The Fourth Sunday Old Time Dance will no longer be held at The Barnacle

Post date: Nov 23, 2017 5:20:31 PM

The Fourth Sunday Old Time Dancing will no longer be held at The Barnacle. Miami dancers are looking for a new hall; the fourth weekend dates may be filled by other dances. It's likely they will be in Hollywood or Pompano Beach.

Due to hurricane Irma, the wooden dance floor in the pavilion was destroyed, so The Barnacle is rebuilding its floor with concrete, not wood. It's sad to lose a good wooden dance floor.

Here is some [edited] information received from The Barnacle about the decision not to construct another wooden floor, but to replace it with a concrete floor:

"[I] understand where you’re coming from. The wooden floor was a big draw for dancing, dance performances, yoga, and other programs, and the new materials are much harder on the joints and footing. As someone with past knee, foot and ankle injuries, I’m going to miss it.

Even before Irma, constant exposure to water from rain and high tides made maintenance of a wooden floor near the shoreline difficult and expensive. So, cost and durability factored in but were only part of the reason for the switch.

While the Micco pavilion currently serves as an important location for special events, its primary purpose is to protect what’s underneath—namely Native American midden and historic architectural elements from Ralph Munroe’s blacksmith shop and one of his cottages. When the wooden floor broke loose during the hurricane and floated on top of the waves, it exposed the artifacts underneath to damage from water, debris, and the bucking of the floor itself. The Barnacle Society, the Florida Park Service, the State’s historic preservationist decided to switch to poured concrete to prevent this kind of damage from happening again, and pavers will be used where architectural elements need to be accessed for periodic inspections.

Please know that this decision was made to better protect the park’s cultural resources and not without serious consideration to how our program partners would be affected."