In 1983 I was in
New York for my first time after a diving shoot with
Pink Floyd in the
Caribbean (
link below). My friend Yuval took me around to some of the hot disco spots, the only one I remember is the
Danceteria. It was jammed & noisy, of course, & incredibly exciting.
Danceteria was a nightclub that operated in
New York City from 1979 until 1986. The club was located in various locations over the years, a
total of three in
New York City and four in the
Hamptons. The most
famous location, opened in February 1982, was the second location, a four-floor venue at 30 West
21st Street in
Manhattan that served as the location for the disco scene in the film
Desperately Seeking Susan.
In 1982, John Argento hired
Jim Fouratt and Rudolf Piper to promote and book the
talent which became the 21st Street
Danceteria. The club operated out of
the first three floors in an old industrial 12-story building. (Later
the 4th floor was used as Congo Bill, and the abandoned 5th floor was
once used as a performance space by
Karen Finley.) The roof was also open in the warmer months with frequent barbecues.
Danceteria roof top - 1983
photo by Robert Carrithers
It was an incubator for era-defining figures such as
Madonna,
Devo,
B-52's, the
Beastie Boys, and pop artist
Keith Haring. There was hedonism, of course — at one point, employees had to rig special sheets of lucite to keep cocaine out of the AV equipment. New York's
Daily News called the atmosphere "hard-edged, smoky, and menacing — in a cartoon sort of way." The club was, according to that outlet, "a punk version of Disneyland."
Adam Horovitz described the second
Danceteria as "the closest thing we had in Manhattan to an amusement park."
Horovitz gave a detailed account of the club's layout: First there was the basement, where "weird stuff would go on" and the
goth crowd tended to congregate, especially after Danceteria's management painted it black and started hosting "BatCave" goth nights there in 1983. The main floor hosted live bands, while now-legendary DJ Mark Kamins held court on the dance floor one flight up. The third level was devoted to a first-of-its-kind experimental video lounge where video artists Kit Fitzgerald and John Sanborn curated film and video pieces by David Lynch, Kenneth Anger, and groundbreaking video artist
Nam June Paik. The vibe changed again on the fourth floor, which was devoted to a swanky, members-only club called Congo Bill, which mixed midcentury music with retrofuturistic décor. Finally, there was the rooftop, which, when the weather allowed, became an open-air party and dance space known as "Wuthering Heights."
The patrons often found themselves dancing to punk one minute and funk the next. While
Danceteria was first and foremost a music club, music was far from the only artform that awaited club-goers on any given floor of the multilevel space. There was also a strong emphasis on visual arts, and on any given night you might've seen the work of some of the New York art scene's most vibrant creators.
Keith Haring and
Jean-Michel Basquiat were recruited to paint murals on the walls (though Basquiat was promptly fired by club co-founder Rudolph Piper, who claimed his work on the job was "f****** terrible.") The venue regularly hosted fashion shows and exhibitions showcasing a wide range of visual and performance art, including paintings, photography, "light sculptures" projected from the rooftop, and more. Filmmakers such as Jim Jarmusch screened their work there, and up in the third-level video lounge, you might have caught early creations by video art pioneer
Nam June PAIK (백남준).
According to Stacy Gueraseva's 2011 book "Def Jam, Inc.,"
Def Jam Recordings founder Russell Simmons, who frequented the venue, would sometimes tip the bartenders with vials of cocaine. When those clubs wound down for the night, their patrons made their way to
Danceteria, where the party was just getting started. "The five floors of this supermarket of style were where gays, straights, artists, junkies,
goths,
skinheads, lost uptowners, sexy Jersey chicks, pinheads,
Studio 54 leftovers, B&Ts ['bridge-and-tunnels,' or people from New York City's outer boroughs or suburbs], weirdos from outer space,
drag queens,
S&M freaks,
hookers, performers of all sorts, East Villagers galore, not to mention musicians of all kinds, got together,"
Danceteria co-founder Rudolph Piper told Time Out in 2014.
Rudolph Piper (left)
photo by Robert Carrithers
In 1982, Michigan-to-New York City transplant
Madonna Ciccone was trying everything she could think of to break out of the New York club scene and into the mainstream spotlight. She had gigged around town in a couple of bands, drumming and singing for the
Breakfast Club before fronting Emmy and the Emmys, but nothing stuck. She was reportedly so ambitious and competitive that some of her fellow club denizens held her at arm's length, but she found a willing partner — musically, professionally, and romantically — in music producer and
Danceteria DJ
Mark Kamins. After the two started dating,
Madonna convinced Kamins to play a demo of her first solo single, "Everybody," at
Danceteria. The crowd responded fairly well, and Kamins, who was also working for
Island Records at the time, took it to label honcho
Chris Blackwell. Blackwell was unimpressed, so Kamins' next stop in his
Madonna promo tour was
Seymour Stein of
Sire Records. According to an interview with Kamins conducted by author and historian
Tim Lawrence, Stein didn't like Madonna's music either, but he trusted Kamins and signed her anyway. She made her debut at Danceteria on December 16, 1982, for an audience of 300. I missed her debut by less than a month; I was there in January of 1983.
On July 23, 1993, A gunman fired into the
Danceteria club. Eric Tallman (Erotic Exotic) was injured when the bullet grazed his skull. Fortunately, I missed that by ten years.
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"I was there seven nights a week, week after week,”
“I never thought it would end.
It wasn’t just a club; it was a lifestyle.”
~ Rudolf Piper
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