Article: Boom Boom Out go the lights! Tough week for dancing

How do you get closure for losing three friends in five days? That was “the week that was” for sure.  

Yes, this weekend in May 2011, three of the five dance venues I went to had their final night. Two were six month old start-ups and the third was fifteen years. Similar to the demise on long running Friday Night Berkeley Dance Jam, the management of the third try “simply aged out…”.

Meta-Dance San Francisco: A real “save the last dance for me story”. Success in the San Francisco scene is thwarted more by the lack of venues than it is by enthusiastic dancers. The Women’s building was just the right minimum size, good location, but on a Monday night. Still, it pulled in 100+ dancers every week while it struggled to create a brand. Dancers showed up to dance regardless of the Metta Dance music genre of the week being played.  

Encouraging news: speaking as someone who has been to virtually every Metta Dance event, ironically the best night of all was the last night with Eric Monkhouse. The Metta Dance image was lowered and Eric turned it into a scene most like the “ecstatic barefoot boogie jam” genre from the East Bay.  

The original founders of Metta Dance took an “idea” and turned it into a functioning successful reality. The next promoter can take that into a running success. After all, there is nothing like dancing in the city except “dancing in the city”. Will another rise to take Metta Dance’s success forward, to utilize this great community space for conscious dance? Stay tuned …there are rumors.  https://www.facebook.com/mettadance