Dane Dances Enters Its 27th Season of Making Magic: Celebrating Community
Wes Cash (l-r), Al Cooper, president of Dane Dances and Karl Van Lith are just a few of the many volunteers who make Dane Dances happen every Friday in August on the Monona Terrace Rooftop.
by Jonathan Gramling
Since its inception 27 years ago, Dane Dances, held every Friday night in August on the Monona Terrace Rooftop, has been a wonderful outdoor celebration of diversity in music, food, people and of course dance. On any given Friday night, several thousand people or more will come to the free event to celebrate.
And for many Dane Dances board members, they initially come to experience Dane Dances and stay to help ensure that it happens every summer. Keith Van Lith also came to the board through friends.
“I had been going to Dane Dances for a long time,” Van Lith said. “I worked with Agustin Olvera who headed up city housing. He called me one day. He and Peter Anderson got a hold of me. At that time, they were trying to get some more structure and procedural stuff in place. I did a lot of neighborhood and quality improvement stuff for the city. They knew that I was also interested in music and been involved with the band stuff for a long time. Augie and I had a good relationship when we worked for the city. I went out to lunch with those guys. And they actively recruited me.”
In addition to participating on selecting the bands, Van Lith has also been involved in gathering data that Dane Dances can use in its funding proposals.
“We sent out a survey that we could use to show demographically what is going on in terms of who attends and get a sense on how they feel Dane Dances contributes to race relations and that sort of thing,” Van Lith said. “We’ve done that a couple of times and hopefully we can do it again this year.”
Wes Cash has been a fixture at Dane Dances almost since the beginning. Cash can often be seen taking photos. And at one time, he took care of the sound system for Monona Terrace before he went to work at the Overture Center. But Cash is back as a Dane Dances board member.
“Initially I was on the band committee and then the publicity committee, Cash said. “I’ve been on every committee that has been there. Then it got to the point where I was sitting in whenever I was needed. And that is where I am at at this point.”
Al Cooper joined the Dane Dances board back in 2010 and became its president two years later. He had also been a Dane Dances fixture before taking on a major administrative role. While Cooper is a volunteer — Dane Dances is 100 percent volunteer powered — Cooper has worked to create a sustainable organization that can keep providing the Magic on the Rooftop well into the future.
“In the beginning, it was pretty much just local bands,” Cooper observed. “Back in the day when you’re talking about the growth, you have to realize that Dane Dances operated on hope and a prayer, hope that we could put a season together and pray that we could pay for it afterwards. Now that we have built relationships with foundations and Corporate America and small businesses as well as individual donations, we are in a lot better shape financially to put on a better shows and more talented shows and international and regional performances as well. When I say international, it’s still local or regional people who have performed on an international stage, which is a major difference because of those different experiences they bring back to the stage here in Madison.”
But while measured work has gone on in the background, it is the basic Dane Dances experience that keeps people coming back year after year.
“I did feel at home when I came,” Van Lith said. “The music is one of those things that brings people together to have a good time. I ran into a lot of people I knew too on the roof of the terrace, people with city connections and prior work that I had done. That was always good too. But again, the idea of listening to music and dancing was always something that I liked to do. I do feel right at home when I get there. I think most people when they come just enjoy the idea of sitting and listening. And then there is the opportunity if people want to get out there and dance as well. For me, it’s been a good thing for a long time.”
“Dane Dances is more like meeting friends and family,” Cash emphasized. “And that is a great place to meet. It’s more like a family reunion. And the generations of people who meet for Dane Dances is great. People fly in. They drive in and they bicycle in and they even walk in. It’s a great get together. And to keep it going over alll these years has been a challenge. It’s a challenge that is welcomed by our staff. If you have good music, people will come from everywhere to dance and to listen. You meet some of the best people at Dane Dances.”
Cooper concurred.
“It is always a good vibe at Dane Dances,” Cooper said. “The whole magic of Dane Dances since its conception was that we do something that has people excited about coming together — not just getting together, but coming together — and enjoying the happiness. We have a theme with Dane Dances, ‘Get Up, Get Down, Get Together.’ But then I also say, ‘Come with Love, Be Peaceful and Enjoy Your Happiness.’ That’s what all melts together in this melting pot with culture, with food, the hospitality and the environment. We try to make sure that everyone feels welcome at Dane Dances and that everyone can enjoy Dane Dances.”
In Cooper’s view, the 2026 lineup will be one of the best ever. The magic begins on August 7th.
