Putting Off the Ritz

If you already know how to swing dance, if your moves are so smooth they put the cast of the movie “Swingers” to shame, then read no further. You belong with the other “trend-ites” at Los Feliz’s The Derby, where the considerable skills demonstrated on the dance floor are only overshadowed by the style with which the beautiful regulars pair retro suits and saddle shoes.

If, however, your swing dancing needs help and your vintage clothes aren’t up to snuff, you will feel comfortable at “Let’s Dance,” a public mixer that has been held at the Granada Pavilion recreation room in Granada Hills every Saturday for years.

This tragically unhip event, during which seniors in sequins gyrate alongside college couples in jeans, is a blast for those looking for an antidote to too much L.A. cool.

Whereas a Derby visit begins with the sight of a broodingly beautiful bouncer, the Pavilion swing night starts off with a smiling man sitting at a metal folding table. He trades you $10 for an old-fashioned orange ticket that entitles you not only to a dance lesson and live music, but as much wine from the box as you can drink. A bargain by any standards.

Starting at 6:30 p.m., local dance teacher Van Spencer takes you through basic “single-step” swing (which is supposedly very easy, but some of us never get it). After the graceful Spencer does his best with your two left feet--he may also go through the merengue or the rumba--five hours of live music and dancing begin.

In this eclectic crowd, even the fox trot-phobic will feel game to get up and hoof it. A pair of professional dancers swirl past, followed by a mother and 10-year-old son adorably struggling to swing dance.

“It’s a great place to practice here, because no one frowns on you if you make a mistake,” explains Gina Walton, an “over-55-year-old” from Sherman Oaks who has been coming to the dance every week for years.

Fifteen-year-old swing aficionados Eric Anthony and Melinda Quintero of Granada Hills High School added that the venue is the perfect place for them to practice their moves until they are old enough to get into a club.

Many of the folks here have known each other and the dance’s organizers, Barbara Rose of Encino and Leon and Biba Imbault of Granada Hills, for years.

Divorcee Alice Strougo of Northridge started coming to the place about 1994 and is now engaged to another regular, John Haas, 61, of Rowland Heights. (Another couple met at the dance and held their wedding reception during one of the Saturday shindigs.)

Says Strougo: “You just can’t find a dance floor like this at the Beverly Hilton.”

Perhaps. But one thing’s for certain: While the Beverly Hilton’s hot swing joint, the Coconut Club, may be far ritzier than the Granada Pavilion, it won’t throw in free jelly doughnuts around 9:30. And that’s too bad, since the calories are the perfect capper to a charmingly unfashionable evening.

BE THERE

The Granada Pavilion’s “Let’s Dance” event takes place Saturday nights from 6:30 to 11:30 p.m. at 11128 Balboa Blvd. in Granada Hills. Admission is $10 and includes a dance lesson and refreshments. Call (818) 366-1805 or (818) 881-5005.