Grown-up dancing to be held at civic center

Scott Turner, KP News

Get out your dancing shows, grown-ups. There’s a dance at the Key Peninsula Civic Center every month, starting Sept. 27.

Spenser Abersold, general manager of KGHP–FM is bringing a big stack of tunes from the 1950s, 60s and 70s to the civic center the last Saturday of every month.

“I’ll have old favorites like ‘Moon River’ and ‘Stranger on the Shore’ and all sorts of other standards and love songs,” Abersold said.

“I’ve always felt that people in our parents’ age group don’t have a lot of places they can go and hear the music they like to hear. So this is a unique opportunity to feel young again. Something to do after dinner or just to get out of the house,” he said.

Abersold has been working on this idea for more than three years, but couldn’t find the proper venue.

“I tried a couple of places in Gig Harbor like the Yacht Club and the distillery, but for whatever reason they just didn’t work,” he said.

He finally thought of the KP Civic Center and approached the board of directors with a proposal.

“He just showed up out of the blue at an executive committee meeting last spring,” Bruce Macdonald, civic center secretary-treasurer said.

“He told us about a dream he had had for several years of putting on a dance for the adults in the Key Peninsula. The emphasis would be more on the social aspect rather than making it a huge fundraiser. It would be an evening for grownups to get together and dance like they used to,” he added.

According to Macdonald, the civic center group has tried to do similar things over the years, with varying degrees of success. “Mostly, we haven’t been able to find enough volunteers,” he said.

“But Spencer was willing to staff the whole thing and do the promotion and run it for us. And we thought it sounded like a good idea so we gave him the go ahead,” Macdonald said.

The Key Peninsula is “a target-rich environment,” Abersold said. “There are a lot of people out there who probably don’t want to drive all the way into Gig Harbor for entertainment and are looking for something to do.”

In addition to music, Abersold has also arranged for 7 Seas Brewing and Nobel Winery to provide liquid refreshments for the gatherings, “and we’ll also have some kind of desserts,” he said.

He’s keeping ticket costs affordable –– just $15 for a couple and $8 for singles –– and proceeds from the dances will be divvied-up between the civic center and the radio station.

Abersold plans to take a two-month break during the holiday season in November and December, but he’ll be back in January and the dances will continue through the spring, he said.

Basically, Macdonald said, the dances are a pilot program.

“Spencer doesn’t hold out any expectations that this is automatically going to work, but we all think that there might well be a market for this and an interest in it and we’re willing to experiment,” Macdonald said.

“It’s a win-win for everybody and everybody benefits. And most importantly, the civic center fulfills its mission of providing this sort of activity and making the facility available to the community,” he said.

Want to go?

The Key Peninsula Civic Center and KGHP-FM radio are partnering in monthly dances for adults at the Civic Center starting Sept. 27. Dances will take place the last Saturday of every month from 7 – 10 p.m., with a break for the holidays in November and December. Tickets are $15 for couples, $8 for singles at the door. The civic center is located at 17010 South Vaughn Road KPN in Vaughn.[/box]