Overview Chicago SummerDance is the city's free social dance series, produced by the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) with the Chicago Park District. Every night starts with a lesson from a professional instructor, then a live band or DJ takes over and the floor fills. The season opens with pop-ups in neighborhood parks and ends with a run of evenings at the Spirit of Music Garden in Grant Park, on Michigan Avenue at Balbo Drive. On site At the Spirit of Music Garden a stage faces an open-air dance floor, with Grant Park trees and the Michigan Avenue skyline behind it. The lesson starts at 6 p.m. and the band follows. Neighborhood nights run earlier, at park fieldhouses and boathouses, as part of the Park District's Night Out in the Parks program. The style changes nightly: salsa, plena, swing, Bollywood, country line dancing, Brazilian samba, house and Chicago steppin'. Concessions are limited, so food and non-alcoholic drink sampling meets a crowd that came hungry. Audience Couples on date night, regulars who come back for their style's night and families with kids share the floor. Most dancers are Chicagoans and about two-thirds are women. Hispanic dancers are the largest group, followed by white and Black dancers. Beginners are welcome. No partner is needed. Talent and Influencers Bands and instructors are working Chicago artists. Recent nights featured Carpacho y Su Super Combo, Latin Swing Factor, the Outcast Jazz Band, Son Monarcas, Nancy Hays and The Romance of Dance Orchestra and Planeta Azul, with lessons from Latin Street Dancing, MayIHaveThisDance and the Majestic Gents. Chicago Poet Laureate Mayda del Valle has performed at a park night with Las BomPleneras. Track record SummerDance began downtown, modeled on Lincoln Center's Midsummer Night Swing, and has run for close to three decades. DCASE calls it one of its most popular programs. It kicks off inside Taste of Chicago and hosts a night of the Chicago House Music Festival, so its dancers cross into the city's bigger summer events. Brand presence The Chicago Transit Authority sponsors the series. DCASE pitches it to brands built around couples, relationships and romantic experiences, and to food and non-alcoholic beverage brands that want a sampling crowd. United Airlines, Goose Island and the MacArthur Foundation backed the series in earlier seasons. A partner can take space beside the dance floor, stage signage, mentions between lesson and band, and placement on DCASE's festival pages and social channels.