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For a city that practically invented cutting a rug between courses, New York has been living under a bizarre legal buzzkill: under state liquor rules, dancing is technically banned in many restaurants. You can twirl your pasta, but twirling your body? That’s a regulatory gray area worthy of a Footloose sequel set in SoHo.
That odd little relic may finally be headed for the history books. In her 2026 State of the State address this week, Governor Kathy Hochul unveiled a plan to loosen the rules that have long treated dancing like a dangerous ingredient. Her proposal would direct the State Liquor Authority to modernize the licensing process for establishments, including creating a new hybrid restaurant-tavern license that allows dancing by default.
Right now, restaurants operate under a license that doesn’t permit dancing at all. Bars and taverns can allow it, but only if they explicitly ask. And even then, they must clear a maze of community board reviews and red tape along the way. Hochul wants to flip that script. Under her plan, approved bars and taverns would automatically be allowed to host dancing and restaurants could opt into the new hybrid license that reflects what many already are: places where people eat, drink and move a little.
The city itself scrapped its infamous Cabaret Law in 2017, finally ending decades of licensing headaches that once made dancing in public venues as complicated as opening a nightclub. But while the city moved on, state rules have quietly kept the spirit of the ban alive, especially outside full-blown clubs. Hochul’s plan aims to close that gap and bring the state in line with how nightlife actually works in 2026.
Industry groups are already cheering. The New York State Restaurant Association told the New York Post that the change is a smart way to cut red tape and the NYC Hospitality Alliance says it’s about time that the state caught up with the city on letting people dance without paperwork.
The dancing note was a small part in Hochul’s much larger State of the State symphony. Hochul’s address also rolled out plans to expand affordable child care, crack down on insurance fraud, freeze SUNY and CUNY tuition for another year, eliminate state income taxes on tips and invest billions in public safety, housing and infrastructure, including subway expansions.
But this might be the most joyful policy change of all. If Hochul gets her way, the days of technically illegal dancing could soon be over—and the city that never sleeps can finally stop pretending it never dances, either.