After 14 seasons of Summer Dance, the large public outdoor dance floor in Grant Park, near the corner of Michigan Avenue and Harrison Street, is in need of replacement.

Designed by Chicago artist Dan Perlman for the first year of Summer Dance in 1997, the floor was originally 2,500 square feet in size and lived few blocks north where Millennium Park now stands. The floor is in a parquet style and made of recycled plastic in a muted color, Perlman’s medium of choice.

Since its original design and construction, the floor has grown in concert with the popularity of the Summer Dance series, first to 3,500 square feet in 1999 and more recently to 4,600 square feet in its current home at the Spirit of Music Garden in the 600 block of South Michigan Avenue.

The city program hosts free dance instruction and live music four nights a week from mid June to late August and is largely funded by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and several large corporate and nonprofit sponsors.

This year, 39 performers played music from traditional Eastern European folk to Texas swing, and thousands of citizens learned steps for dances originating in places as far away as the streets of Syria to right here at home with Chicago’s own brand of “steppin’.”

Each year new styles of music and dance are added to a list of growing favorites.

Sunday saw the last of this season’s dancers lined up for an East Coast swing class taught by local professionals. As the sun set behind the Congress Hotel, hip hoppers danced with Gold Coasters and old Chicagoans stepped with the city’s youth. The sight built a strong sense of peace during a summer of violence, capping two years of economic decline.

Before the 15th season begins next year, an effort will mount to raise money for plans to rebuild the recycled parquet floor that has seen thousands of hours of use. We encourage individuals and businesses in Loop neighborhoods to give what they can when they can in support of Chicago’s dance floor as a learning space for polite social discourse and the wild art of dance.