Footloose Under the Stars at Lincoln Center.

SOCIAL DANCING under the stars has been a huge draw at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors festival. A ballroom floor laid out in Lincoln Center Plaza, amid the elite cultural homes of New York City Ballet, the Metropolitan Opera Company and the New York Philharmonic, has been the man- and woman-in-the-street's most distinguished performing venue since the festival's midsummer swing series began in 1989.

Originally conceived as a thirtieth-anniversary gift from Lincoln Center to the City of New York, the event was an immediate success. Society icon Peter Duchin not only led his band that first year but also booked the rest of the groups that appeared during the five-week season. After the overwhelming popular response, the planning staff decided to make it an annual event. They retained the initial block of five weeks, but expanded the first year's twenty nights of dancing into twenty-four to meet demand.

Since dancing under the stars was so obviously a lure, the actual bandstand and dance floor have never had a protective roof. The floor had to be durable enough to withstand the effects of hot sun and cooling rain as well as the "light fantastic" treads of highly enthusiastic dancers. It also had to be leveled to counter the twelve-inch slope of the Josie Robertson Plaza. Creating an even floor was the lesser task, but locating a suitable and durable floor still eludes producer Rebecca Weller, who finds patching its current polypropylene surface a fact of life.

That first year the music was a fairly standard mix of swing, ballroom and Latin. This year the season encompassed twenty-seven bands and combos playing swing, salsa, jigs, reels, Cajun, country, rock `n' roll, polka, TexMex conjunto, tango and zydeco.

The first bandstand bit the dust after four years and was replaced by the present one. At the end of each season it is tucked into two tractor-trailer trucks and parked out in New Jersey to slumber undisturbed until Midsummer Night Swing unlimbers again the following year.

Crowds vary depending on the special mix of music offered, but the anticipation of having a wonderful time is a common thread. Since the 800-person-capacity dance floor can't hold the entire crowd, dancers have casually spilled over into the public spaces in front of the Metropolitan Opera House, and beneath the porticos of Avery Fisher Hall and the New York State Theater. The estimate is that four-fifths of the crowd is outside the dance floor at any given time.

For newcomers to the intricacies of the merengue, mambo, West Coast swing et al., there are lessons from 6:30 to 7:30 P.M. included in the price of admission before the start of the evenings' festivities at 8:15 P.M. It is truly an instructive sight to see a bobbing mass of devotees moving like a rhythmic carpet with eyes and ears attentively attuned to the teacher/demonstrators on the bandstand. Teachers patiently break the dances down into single steps and repeat each sequence several times before moving on to the next phrase. Weller selects her instructors carefully, at times importing someone especially qualified in a particular style of dance from out of town.

The music is, of course, live for the bulk of the evening, but DJs often play tapes during the instruction periods and to maintain continuity between band sets. DJs from local radio stations like New York City's own WNYC, Bloomberg Radio, or the Lincoln Center neighboring constituent Fordham University's WFUV are recruited on a rotating basis. For the evenings that feature early swing, a DJ with an extensive collection of jazz records from the twenties and thirties is the host. Teachers and DJs offer their services gratis.

Speaking of neighbors, the area is surrounded by high-rise apartment buildings, and the level of amplified sound is constantly adjusted to avoid discomfort. The music from the bandstand can be clearly heard throughout the plaza and the events are sold out early.

"We have had ecstatic approval," Weller observed, "but also shouts of complaint. You never know what bass line is going to become a problem to someone on the thirty-sixth floor."

What the series has uncovered is a large crowd of eager dancers ranging across the urban spectrum of age, race and economic status who are not club regulars but who clearly love the beat and the convenience. Lincoln Center is easy to get to, doesn't have an imperious guardian of the rope barrier, maintains a modest admission fee, offers free dance instruction and is located on public ground open to all. The only drawback is that it plays only five weeks a year. Prominent among the Midsummer "angels" who make it all possible are Daisy and Paul Soros, along with the William H. Kearns Foundation. For details, visit the center's Web site, www.lincolncenter.org

Contributing editor Don McDonagh is also author of The Rise and Fall and Rise of Modern Dance and the introduction to The Encyclopedia of Modern Dance.