Courtesy of Stissing Center for Arts & Culture
Downtown Pine Plains was hopping on Saturday, Feb. 10, as Stissing Center kicked off its 2024 series of free community dance parties. The inaugural event was free and featured the Hudson Valley band Jungle Love, which played a raucous array of soul, rock, classic R&B, disco and funk to over 200 people.
Voted the best party band of 2023 by Hudson Valley Magazine, Jungle Love kept the crowd on its feet from 7 to 10 p.m. as dancers of all ages boogied together in the intimate venue.
“The whole night was electric from start to finish,” said vocalist Cher Bannon. “It was one of our favorite gigs in a long time because of the reaction we got from the crowd.”
The band was led by Grammy-nominated music director and keyboardist William “Prez” Bush, known for his work with the likes of Aretha Franklin, Ben E. King and Anita Baker. The lively performance also featured Pat Haynes on guitar, Sean Tarleton on bass, Dale Stackhouse on drums, Karl Watson on saxophone and Cher Bannon on vocals.
For Bannon, the highlight of the evening came halfway through the band’s second set, when she asked the partygoers, many on dates, if they wanted the band to play something slower, more romantic. They reacted with a unanimous and enthusiastic ‘no!’
“They didn’t want a break,” said Bannon. What they got instead was an energetic cover of “Le Freak,” by Chic. “It made everybody go crazy. Everybody freaked out.”
Outside, Alma’s Tacos, a family food operation from Germantown, served Mexican comfort food including tacos, enchiladas and chicharrón.
This event was the first of three free dance parties organized by Stissing Center, which is solidifying plans for the next two: a swing dance featuring the well known band Eight to the Bar, on July 20, and a line/contra dance featuring line caller Sargent Seedoo, sometime in November.
Stissing Center sees these community events as a way to help fulfill its mission to become a true community hub. With the successful turnout of the first dance — 220 people with reservations checked in, plus an estimated 30 walk-ins — the Center hopes to make a dance around Valentine’s Day a Pine Plains tradition.
Given the scarcity of venues where people can go to gather and celebrate life with their friends without spending money, the free admission came as a welcome surprise to some.
“There was a young couple standing outside the building, when I went out for some air,” said the Center’s executive director, Brett Bernardini. “I asked them if they were having a good time and they said they didn’t have the money for tickets. I told them it’s free and they didn’t believe me. How could this possibly be free? I showed them in and they had a great time until the end.”
Liz Raum, the director of programming at the Center, finds and books most of the acts. “It’s an intimate space, and artists can really feel the audience’s response, which makes for a symbiotic relationship,” she said. “It’s a unique experience for everyone, artists and audience alike. They all want to come back.”
If you were driving through Pine Plains that Saturday night, you might have noted that every restaurant near the Center was packed. There wasn’t a parking space to be had.
The successful community event highlighted the potential for downtown revitalization, supporting an idea brought by retired Dutchess County planner John Clarke who developed Dutchess County’s Greenway Connections Compact, the first in the state.
At a community meeting in Pine Plains, Clarke demonstrated how the town might bring more people to businesses by adding additional parking along both sides of Routes 199 and 82. This he said, and planting trees along the streets, would help the town create the feeling of warmth and busy-ness. He suggested that drivers would slow down as they approached the traffic light, and people in the cars would look around and realize there’s a lot happening. On Saturday, Feb. 10, there certainly was.