Sometimes you go out dancing. Other times, you leave your sweaty soul and all of life’s problems on the dance floor and hobble home covered in bruises from your epic moves. As the temperature climbs outside, dance parties are flourishing all over New York, where there is a venue for every musical taste.
Here are some sweat-tested places to shake it until the wee hours of the morning for little or no money down. What’s more, these are the kinds of places where the dance floor is neutral terrain and any move under the disco ball is fair game.
Bembe
81 South Sixth St., Williamsburg
This truly multy-culty dance party has caipirinhas behind the bar and music that ranges from Angolan kuduro to modern house to Colombian cumbia (sometimes with live drum accompaniment, natch). Visitors dance as partners or on their own, and often in a packed mass of bodies when the night gets going. It gets hot — literally and metaphorically — which makes the tropical drinks from behind the bar all the more refreshing.
Cover: Free most nights
The Rub
Various venues in Brooklyn
and Manhattan
Born out of a love of hip-hop and disdain for pretense, The Rub began putting together monthly laid-back parties where dancing and great music were the most important elements. The parties prevail as sweaty, fun affairs with a vibe that is more house party than bottle service. The official Rub party is at the Bell House once a month, but the organizers have several venues this summer hosting their signature vibe.
Cover: Free-$10, depending on the night
I <3 Vinyl
Various venues in Brooklyn and Manhattan, including Le Poisson Rouge and Littlefield
There are mega-afros and gold platforms at this celebration of vinyl, where the music is as eclectic as the crowd. Soul, disco, funk, Latin, Afrobeat — if it’s pressed on plastic and has a hole in the center, it will be getting the primped and coiffed dance floor moving.
Cover: $5 with RSVP on website
Warm Up at P.S. 1
22-25 Jackson Ave at 46th Ave., Long Island City
Working on your tan with a beer in hand and music to get down to is a special kind of happiness. The white gravel courtyard of P.S. 1 becomes a place to boogie on Saturdays in July through September. Most dance parties don’t offer much in the way of intellectual development, but at Warm Up, the admission includes access to the museum’s exhibitions: a perfect way to cool off or rest your dancing feet. Cover: $15 (includes admission to galleries)
Home Sweet Home
131 Chrystie St.
Down a set of unassuming stairs and past a taxidermied ferret, there is a low-ceilinged alcove where any dance move is valid. Motley gaggles of all kinds dance out their sillies here 7 nights a week, in particular on Fridays for DJ Jonathan Toubin’s Shakin’ All Over Under Sideways Down parties. Toubin’s recent recovery from an accident that left him in critical condition means that the line snakes down the block on Fridays, but the authentic 45 rpm record dance party is worth it. Cover: $3 or free most days
