My Biz: Dancing the night away at DanceMor

Swisher Pavilion is easily located: 9 miles south of Cedar Rapids on 161, turn to the right on good gravel rood 2 1/2 miles. We’ll be looking for you. — Frank Stangler, Manager — Ad in The Gazette, Aug. 18, 1934

The road into Swisher, population 904, has been paved, and Swisher Pavilion has been the DanceMor Ballroom for decades, but its owners are still looking for you.

“This is a place that has a lot of history for a lot of people,” Rebekah Neuendorf said. “There are a lot of people we talk to who met their significant others here, who had a grandparent who also met their significant other here, or got married here. There’s a lot of really deep roots.”

“There’s not too many of these left,” Nick Neuendorf said.

The couple bought, refurbished and reopened DanceMor in 2018.

“It’s learning how to bring a business successfully through the decades, to make it sustainable and timeless,” Rebekah Neuendorf, 38, said one recent afternoon. “We wanted to honor the history of it, but also create a future for it. That’s pretty tricky.”

History & future

For its first few decades after opening in 1929, today’s DanceMor operated as the Swisher or Paramount Pavilion.

“Just the dance floor with a white picket fence around it, and the stage,” said Nick Neuendorf, 42. “There was no roof, it was open-air. In 1933, they closed it in and built the roof.”

The Stangler family founders sold the ballroom to Harold and LaVenia Davis in 1974. Their son, Craig Davis, closed the place in May 2014, three years after the Neuendorfs had moved their young family back to Iowa from Chicago. They have four children, ages 4 to 14.

“Once we had a family, we moved back to our Iowa roots,” Rebekah Neuendorf said. “We did the big city, and we appreciate that for what it is and enjoy it a lot. But when we had our family, we knew that small-town living was what we wanted, and Swisher is kind of in the middle of everything.”

Although they’d been working in the administration of a Chicago-area college, Rebekah Neuendorf had about 15 years’ experience in the hospitality industry. The couple owned and ran the Black Squirrel Pub, just across the street from the ballroom, when the ballroom closed. (The Black Squirrel is now owned by their former partner).

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“It made us sad to see such a large, old historic space empty,” she said.

“We spent six months fixing it up, cleaning it up,” Nick Neuendorf said. “There was a lot of catching up to do.”

The Neuendorfs found the DanceMor’s niche was hosting wedding receptions and private gatherings.

“When we first started out, we thought what we were going to do was live music,” Rebekah Neuendorf said. “We realized that wasn’t so much of what it was. It had a lot more versatility for polka events, weddings, community events. For a small town, it’s a lot of different markets.”

Public nights

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The DanceMor’s regular public nights are Wednesday and Thursday, with country line dancing to recorded music when a live act isn’t booked. Those nights include line-dancing lessons for newcomers.

From the Big Band era to rock and country, an eclectic assortment of acts played the DanceMor.

“Joe Diffie was here in the early ’90s, when he was an up-and-comer,” Nick Neuendorf said. “Back in the ’50s and ’60s, the big names that came through here were Lawrence Welk and Conway Twitty.”

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Shueyville native Hailey Whitters, currently working out of Nashville, is booked Nov. 22-23. Regulars include regional country acts such as Big John Hammer & the Rusty Nails and Katie & the Honky-Tonks.

The original dance floor remains, with booths lining each side and a lounge area tucked in one corner.

“Our goal with this place is preserving it for the next 100 years,” Nick Neuendorf said. “Unless we absolutely have to, we’re not changing anything. People appreciate that.”

Know a business that should be considered for a “My Biz” feature? Let us know by emailing mary.sharp@thegazette.com.

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