Atlanta

On Friday and Saturday nights, local DJ Alan White plays music for free dancing at the 57th Fighter Group, one of the most atmospheric restaurants in Atlanta. It is decorated as a World War II military camp, complete with jeeps and planes in the yard and sandbag walls. With its location next to the Dekalb-Peachtree Airport, you can sit by the bonfires on the patio and watch the planes take off and land, socialize with friends, or join in on the wild mix of dance music. There are two distinct groups: the dancers and the non-dancers. The dancers usually come out Fridays and swing to Billy Joel and Frank Sinatra, hustle to I Will Survive, and, as the music calls for it, cha-cha, rhumba, lindy hop, waltz, salsa, and merengue. The non-dancers are restaurant patrons who take the floor for the electric slide and the ‘80s and ‘90s dance music that you had almost forgotten. Sometimes it feels like a high school dance, but better. Sometimes it’s like an amateur dance exhibition. You don’t have to have formal training to do some shaking on the floor, but if you have taken dance classes, it is a relaxed environment for practice.

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