Dancers stake out turf on BART

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle Member of the Turf Feinz Eric "eNinga" Davis, 26, flips...

A recent Friday, 1:37 p.m.: Calling themselves the Turf Feinz, the four members of the Turf dance crew dart through a BART train headed for San Francisco. They need to find the next audience to wow before the doors open at Embarcadero Station.

Settling on a car with plenty of seated passengers and hardly any standing, Donald “Lavish” Brooks, 20, announces, “Yo yo, what’s up ladies and gentlemen! Sorry to interrupt you. We are the Turf nation, and we are here to entertain you. If you have cameras, now would be a good time to take them out.”

First up is Dimonte “Bad” Lacy, 16, who glides onto an open part of the car floor. It’s a stage that moves at 70 mph through the darkness of the Transbay Tube. He twists his arms around his head as though they were made of rubber, in moves known as “bone breaking.” Lacy says it took more than three months of painful stretching to learn the simplest maneuver.

Next up is veteran Turf dancer Eric “eNinga” Davis, 26, who holds onto the handrails above and flips head over heels, landing on the floor in a full split.

Brooks and Denzel “Chonkie” Worthington, 26, then take turns with the final moves, their soundtrack provided by a small, battery-powered speaker pumping music from a smartphone. When the show is over, Lacy makes his way through the audience with a shoe box, looking for monetary appreciation for Turf’s energized entertainment.

By the end of three hours of near-nonstop performing, the shoe box is filled to the brim with money, including a $100 bill.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle Diana Santos, 2, of El Sobrante, puts a dollar in the shoebox after...

The Turf Feinz are not alone in taking dance to public transit. In the New York subway, there’s hip-hop pole dancing and flexing. The Paris Metro has its own brand of hip-hop. The BART crew does a style called Turf dancing — Taking Up Room on the Floor — said to have started in the streets of Oakland as an alternative to gang violence. Many of the styles overlap, and YouTube videos are the common thread.

“For a lot of these dancers, this is all they have,” Brooks said. “Dancing is their life. It’s raw energy. We really give our all, because people don’t just pay for anything. They pay for really good dancing.”

The Turf Feinz started out at the Powell and Market cable-car turnaround, but were banned for having amplified music. One afternoon while riding BART home to the East Bay, Brooks dared a friend to dance on the train. That first bold effort yielded a $60 take.

A year and half later, the Turf Feinz can be found on BART just about every day except Mondays and Tuesdays. Brooks says riders are usually grumpier early in the week and less receptive to Turfing.

Photo: Mike Kepka, The Chronicle Member of the Turf Feinz Eric "eNinga" Davis snaps a photo of his...

“It just crazy how something like a dare can turn into a whole phenomenon,” Lavish said.

Their form of entertainment does come with its challenges. While dancing on BART is legal, amplified music is still a no-no. Brooks says he shuts down the show if a rider complains, but on this day there wasn’t a protest.

“Dancing is an outlet to stay off the street for me,” Worthington said. “It’s about staying focused and staying positive.”

To see a multimedia production of this piece, go to www.sfchronicle.com/takecityexposed. If you have ideas for the City Exposed, e-mail Mike Kepka at mkepka@sfchronicle.com.