“We open the season with a bang and we keep trying to bang a little harder each week,” Cooper said with a laugh. “This year, all the bands are really, really good. We open with La Obra again out of Chicago. They are a Latin rhythm band. They are a group of young guys. We hope to appeal to some of the younger audience. And then we finish that night off with The Voices, which is a Motown-type group that does a lot of the old school music as well as dance music. It’s the Motown rhythm and soul. They do a lot of interpretations of The Four Tops, The Temptations and groups like that that people know about and have been around. Even young people know about a lot of their music and have sampled it over the years. The DJ is perennial favorite DJ Francis Medrano.”
The second week, August 14th keeps the quality flowing at an intense pace.
“The second week, we have Junior Riveras, which has a Latin jazz beat out of the Milwaukee area,” Cooper said. “They are paired with VO5, which is Madison’s favorite disco-funk band. They have a huge drawing. This year, we also have DJ NASA from Milwaukee.”
The third week, August 21st is a special night. Not only is it loaded with talent, but it is also Cooper’s 75th birthday.
“We have Slave and Klymaxx,” Cooper said. “They both performed internationally, all around the world. Klymaxx has Joyce Irby performing with them. There are three different groups that comprise Klymaxx right now. We have Joyce “Cinderella” Irby, who is the primary sellers of Klymaxx records back in the day. She’s the original lead singer and bass player of three of Klymaxx’s four biggest records including their biggest hit I Miss You. Joyce also performed solo on Motown and also had the Number One selling Billboard urban single ‘Mr. DJ’ with Doug E. Fresh back in the summer of 1989. She’s also a songwriter. In 2013, she won an ASCAP songwriter award co-penning one of the most popular urban records of 2012, the Top Five single called ‘Another Round’ by Fat Joe with Chris Brown, Mary J. Blige and Fabulous. She also worked with artists such as Lloyd, Troop, Sammie, the SOS Band and Shalamar.”
Cooper is really excited about August 21’s show.
“It is going to be an off-the-wall show,” Cooper exclaimed. “It’s different than anything we’ve put together. We’ve never had two bands of this caliber on the same night. I encourage people not to miss any of them. In particular, you don’t see these kinds of shows in Madison too often. And you’ve never seen them at Dane Dances before. We also have a DJ from Chicago, a young man called DJ Seaman.”
The final night, August 28 will be a wonderful close to an exciting season.
“We have a band that we never had before,” Cooper said. “Cold Sweat & The Brew City Horns is an excellent band with a great rhythm section. They play a variety of music for everyone. And they do a very good job of it. And then we have Madison’s own Orquesta SalSoul del Mad. It’s a 17-piece Latin group that’s been in Madison. They are very good and improving every year doing different music, so they have a fresh show. If you think you’ve seen them before, you haven’t seen that show because they do a fresh show for Dane Dances every year. We have Madison’s own DJ Chamo.”
The Rooftop opens at 4:30, so people can transition to the Rooftop where beverages and food are for sale.
“When we talk about diversity, we try to be diverse in everything that we do,” Cooper said. “We have ethnic food vendors there. We have an exception from Monona Terrace to do that. We provide ethnic food as well as we have Monona Terrace’s Lake Vista Café, which is standard American-type food. So we try to be diverse in everything that we do. We have Kipp’s Down Home Kitchen, La Taguara, which is a Venezuelan style food and Melly Mell’s Catering.”
And then at 5:30 p.m., the fun begins with the DJ setting the stage.
“We have experimented over the years with DJs and how we do DJs and whether we do one all season or a variety or one each night and how we put it together,” Cooper said. “It all depends on our access and availability with different DJs in the community. We try to offer the community something different all the time. So we are constantly evaluating and changing what we do in terms of the bands, the music and how we do the pairing. So the DJs are still the first beat of the night. You can say they set the tone. But I always say they are the beginning of a great experience in that they are the transition to the band. And the first band transitions to the second band. There are three layers to what we do. And we try to have the DJs blend a mix of everything. And we try to be diverse within the bands and the music that they play. Each band brings a different cultural or beat to the stage, a different rhythm, a different genre of music. We try to mix those and have a difference between the two bands in our pairing so that it brings different sectors of the community together. That’s another thing thing that is unique to what we do.”
And of course no Dane Dances would be complete without the line dancing.
“People love line dancing,” Cooper said. “Line dancing has been around for years. Whether it is country music, hip-hop music or soul music and R&B, line dance sits there with it all. And that is the beauty of it. People can feel like they are doing a group event at the same time versus individual moves. We try to bring in a little steppin’, which is more of the big city moves, Chicago-based. They do a lot of steps. So we try to do a mix of everything for everyone.”
This year’s theme is “Dane Dances 2026: The Season of Love and Compassion.” Come be a part of everything good that Dane County can be.