About the 100th time Bogdan Pathak danced the samba to “I Saw the Sign” by Ace of Base, it started driving him crazy.

Pathak gathers with the KU Ballroom Dance Club several times a week, often dancing to the same two or three compilation CDs.

“Certain songs, people will refuse to dance to,” says Pathak, 30. “They’ll put their fingers in their ears. Some will leave the room.”

That’s why local dancers love that the Prairie Dogs have popped their heads into Lawrence.

The Prairie Dogs formed earlier this year and are the city’s only multi-genre ballroom dance band. So far, they’ve played two gigs at Camelot Ballroom II, the dance operation at 1117 Mass., and are planning to start a monthly dance there.

“It’s fantastic,” says Pathak, who has been dancing since 1999. “It’s something we as dancers really rarely get to do. The atmosphere is much better with a live band.”

‘Fun’ group

The six-member band was the idea of Doug Nickel, a ballroom dancer and guitar player who lives here.

He gathered a group of musicians to play a dance at the Community Mercantile, 901 Iowa, in February. They had so much fun they started looking for other performance opportunities.

“The biggest treat is all of these guys have performed professionally in one setting or another, and too often we find ourselves in bars or coffee shops where people are just visiting at a table,” says Nickel, 38. “You’re like a jukebox or wallpaper music off in the background, and it’s not really the focus. But with this, you can see almost a visual representation of what the music is.”

The instrumentation is eclectic – Nickel on guitar, Greg Allen on fiddle, Dave Ludwick on mandolin, John Thompson on accordion, Bruce Roberts on drums and Michael Paull on bass. All live in Lawrence except Ludwick, who lives in Ottawa.

The set list also is eclectic. Unlike many area dance bands that mainly specialize in one type of music – Kansas City’s Son Venezuela with salsa, or Lawrence’s Jazzhouse Big band with swing – the Prairie Dogs pretty much play everything. A typical night might include waltzes, tangos, cha-chas, rhumbas, swing and salsa.

“This is one of the most fun things I’ve played in, because there are so many different types of music,” Ludwick says. “This is as much variety as almost any dance band.”

Heightened energy

The band doesn’t practice. It just gets together for gigs.

“They’re all really top-notch musicians,” Ludwick says. “It’s a joy to get to play with them. I’m the bandleader on stage, so it’s great to just be able to look at somebody and have them take off and play a wonderful solo.”

Nickel says it’s different playing for dancers than for a sitting audience.

“I think there’s an energy level you just don’t find with recorded music, so the dancers’ energy is higher,” he says. “We’re both feeding off each other, and it’s nice.”

Challenging dances

The ballroom dancers say they enjoy playing with a live band when they’re used to having recorded music.

“It’s the same thing as the difference between listening to music at home versus going to a concert,” says Sharon Corash, 34. “They do all sorts of neat adaptations, like they’ll take a classical song and turn it into salsa, or take a song you thought was rock and turn it into a tango.”

The dancers say there’s been an uptick in interest in ballroom dancing recently, possibly fueled by the movie “Mad Hot Ballroom” and the TV show “Dancing with the Stars.”

“I wanted to do something exciting in my life,” says Malgorzata Stamm, 52, a dancer for two years. “I was looking for hobbies or activities I would enjoy. I like music. I like singing.”

She says having live music makes dancing more challenging.

“Since it’s a live band, it’s unpredictable sometimes, and it adds to the excitement,” Stamm says. “It’s challenging. But good dancers enjoy the challenge, and not-so-good dancers can do their own dance.”

Future plans

For now, the Prairie Dogs plan to play at Camelot Ballroom II on the first Saturday of each month, though a scheduling conflict made them cancel their August dance. The next dance will be from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Sept. 9.

The first dance, in April, drew about 75 dancers, including some from Kansas City. The second, last weekend, was smaller, with around 30 dancers.

“I want to build some momentum for it,” Nickel says. “I suspect we’ll have bigger turnouts in the fall.”

Band members are open to the idea of someday expanding the number of dances they play, if there is a demand in the area.

“Who knows?” Ludwick says. “It’s obviously a fairly informal group, but it’d be fun to do. We’d be ready for some more gigs. It would be fun.”