If you’ve ever been at a bar or music venue in NYC and observed a sign that read ‘NO DANCING’, you may have assumed it was a joke. It was no joke, and venues can be fined or even temporarily shut down thanks to a ridiculous 1926 law requiring a cabaret license that was later reinforced by Mayor Giuliani in the 90’s. In the past year Williamsburg venue Muchmore’s has been suing the city to fight the law, and now Rough Trade is looking to obtain one of unreasonably hard to get licenses. From DNAinfo:

the year-and-a-half old venue recently applied for the license to dance. General manager Hal Gould said at about 5 percent of the concerts, people wanted to move to the beat, but Rough Trade legally wasn’t supposed to let them do it. “People want to dance,” Gould said. “We don’t want to tell them they can’t.”

They were able to convince Community Board 1’s State Liquor Committee of the merits of dancing and now the application will shimmy its way to next step:

Ultimately, the committee gave a nod to Rough Trade, whose application will go to the full board next week before going to the Department of Consumer Affairs. “We know they’ve been dancing,” Solano said. “Get out of here. Get the approval to dance.”

Let’s hope this goes through and helps pave the way for legal dancing all over the city.



Read more at DNA info.

– @joshmorrissey