This year, downtown Chicago will be enhanced with this series of classic ballroom dances in
the romantic and beautiful Florentine Room of the historic and
refurbished Congress Plaza Hotel on Michigan Avenue.
The recently renovated Florentine Room is an ideal room for ballroom dancing,
at 82 feet by 40 feet. The permanent wooden dance floor is immaculately
suited for dancing, with no cracks or imperfections anywhere. The actual dance
floor is 1800 square feet, and can easily accommodate 180 couples. There will be ample
seating for what will be the maximum of 300 attendees.
It’s a wonderful room to showcase the classic but very hip sound of the
10 musician Robert Benson Orchestra, featuring Robert Benson at the
piano and Chicago’s finest professional musicians, with a sprinkling of vocals by singer Marion Hurley.
If you have attended our past events at the Ambassador West, the Palmer
House, the Drake, the Willowbrook or the Westin, you know that the
Robert Benson Orchestra specializes in classic repertoire by Cole
Porter, George Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Vincent Youmans, and many other
great songwriters.
We also include some rather wild 60’s lounge tunes, Sinatra type tunes
and an occasional “blast from the past”, for a unique and fun musical
experience.
There will be a cash bar where you can purchase
alcoholic beverages and bottled water.
If you'll be wanting dinner, no food will be available in the ballroom,
but you can get a light sandwich to a dinner at the restaurant on the
main floor.
This dance will have many couples, but there will also be many singles
attending, with as many single gentlemen there as will be ladies.