A Ruckus of Romance

In an age of Internet flings, some singles still seek their soul mates on the sweaty, crowded dance floor.

Photos by Jessica Bal | Header photo courtesy Hot Rabbit / Gizelle Peters

Around one a.m. on a recent Friday night, two go-go dancers—one man, one woman—shimmied in unison on the small stage inside a crowded West Village basement bar. They wore identical white suit vests and their faces were both glittery with silver eye makeup. Two women rushed on stage and danced alongside them to the pulsing beat of hip-hop/electronic mash-ups. More women, and a few men, kissed, shimmied and grinded amid scattered conversations on the large mirror-lined dance floor. Upstairs, an array of young women sat on tall round stools next to the bar, arms draped around each other’s necks as they kissed. The line for the women’s restroom snuck around the front wall, and so did the mostly-female line for the men’s bathroom. A tall bald man in a suit and gray scarf cut the line.

“So is this a girl’s bar now?” he asked in a faint British accent. “There seems to be a lot of girls here.”