, holds dances four times a week, usually preceded by lessons. Types of dancing include: West Coast swing on Fridays, social ballroom on Wednesdays and Sundays, Afternoon Tea on Thursdays, and on Saturdays – sometimes Latin, sometimes ballroom. It’s dressy by Greenbelt standards, and the level of dancing is moderate to advanced, in my opinion. The cost ranges from $15 to 20 and the age range is wide, though mostly 4o and up. Thursday afternoon tea dances (12:30 – 3:30 pm) cost just $6.

LA (Love Again) Singles, in Bowie is a dance event for singles over 40. Location: Knights of Columbus, 6111 Columbian Way, Bowie MD 20715
International Folk Dancing is held every Friday at the Greenbelt Community Center. Line, Circle, and Couple Dancing from the Balkans, Europe, Scandinavia & other places. Just $7 most weeks; $12 when there’s live music (once a month). To learn more and see tons of great photos, here’s Eric Zhang’s blog post about the dance, from 2012. Eric found out that this dance event started in the ’50s at All Souls Church in DC and has been held in Greenbelt since 1997.
Contra Dancing is extremely popular in the DC area, and lots of Greenbelters travel regularly to Glen Echo for dances on Fridays and Sundays, then even farther on other nights and for whole weekends of contra dancing. And the good news is that Greenbelt contra dancers are bringing it home! Here’s a blog story about that, with video.
Starting in February of 2015, the plan is to have the dance the first Saturday of every month. Live music! And I believe it costs just $12.
To find out more about contra dancing in our region, join and/or follow the Folklore Society of Greater Washington, which sponsors these types of dances: contra, squares, family, English country, and International Folk.

Blues Music and Dancing. I know several Greenbelters who follow the DC Blues Society for news of music and dancing, and I’ve joined their email list myself. They’re also on Facebook.
Hand-Dancing? Lore Rosenthal tells me that some Greenbelters plan to go hand dancing soon. One venue for it that she mentioned is the Riverdale Elks Lodge, where the DC Hand Dance Club holds Hand Dances on Saturday nights.
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