Fox Theater Ready for You to Dance the Night Away, April 21

Rusty Frank and her partner Giovanni Quintero will help you dance the night away!

Friends of the Pomona Fox has announced a special fundraising dinner-dance on Saturday, April 21, at the National Register landmark Pomona Fox Theater, featuring the Bill Elliott 15-piece swing orchestra. The fundraiser will begin at 6 p.m. with a no-host cocktail hour, dinner at 7 p.m., followed by a special swing dance lesson by Rusty Frank, and dancing until 11:30 pm. Prices range from $60 per person for dance floor level seating and dinner, to a special $20 price that includes balcony seating, and dancing only. Additional prices, including dinner, are $45 and $55 per person on the upper tiers of the ground floor level.

The BILL ELLIOTT SWING ORCHESTRA, fifteen musicians and four singers strong, plays exciting swing music in the styles of the ’30s, ’40s, and ’50s. Elliott began his career as a rock’n’roll piano player, touring and recording with such artists as Bonnie Raitt, Stevie Nicks, and many others, before finding his calling as a swingmeister while writing and arranging songs for the 1989 film Dick Tracy. The Swing Orchestra, formed in 1993, was an outgrowth of Elliott’s continuing success in writing original, vintage-sounding swing music for film, television, and commercials. The band also features Bill’s Lucky Stars, a vocal quartet who sing in the close-harmony style of the Pied Pipers and the Modernaires, and glamorous lead singer Cassie Miller in featured solos as well.

The Bill Elliott Orchestra is tuned up and ready to deliver an unbelievable night of entertainment.

Elliott’s music is in the style of the great swing bands of the late ’30s and early ’40s – as hard-swinging as they come, with an emphasis on colorful arrangements, sophisticated and light-hearted lyrics, and danceability. This band has repeatedly drawn crowds of over 1100 dancers at the Hollywood Palladium and the Satin Ballroom in Los Angeles. The band has appeared often at Merv Griffin’s Coconut Club in Beverly Hills, and has played to large crowds at the Avalon Casino Ballroom on Catalina Island and at ballrooms in San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland, OR.

A special beginner swing dance lesson will be led by internationally-renown instructor, Miss Rusty Frank. A professional dancer since her college days, she has taught and performed around the world and stateside at such locales as Broadway’s 42nd Street, The Hollywood Bowl, Disneyland, and the Derby. Rusty is a Lindy Hop & Tap dancer, producer, choreographer, writer, and dance preservationist. She is the author of the critically acclaimed book TAP! The Greatest Tap Dance Stars and Their Stories 1900-1955, the producer and choreographer of the stage revues “Swingin’ The Century – The Big Band Show” and “Jazz Tap.”  Rusty’s swing dance school, Lindy By The Sea, and her weekly swing dance, Rusty’s Rhythm Club, were founded in 1998 and continue to offer up the best of live swing music and dance nationwide.
 
As a result of her on-going dance preservation work, Rusty Frank is the recipient of many awards, including, “The Tap Dance Preservation Award” from New York’s American Tap Dance Foundation (2008), The Historic Preservation Award from The Art Deco Society of California (2002), Tradition In Tap’s award for Outstanding Achievements and Significant Contribution to the Art and Tradition of Tap Dance (2007), and in 2008, she was inducted in to the California Swing Dance Hall of Fame.

Friends of the Pomona Fox will be raising funds to restore the original rose-colored Gladding-McBean drinking fountains which were in the theater’s lobby. One of the pair was destroyed during the “dark years” of the theater and the remaining one was victim to vandalism and graffiti.

More details on the event, ticket pricing, and sponsorship opportunities will be forthcoming.
John Clifford, President of Friends of the Pomona Fox stated, “Bringing Swing Dancing to the Fox seems to be an appropriate way to celebrate the theater’s 81st anniversary, as well as the 3rd anniversary of the reopening of the restored theater. This looks like a fun event that will help raise needed funds for our ongoing programs and to help with items, such as the drinking fountains, that were an important part of the historic fabric of the theater.”

Additional information and tickets available at the Friends of the Pomona Fox web site: www.pomonafox.org.
Friends of the Pomona Fox is a 501(c)3 not-for-profit corporation (Pomona Fox Corp.). All proceeds from programs presented by Friends of the Pomona Fox go toward educational and preservation efforts.