The best places to dance in NYC
We've got the scoop on the best spots to dance in NYC including cozy dives and famous big-room clubs

Get ready to shake your rump and bust a move at the best places to dance in NYC. While we certainly love frequenting the best clubs in NYC, there's also much love to be shown for the non-clubs providing top-notch DJ mixes to groove to. To make the hunt for the best dance club (or bar) easier for you, we’ve rounded up the top spots where you can boogie. Some are big, some are small, some are dive bars, and some are clubs—but they are all roomy and fun to get down at with your friends. When the dancing fatigue sets in, head to one of these haunts for tasty bar food and snacks to refuel.
RECOMMENDED: Full guide to NYC nightlife
Best places to dance in NYC
House of Yes
This wild Bushwick spot opened in 2016 and quickly established itself as a reliable way for Brooklyn revelers to wear insane costumes and lose their inhibitions just about every weekend. With exhibitionist parties like “House of Love” and the immersive “Little Cinema” film tributes, along with a panoply of aerialists, magicians and dancers on retainer, House of Yes is constantly inventing new ways to make a night out more than just drinks at the bar.
Good Room
Located in the home of former Polish bottle service venue Club Europa, Good Room was redesigned by nightlife impressario Steve Lewis and opened in October 2014. The main room was designed with the DJ in mind with a perfectly placed booth, solid sound system, ample dance floor and small stage for performances. Off that, a massive square bar boasts friendly bartenders and surprisingly reasonable drink prices, while a third smaller room—the Bad Room, as it were—houses a massive wall of vinyl and another DJ set-up for separate tunes.
Bembe
At this unmarked hideaway under the Williamsburg Bridge, the swinging clientele dances by candlelight to Latin-infused beats laid down by sexy DJs. Take a breather from the samba or salsa and refuel with tequila shots at the sleek wooden bar. Regulars swear by the unusual post-shot practice of dipping one side of the lime in fresh-ground coffee and the other in sugar. You’ll have to try it for yourself.
Black Flamingo
Amid the handful of both legit and underground DIY venues popping up left and right (and vanishing just as quickly) in Brooklyn, here's a spot that we're sure is here to stay. Battery Harris's David Shapiro and Etan Fraiman, Soul Clap's Eli Goldstein, M.A.N.D.Y.'s Philipp Jung and Wolf + Lamb's Gadi Mizrahi are all scene veterans behind the Williamsburg venue, which focuses on “music, sound and intimacy.”
Photograph: Daniel Leinweber for Razberry Photography
C’mon Everybody
Decked out in surprisingly convincing ’70s decor, this Brooklyn lounge puts its sizeable performance space to a diverse number of uses: the eclectic calendar of live music and DJ sets ranges from groovy funk combos to blippy synth-pop acts. Regardless of what you stumble upon, though, you’ll find plenty of dance space available for showcasing your latest moves.
Beauty Bar
This salon-turned-saloon salutes bygone glamour days—the decor ranges from Aqua Net to helmet-style hair dryers. Nightly DJs provide a loud punk-to-funk soundtrack that makes the pretty young things shake their shags and toss back the free Blue Rinse margarita (tequila, curaçao, lime juice) that comes with a $10 manicure.
Baby’s All Right
This eatery, bar and stage, located on a happening little Williamsburg strip, is a local musical institution with its lively schedule of au courant musical acts and DJs that range from experimental (Pharmakon) to the voguish (Ariel Pink). And the food's pretty good too.
Bossa Nova Civic Club
This “tropical fantasy dance club” is another staple in the thriving Bushwick scene, setting itself apart from competitors with its legitimate sound system and consistently hot lineups of underground house and techno DJs manning the decks. The bar only opened in December 2012, but has already made a big name for itself in the community, curating its own stage at Sustain-Release—going into a second edition this September—and hosting numerous industry pioneers. Bossa's “DJ résumé” continues to impress—highlights include Adam X, Ron Morelli, Heather Heart, Marcos Cabral, Reade Truth, Jamie xx, Henning Baer and Mike Simonetti.
