Tradition holds that Balboa was developed primarily in the Southern California/Los Angeles area in the 1930’s, as a result of very crowded dance floors in ballrooms. The dance was supposedly named after Balboa Island in the Newport Beach area which was the location of the Rendezvous Ballroom.
By the mid 1930’s, it was not unusual for ballrooms to host dances for 3,000 or more people. As ballrooms became more and more crowed, dances like the Charleston and the Lindy Hop became less practical; some ballrooms even instituted “no breakaways” policies to prevent injuries.
Balboa’s popularity diminished in the post war years, although it was kept alive by many of the original dancers, such as Maxie Dorf, Willie Desatoff, Hal Takier and Ann Mills, to mention a few, until the dance was “rediscovered” by Sylvia Sykes and Jonathan Bixby in the 1980’s.
Bend Lindy Exchange workshops will all be held at The Space. The studio is located inside the Twin Knolls Retail Center and can be found across from Timbers East next to the Express Eco Laundromat.