FINDING MYSELF AT THE DISCO — THE PYRAMID CLUB AT 42 YEARS WILL NOT REOPEN AND I’M DEVASTATED
Today is a very sad day for me and other New Yorker’s who love to dance and who used to visit The Pyramid Club NYC. It was announced that the storied club — 42 years of age this year — is not going to reopen.
Many of you know that this was my happy place, and that I so loved seeing the manager and the DJ there, and bringing friends and family along to have a great time. Hell, I celebrated my 50th bday there!
In honor of the club, herewith is a short piece I wrote and posted on Facebook back in January 2019. XXOO
Most people who know me, know that I love to dance. Any time someone suggests dancing, I am in. But I’m not a dancer. I wasn’t that great at ballet or Tap which I took as a child, and I had to really work at it when I was in musicals or when I took modern dance in high school and had to perform and get the steps right. The structure of it wasn’t in tune to my natural freewheeling style.
I remember all the disco Bar and Bat Mitzvah parties in the late 70s and early 80s and I still remember how light hearted it made me feel to dance to songs by Kool and the Gang, the Bee Gees, Donna Summer, and KC and the Sunshine Band, just to name a few. The music just makes you happy. There isn’t anything serious about that disco beat or the synthesizers that played in the back. And with lyrics like “You can ring my bell” or “I’m Coming Out,” one can’t help but feel empowered, at any age.
Disco dancing is a time to escape, to get in touch with the center of your body, and there are no rules at all in your moves. You can just be free and wild. It can’t be a coincidence that when you go to another country and want to go dancing, there are lots of disco and 80s clubs.
There have been many years where I didn’t go dancing, but no more. I’ve rediscovered myself and my love of this type of dance here in New York at the Pyramid Club. Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, this bare-bones club on Ave. A is still going strong, with a Mrs. Pacman and Rubik’s cube motif painted in neon on black walls. Still cash only, drinks are dirt cheap and the cover charge is minimal. But those details don’t even matter. It’s the 70s and 80s music that they feature every week that makes this place one in a million.
I was just there with a girlfriend, and as soon as we walked in the door at about 9:45 p.m., we knew we were in the right place. And we started dancing, with huge grins on our faces, to Le Freak by Chic, and then Michael Jackson, and then the Village People, and then . . .. the list goes on and on. They started playing more punk and straight forward eighties pop at about 11 p.m., so Blondie and Madonna came on and we were still happy as clams.
And, I danced so hard. I jumped and turned and hustled. I shagged (the dance!) with a young man who looked like Harry Potter, and couldn’t have been more than twenty-two years old, but he knew all the songs.
Disco is a barrier breaker. All of the people in the club on Friday night — all ages, ethnicities, genders and orientations — were there for one reason — to dance! And we all were having the best time.
Yes, being fifty-two years old has its downfalls when it comes to this — I am not as limber as my twenty-something dance partner, and I could barely walk when I got home. My right hip hurt and so did my knees, but I could feel that afterglow.
So, next month, around this time, you may very well find me at the Pyramid Club . .. . because I’ve found my happy place. Here’s to the Talking Heads, David Bowie, Queen, George Michaels, The Trammps, Earth, Wind and Fire, Rod Stewart, Alicia Bridges, Diana Ross, Squeeze, Elvis Costello and many, many more artists who changed the face of music and dance. I love you all and find myself in your tunes.
