Your Dose of Dance (and Dinner)

By Amy Mikel in Arts & Entertainment on Apr 16, 2008 5:10PM

Summer Dance in Grant Park won’t start until June, but salsa aficionados can get their fix year-round at Nacional 27, a River North Latin restaurant that is transformed into a salsa dance club on the weekends. (Careful, the website has un-turn-offable music). Beginning at 11 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays, DJs spin salsa, meringue, and guebradita, and Nacional’s dining room becomes a dance floor.

Nacional 27’s sixth annual Salsa Competition has been running for the past two Fridays, where some of Chicago’s top salsa dance couples are competing for a trip for two to Puerto Rico’s Salsa Congress. You can still catch the competition this Friday and next Friday; dancers perform starting at 11 p.m. and the dance floor will open to everyone afterwards.

Running alongside the salsa competition program are complementary salsa lessons on Thursdays starting at 9 p.m. Miguel Mendez from the Dance Academy of Salsa will be teaching the free lessons, which end next Thursday, May 1.

325 W. Huron St., dancing runs 11 p.m. through 2 a.m. on Fridays and 3 a.m. on Saturdays, 21+, free

Image via ohtoberich