Dancing Is a Social Necessity

By Michael Demby aka Mikey Disco

Did you know that it is illegal to dance in New York City? This is no joke. It really is illegal. But why is it so illegal to dance to a jukebox, band, or DJ at every nightclub or bar except the 296 venues across the five boroughs?

Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, in 1997, waged war on the nightlife culture with his "Quality of Life" campaign, using the multi-agency Nightclub Enforcement Task Force (aka, MARCH: Multi-Agency Response to Community Hotspots). Since its creation, this task force has been cracking down on nightclub and dance venues across the tri-state, enforcing a law that was put into play over 70 years ago. Let’s take a look back into history and see how it all began.

The date is October 26, 1923 and 15 young white women are on trial after being arrested for being observed "in the company with Japanese, Filipinos, Chinese, and other Asian men." Magistrate Jessie Silberman placed Lillian Rogers, age 19, on probation for six months, to become three years in Bedford Hills prison if any such dancing were to occur again.

During that time (the 20’s), mixing of the races was a big issue, so a new law came into play when the city decided to bar dancing of any kind at any unlicensed venue. A club on east 14^{th street called Cabin had a sign above the entrance that read "Dancing is a Social Necessity" and was the first target for officials enforcing the new law.}

In 1926 the Cabaret Law was created to crack down on the mixing of cultures in New York City jazz and dance clubs. In short, the law defines a cabaret as "any room, place or space in the city in which musical entertainment, singing, dancing or other form of amusement is permitted in connection with selling food or drink, except restaurants which provide musical entertainment, without dancing, by a mechanical device (jukebox) or by no more than three persons."

In 1961 there were 12,000 liquor and cabaret licenses. This year, the law was amended requiring cabarets allowed only in manufacturing and commercial zones such as the meatpacking district. Years later in 1971, it was required that a sprinkler system be installed for clubs with occupancies greater than 75 people. In 1986, the three-person band rule was stricken from the law and 1989 brought restrictions to commercials zones making Tribeca, Soho, and the flatiron district off-limits for cabarets. These statistics, provided by the Village Voice, are astonishing.

During the Giuliani administration, deputy mayor Rudy Washington compared clubs to "buckets of blood" and with the 1995 drug overdose of Nicholas Marinella (19 years old of New Jersey), the administration redirected their attention from the Gambino mob family, their massive block parties, and the Fulton Fishmarket, to the nightclub culture. According to the New York Times, the Guiliani administration put heavy pressure on licensed venues for any violation from inadequate exits to drug use by patrons.

A new law in 2002 states that owners of nightclubs be fined up to 0,000 and have their clubs shut down if found guilty of keeping a venue allowing the use of drugs. This law, ironically called the RAVE (Reducing Americans’ Vulnerability to Ecstasy) Act, was introduced by senators Joseph Biden of Delaware and Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

In 2002, the numbers of establishments with liquor licenses became 4811 and only 296 are licensed cabarets. By 2003, the city had closed 20 places, including Limelight, Sound Factory, and the Tunnel.

Most recently, on June 24, representatives of Legalize Dancing NYC predicted that the days of banned and regulated dancing in the city were over. They spoke too soon as this hearing, held by the Department of Consumer Affairs, mainly provided a forum for a few important nightclub owners and reps to complain about issues they had with the city. Owner of Lotus and president of the New York Nightlife Association, David Rabin, used this opportunity to protest the anti-smoking legislation. He noted that most neighborhood complaints would come from the noise regenerated by the crowd congregating outside to enjoy a smoke and not from the club music itself. He then went on to suggest that nightclubs hire off-duty police officers to patrol the area for any forms of misconduct, which had been warmly supported by the PBA police union. However, this will not work when the state’s Alcohollic Beverage Control Act forbids cops from being associated with alcohol sales, thus prohibiting any security work outside bars.

A similar situation occurred in 1999 when a city community board member had the task of patrolling the Limelight every night to assess the place for noise, litter, drug use, rowdiness, and pedestrian congestion. This was one of the conditions set into play as club king Peter Gatien went on trial for tax-evasion charges in March of ’99. Limelight closed and reopened many times during Gatien’s reign until he sold it in 2002. We now know the once Episcopal gothic church as part of the worldwide Avalon chain.

As a culture of clubbers, dancers, and ravers, it is our obligation to protect our natural right to dance wherever we please. It is this natural right that allows us to have a good time, the whole reason that we go out. The purpose of this article is to inform our culture of the acts by the government against nightclub owners. There are actions we can take, such as signing the petition at www.LegalizeDancingNYC.com. Eric Demby of Legalize Dancing NYC says that "Reforming the cabaret laws can seem like this abstract thing, but we’re really after something simple: the right to dance."

Remember the 1984 movie Footloose with Kevin Bacon fighting for his right to dance? Do not let NYC become another Footloose!

Back to List