Dancing License Required--Do you have a license to Dance?

Here's the speech I gave at the Dance Parade, on Saturday, May 17, 2008.

Let me know what you think. Thank-you very much.

NYC should be the Dance Capital of the World. Yet, incredibly, it’s just the opposite. When I tell people outside NY and in NY that unless an establishment which serves food and drink has a cabaret license—people are not permitted to dance, they think I’m making it up. They just don’t believe me. Yet, the painful and unbelievable reality is that it is true. No cabaret license means no dancing in NYC. NYC is Footloose City.

This is as wrong as it can be. Dancing is an expressive activity and the government should not be regulating or prohibiting our right to dance. This needs to be changed—and the sooner the better.

It is interesting that the Courts have held that performance of topless dancing is protected expressive activity but that same constitutional protection is not applicable to social dancing. This makes no sense. For example, when it comes to music, we make no distinction between music played by musicians for their own pleasure as opposed to music performed for an audience. There should be no distinction between dancing on a dance floor and dancing on a stage. There should be no distinction between strip tease dancing and ballroom dancing.

NY’s history and tradition of free speech and free expression should protect doing the cha-cha and tango on the dance floor but that is not the law today. The current law needs to be changed. We must continue to inform fellow NYers of this unbelievable and unacceptable situation so that we can create a climate in NYC that will not accept the premise that you cannot dance in a club or bar that serves food and drink unless that establishment has a cabaret license.

Some people tell me this issue is trivial. They wonder why I push for this change. Let me tell you what I say. I say this is a civil rights issue. Our right to dance should not be conditioned on the government’s permission. And on a personal level, I love to dance and I should not need the Government’s permission to get up and boogie.

Today, at the second annual NYC Dance Parade, NYers will see the beauty and importance of dance. Please never forget that social dancing is expressive activity and needs to be protected. We can not rest until this change comes about.

We shall overcome. DANCE ON! DANCE ON!