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Preserve Live Music and Dance at Lake Merritt Dance in Oakland at Veterans Building!

65 Comments

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Heide Dee
6 years ago

I have taken so many classes and had (and will be having ) an upcoming performance in this wonderful, historic venue. Please keep this viable institution open to the dance and other arts.

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Edwin Soza
6 years ago

Please keep dance alive at vets building!!

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Edwin Goei
6 years ago

I live in San Francisco and like to dance with my friends who live in Oakland and the East Bay. My friends meet up to have dinner at local restaurants nearby. It would be tragic to lose this space as dancing is where I and my friends find community.

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Joanna Meinl
6 years ago

Please keep this venue open for dance! It’s one of the few remaining places people can join together and create art. Our community needs this space.

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Anonymous
6 years ago

Please keep a place for us!

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Cheryl Woodward
6 years ago

Dancing has been shown through research to be a superior activity for physical strengthening, coordination, and flexibility; for mental health through stress reduction, learning, and fun; and for social bonding. There have been dances held in this gorgeous, one-of-a-kind building for 90 years! Thousands of people from diverse backgrounds and walks of life have benefitted from dancing there, and continue to do so today. Holding more dances there should be a goal of the Senior Center. Not stopping them. To do so would be short-sighted, immoral, and wrong. Do the RIGHT THING, and keep dances at the Veteran's Memorial Hall!

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Anonymous
6 years ago

I often travel over 50 miles to participate at the West Coast Swing dances at the Vets. I'm a senior and appreciate places to keep the fun in life.

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Anonymous
6 years ago

Please allow the dances to continue.

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Mitchell Sollod
6 years ago Featured

My fellow dancers have made the best arguments for keeping dances at 200 Grand. What will be the economic repercussions to the merchants selling food in the area, and to the citizens of Oakland losing all of the dance revenue for maintaining the building?

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Eric
6 years ago

The Veterans Memorial Hall is so important for the Oakland Community and communities outside of Oakland. Please find a way to keep the evening dance venues going!

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Ilona Marshall
6 years ago

The building is a classic made for dancing! Good dancing requires large space. Dancing is an art form, social activity and sport. Don’t kill it. Preserve and keep this honorable and healthy activity thriving by keeping the building open to hosting dances in the graceful hall.

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Deirdra Rogers
6 years ago Featured

The Veteran's Building spacious room, the stage, and the wooden floor is just such a gem for dancing! Why take it away? This is a healthful, non-alcoholic, peaceful activity enjoyed by hundreds of dancers, many of them seniors.. dancing at the Veteran's Building would seem to be just the type of activity a city would promote!

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Edith Politis
6 years ago

Please keep this wonderful venue open and available to dancers.

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Anonymous
6 years ago

This is my favorite venue in the entire Bay Area for dancing. I am partial to the West Coast Swing dance events and beg you to allow them to continue into 2020. And yes, I am over age 50!!

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Ashvin Iyer
6 years ago

This venue and its weekend/evening dances have been around for close to 20 years. Dance is clinically proven healthful especially for seniors whom this building serves during the daytime hours. We cannot allow these dances to disappear from Oakland. At a time when dance is forced out of so many places in favor of condos or high end restaurants, we are in danger of losing our cultural fabric forever here in the bay area. This place is a cultural gem. I have been teaching and hosting dance parties here for nearly 10 years, and have danced here for longer than that. In addition to the dances here serving many seniors as well as other ages, we also need to fight to protect the jobs of the teachers, promoters and custodians who serve this venue.

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Gayle Hand
6 years ago

I have traveled from out of state to dance at events in the Lake Merrit Veterans Building. It is a beautiful venue, I hope it will remain available for music and dance forever!

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Quimani K Brown
6 years ago

Save Oakland Arts!

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Susan Laing
6 years ago

This building is such a gem for Oakland and the East Bay dance scene. We keep losing our dance floors to development. We need places to connect and dance for our health and well-being. Please keep this building and these programs open!

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Leonard Sosnoski
6 years ago

Please keep Lake Merritt Veterans Memorial available for the dance community!

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Diane Sosnoski
6 years ago

It would be a huge loss for the dance community if the Lake Merritt venue was no longer available.