Moved to shake up their lives

To relieve stress and meet folks, group gets out on dance floor

On any given Friday night, Steve Carter counts on being able to "shake out the tensions" of a long work week with a couple hours of improvisational dancing.

"I'm making up moves and I'm interacting with people intuitively," Carter, a 50-year-old massage therapist from Malden, said recently. "Sometimes it's just me in the middle of the floor, and I'm not dancing with anybody, it's just me and the universe."

Whether it be overcoming the daily grind or connecting with a community of other like-minded people, that same strategy has been catching on in Brookline for the past six months, when a long-established, weekly free-dance gathering relocated to Washington Square after being held mostly in Watertown for three decades.

Sponsored by the Movement Collective, a local nonprofit that promotes dance activities in the community, Dance Fridays has been attracting a steady crowd of barefoot dancers, mostly in their 40s and 50s, drawn in at the prospect of meeting and connecting through music and movement in a drug- and-alcohol-free setting.

"When you go in, you see people doing absolutely anything," said John Voss, a Brookline resident and treasurer of the collective.

"People that are professional dancers, who are really dramatic, and people like me and others that everyone would wonder why we're on the dance floor."

Since moving to Brookline Tai Chi, a former ballroom boasting minimalist paintings, massive arched windows, and soaring ceilings, "there has been a whole influx of new regulars, which has risen the energy significantly in a very happy way," said longtime participant Aileen Gildea-Pyne of Arlington.

Similar events include Westford's Metrowest Boogie; Dance Spree in Northampton, and Barefoot Boogie in Portsmouth, N.H. Dance Freedom of Cambridge, which started in 1968, is widely considered the model for these events, which are held across the country and throughout the world.

Participants are encouraged to wear casual, comfortable clothing, and admission to the dance, which starts at 8 p.m. and goes until midnight, ranges from $8 to $12. Halfway through the evening, participants form a circle with the group facilitator, giving members a chance to make personal announcements and break for a short presentation or performance.

"It's a safe place for the husband or the wife of a couple, where one of them doesn't like to dance, and you can come here and dance alone," Gildea-Pyne said. "The connections on the dance floor are really what makes Dance Friday about the community."

Alan Bell, a 58-year-old Ayer resident who goes by DJ Alkemi, controlled the pace and rhythm of the crowd of nearly 100 participants the night after Christmas, as dancers improvised their movements to the beats and melodies of music ranging from contemporary world to hip-hop, pop, and classic rock.

"You have to appeal to a very broad cross-section of folks," said Bell, a 20-year veteran of Dance Fridays, who works by day as a financial adviser.

Watching from the sidelines, where a row of metal folding chairs along the walls remained mostly unoccupied throughout the night, an observer could watch dancers twirling, two-stepping, and shifting their arms from side to side, with or without a partner, pretty much the way they might foot it at a bar or club, but in an atmosphere that, organizers say, generates more personal expression.

"We're there because we like to move, and that's what it's all about," Voss said. "The movement and the people who like to move from their inner core, rather than from some sort of prescribed diagram."

Bell echoed that sentiment. "It's very, very different from any kind of club scene," he said, "because more than anything else, the people feel a sense of ownership over it, and I think that's a good thing."

Catching her breath for a few minutes during her first visit, Julie Carey, 27, of Lowell, said she was nervous at first but didn't take long before becoming comfortable.

"Once you get started, it's the most amazing feeling," Carey said. "It's intimidating, and then invigorating."

Sitting nearby, her friend, Bridget Mulkerrins, 24, of North Attleborough, said the sober setting was refreshing, but added that she was more interested in just taking it all in. "If you're self-conscious about dancing, then this is the place to be, because everybody seems very open."

For Carter, there with his 14-year-old daughter, Amelia, that sense of acceptance is a big part of what keeps him coming back.

"One of the best things about it is that nobody's really judging what you do. They don't care if you dance well or badly, or with a same-sex partner, or you can do whatever you want, and people are fine with it," he said. "You don't get that on a dance floor at a disco or at some bar."

Richard Thompson can be reached at thompjourn@gmail.com.