On the website flotte-sohle.ch you can find a rich selection of ballroom dance events. Under salsa.ch Salsa und Bachata events are published. The Tango calender tangomango is a go-to for milonga-enthusiasts. Please note:
In response to inquiries, our DJ Stefan Rickli (Spotify user: stefanrickli) has put together a collection of music for different dance styles:
Collection of Stefan Rickli (Spotify)
The songs are sorted by dance and tempo, with the most suitable tempo marked with a star. Of course there are many other good songs, and this selection is merely meant to ease or to provide a starting point for your own search.
You can also find a collection of playlists from various (themed) Open Dancing events here: wiki.tanzquotient.org/open-dancing/playlists
This text is oriented around Standard and Latin dances.
Shoes with rubber soles don't typically work very well for (ballroom) dancing. Most dances have some pivoting. If your shoes are too sticky, at best it will put a strain on your knees and ankles, at worst you risk a sprain or other injury. That's why you might want special shoes. From the perspective of the dance venue, street shoes may leave scuff marks on the floor or bring in dirt.
Dance shoes are specially designed for dancing. The shank provides an appropriate amount of support, and they are much more flexible than regular shoes. They have a suede sole (known as chrome leather), which gives just the right amount of traction to allow your feet to slide around a good hardwood floor without going out of control.
Ballroom dance shoes will cost around 100 CHF and up. Dress shoes with preferably leather soles are slippery enough to easily pivot and can be found for 40+ CHF. However, with dress shoes you need to check that the sole is slippery enough, if it is not leather. You should not feel any stress on your knee or ankle when you make a full turn on your ball with all the weight on it. They should also not be too slippery!
You (ladies in particular) should also consider the comfort of the shoes, as you don’t want to end a ball night early because of your hurting feet. Heel protectors are a good add-on to enhance your shoe’s and floor’s lifetime.
Everyone is different. It may take some experiments to find a perfect pair of dance shoes.
Unfortunately, chrome leather soles of ballroom dance shoes are rather sensitive to environmental stresses, like water, tarmac, oil etc. As such, their use is normally restricted to ballroom dance venues. For such dance spots as night clubs, cafeterias with linoleum or concrete floors, outdoor dance parties, etc., a pair of leather-soled dress shoes may be preferable.
At Polyball some people wear their dance shoes anyway since it it more comfortable (but traveling to the ball on the tram they still wear normal dress shoes).