Balboa dancing,

a form of swing dancing, was mostly practiced on the Balboa Peninsula in coastal California. As its flashy moves became more well-known and popular in the 1930’s, the Balboa spread to nearby cities and up the coast, through the beachside towns of Huntington, San Pedro, and Venice Beach, and then traveled to the Los Angeles area. By then, the dance had evolved to a form of Bal-swing, and to this day the only pure Balboa has only ever been performed on the Balboa Peninsula and in Orange County.

Balboa dancing’s popularity grew on the Peninsula as the first Balboa Pavilion (once a bathhouse) was remodeled with a dance floor and an area for bands to play. Eventually, because the Pavilion was a very popular attraction due to its varied, exciting dances, the enormous Rendezvous Ballroom was built 1928, just a few blocks away. The Rendezvous Ballroom was grand for the time, and even by today’s standards—a two story building stretching over half a block, dedicated entirely to dancing, it could hold over four thousand people at the peak of popularity. The parking lot had a thousand spaces for cars, and the dance floor was twelve thousand square feet! Over three thousand people could dance comfortably on the floor at one time alone, and a sixty-four foot tall soda fountain sat on the ground, alongside almost a hundred couches. The second story was no less beautiful, with another huge soda fountain and more than fifty couches. Needless to say, the Rendezvous Ballroom was perhaps the grandest and most beautiful attraction on the Balboa Peninsula, and was the origin of Balboa dancing’s popularity. In the 30’s, most party-goers would head to the Rendezvous Ballroom for the best, grandest, and most fashionable parties. In fact, during Easter vacation, thousands of teenagers from all around California flocked to the Balboa Peninsula to dance at the Rendezvous Ballroom—there were so many that the week of that holiday was named “Bal Week”. Adults and teens alike from outside the coastal area all came to stay at the beach resorts and dance Balboa in the Rendezvous Ballroom.

In 1935, part of the ballroom burned down, but it was rebuilt in a record three months. In the height of its glory, the ballroom housed almost all of the well-known big bands of the time, including Harry James, Artie Shaw, Tommy Dorsey, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Benny Goodman, Bob Crosby, Les Brown, Gene Krupa, Nat King Cole, Woody Herman, the Andrews Sisters, and many, many more. Most of the dances in the 1930s were swing, or variations of pure Balboa dances; however, by 1950, jazz had mostly taken over and Balboa dancing was almost lost to the ballroom. Its time of glory faded by the end of the 40s, though the Surf Sound era revived it a bit until the 60s. Tragically, in 1966, the entire Rendezvous Ballroom was destroyed by fire, marking the end of a glorious era, and the end of pure Balboa dances.