I went to Barefoot Boogie in Berkeley Sunday night and had a wonderful time. I am a freestyle dancer and I go to other dances around the Bay area, mostly Dance Jam on Friday nights. I got there about 8 PM and the room was a beautiful suspended hardwood floor with a plush couch and yoga mats in the corner. The room was lit by those little colored light strings and I didn’t need to put in ear plugs as the volume was medium and I could even be in front of the speakers with no pain.
What I am really writing about is the dance and the dancers. The dance is called freestyle, or barefoot boogie style. The music changes all night long from slow in the beginning to fast to a slow wind down. I was exhausted after an hour’s wonderful workout of movement – I did my ballet and jazz steps and briefly experimented with a couple of partners in a dance style called “Contact Improv”.
Some people wore split sole dance slippers, more were barefoot , some with tape on their toes.
Surprisingly there were as many men as women, with ages from 18 to late fifties. Everyone was physically fit and flexible and the dancers danced together or just ‘with the room, i.e. everybody’.
This place is sort of a dancer’s secret – Sunday night 7:30 to 11 PM. I did have to give up my TV and HBO series, but I closed out my weekend and was ready for Monday with a new spirit.