Brooklyn Bowl
This bowling alley and live music venue fully embraces the new mania for local nostalgia. The space takes its design cues from Coney Island, with old freak-show posters and carnival-game relics, and all of the beer on offer—by Sixpoint, Kelso and the Brooklyn Brewery—is made in the borough. It's a great place to kill a few hours with a big, rowdy group: You can tackle a pitcher and the stoner-food menu from the Blue Ribbon team (delicious fatty brisket, Old Bay–fried chicken) laneside between frames. The plush tufted couches are the most luxurious alley seating we’ve ever seen.
The Ditty
This Astoria haunt is self-described as “your friendly neighborhood cocktail bar,” but it’s actually more than that. It doubles as a rustic and relaxed dinner and brunch spot, and moonlights as a lively bar where game-playing fiends congregate to play classics from your childhood like Guess Who?, Uno and Scrabble. The spot is also known to host bangin' dance parties.
Output
This multiroom dance club was hailed as the savior of NYC nightlife even before it opened in 2013. Since then, it has provided reliable house- and techno-heavy bookings and a general lack of bottle-service inanity, along with a great sound system and firm commitment to the underground. In addition to the main space, the club often features music in its Panther Room and rooftop bar.
Cielo
You’d never guess from the Heidi Montag wanna-bes hanging out in the neighborhood that the attitude at this club is close to zero, at least once you get past the bouncers guarding the door. On the sunken dance floor, hip-to-hip crowds gyrate to deep beats from top DJs, including NYC old-schoolers François K, Tedd Patterson and Louie Vega. Cielo, which features a crystal-clear sound system, has won a bevy of Best Club awards in its half-decade of existence—and it deserves them all.
Enid’s
Hanging at Enid’s is like being a kid and spending the weekend at the cool house down the street, where you could play the most radical video games and the parents let you drink. On the weekends, Enid’s—presided over by a life-size gold camel—is the perfect spot to dance to throwback jams from the '90s to the hits from today. You’ll never want to go home.
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Comments
Retroclubnyc
Nostalgia: Right now, it’s the lifeline New Yorkers are desperately clinging to, just to get us through some tough times. Look no further than Chelsea newcomer Retroclubnyc, an old-school dance club geared toward people in their thirties and forties rather than the usual crowd of twentysomethings. The lack of blatant signage outside the bar evokes a speakeasy, with only a bouncer to indicate you’ve arrived. Inside, four bartenders work a long, black bar lit with lamps made from booze decanters. On the decent-sized dance floor in the back, a woman whips her hair around under three glittering disco balls. A recent Friday night had the DJ spinning ‘90s club hits, followed by James Brown, Donna Summer and Michael Jackson. There’s currently no cover charge and Retroclubnyc is also planning theme nights; One friendly bartender mentioned that they were working on a drag night for Halloween. For a blast from the past, go way back with the slightly herbal Sloe Gin Fizz ($12), the Galliano-doused Harvey Wallbanger ($12) or the zingy tang of gin and lemon juice that is a Tom Collins ($10). Relive your 20s and order the vodka and Midori Melon Ball ($12) or the SoCo and amaretto Alabama Slammer ($12). Try specialty shots like the Mind Eraser, B-52 or Irish Car Bomb (all $8). You can also splurge on signature cocktails like the Retro with gin and St. Germaine, the Coco-Loco Martini with Godiva liqueur, or the Mia-Pia Margarita (all $17). Throwback drinks are $8 during happy hour on Thursd
Venue says: “Doors open 5pm thurs-fri with 2-for-1 Happy Hour - 9pm thurs-sat featuring the best dance music from the 70s, 80s, 90s to today!”
just use the vibekid app. Only you know what you like, thats a way to open question.
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Come on Time Out NY. You wanna tell me that you scoured our metropolis for great places to dance and the best you came up with was a list of 10 out of which 8 are in Brooklyn (7 in Williamsburg) and one is Cielo (d'oh)? Seriously, you could have done better than that.
Do you know of better places? Do tell!
Lol I was just thinking the same thing! This list is old but even when it was in date it isn’t close to the best of the best... A “PC” (politically correct) attempt at keeping the Boro’s happy is all well and good, but to have virtually nothing in Manhattan and to have Cielo be the best we can do is just redic.!
great places to know