Wanna dance with somebody?
The New York State Liquor Authority is poised to let bars and restaurants allow their customers to dance without risking their liquor licenses, nearly a decade after New York City eliminated strict cabaret and zoning laws, The Post has learned.
While the cabaret laws are gone, the State Liquor Authority still requires license applicants to disclose whether they would allow dancing, effectively preventing many establishments from letting customers bust a move.
SLA board members are set to end that practice in a Thursday vote.
“The dance police is over,” liquor license attorney Max Bookman observed to The Post on Wednesday.
The SLA “will no longer require license applicants to respond to questions in the license application concerning patron dancing,” according to an advisory posted on the agency’s website.
Applicants will be able to skip or leave those questions blank without impacting their approval, according to the document.
The board typically approves advisories once they are put up for a vote, said Bookman, who is also counsel to the New York City Hospitality Alliance, which supports the proposal.
The agency’s change of heart, according to the advisory, is “consistent with Gov. Kathy Hochul’s support of live performances and patron dancing as well as the repeal of New York City’s Cabaret Law.”
Under the status quo, making establishments disclose their dancing rules serves as a deterrent — many community boards oppose liquor license applications for establishments that allow dancing, experts told The Post.
Some community boards are expected to push back on the SLA’s upcoming decision.
The measure will have no impact on strip clubs that feature pole dancing and lap dancing. Exotic dancing venues will still need to disclose their practices to the SLA, according to the advisory.
Cabaret dancing in the city was banned during Prohibition in the 1920s.
The ban came back with Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s quality-of-life crackdowns including nightclub raids in the 1990s.
The city formally overturned the dancing ban in 2017, under then-Mayor Bill de Blasio.
The SLA did not immediately respond to a Post request for comment.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
