We only have one pair of shoes—dancing shoes—which means they certainly aren’t reserved for weekends only. Said shoes sent us questing after places to boogie down every night of the work week (after all, one person’s Monday is another’s Saturday). What we found were five parties, recurring Sunday through Thursday. Allow us to give you a peek inside and introduce you to the crowds at each. Lace up, we’re going dancing.
Furious Styles
2977 N. Elston Ave. 773-866-9898
10 p.m. No cover.
Hip-hop, soul, funk, reggae, Latin classics—that just scrapes the surface of what’s in store Wednesday nights at the Avondale bar. What makes this experience unique is that while DJ Shon Dervis spins the jams, distinguished drummer Ernie Adams adds a live element to the equation. The bar is a bit of a hole in the wall, and the low lighting and exposed brick in the front room (where the dancing goes down) only make it feel more intimate. The crowd is full of 30-somethings, but the music takes precedence here. Dancing begins to take off around midnight, and you’ll want to stick around for last call (between 1 and 1:30 a.m.)—that’s when things get really wild.
Adams bangs away at the drums for nearly three straight hours. He’s toured and played with legendary jazz musicians such as saxophonist Stanley Turrentine, pianist Ramsey Lewis and singer Joe Williams. So what’s he doing playing at a little bar in Avondale with a DJ on a weeknight? He gets that a lot. “This is my man cave,” he said (he’s got a wife and young daughter at home). The fusion Dervis and Adams create is similar to a conversation. Dervis picks the topic—maybe it’s Miles Davis or Brazilian music—and Adams responds. “I let the music tell me what to play. That’s a beautiful thing,” Adams said. “I’ll be playing … and all of a sudden, I’ll feel this energy, and I’ll open my eyes, and there will be someone dancing in front of my drums. I feed off that energy.” He’s been playing at Ñ for about seven years. He teaches jazz percussion at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and his students often go to the bar to see him play. He sums up the night like this: “Some of the funkiest, soulful music [any]where, and it’ll make you dance.”
Willow Wells used to play in a band with Dervis, and ever since she heard he was spinning at Ñ about three years ago, her Wednesday nights have been booked. “When I saw the [DJ-drummer] combination, it was perfect,” she said. She’s sang in several rap bands and said the music is the major drive, but she likes that the bar draws a lot of diversity. “You go there and see people who care about other parts of the city and know about good music,” Wells said. “There’s a big spectrum of ethnic makeup and socioeconomic [backgrounds]. Most people are just really, really into music, whether they’re dancers, musicians or just fans.”
Sensual
316 W. Erie St. 312-642-2400
More Top Picks Best Wheeled Coolers
10 p.m. No cover
Sensual isn’t an exaggeration of the vibe inside the River North bar on Wednesdays. The new night, which started in early July, is dedicated to three styles of contemporary couples dancing: Brazilian zouk, Latin bachata and kizomba from Angola. The styles share the same rhythm-heavy modern music, which at Patron’s might be anything from Beyonce to salsa-style tunes. If you’re new, don’t be shy. The dance communities around the styles are also pretty new and still growing. Dancers’ abilities run the gamut (many are students), and you’re likely to find someone who’s willing to show you the steps.
When dance instructor Chris Van Houten was a child, his favorite show was “Solid Gold.” “I was probably a toddler, going home and doing jazz dance in my apartment,” he said. The 33-year-old has been teaching zouk dancing for four years and other dance styles for 10. He said zouk feels like doing yoga. The other styles, like kizomba, are more subtle, and while both are intimate, zouk is far more pronounced. “When you look at zouk, you’re going to see a lot of hand movement, body rolls, covering a lot of ground,” he said. “It’s also very intimately connected between the partners, so the rhythms will change, it’ll speed up. … It almost looks like you’re dancing underwater. There’s a sense of that energy always flowing around.” When Van Houten started zouk, he said, there wasn’t anywhere in Chicago he could practice, so he trained in Toronto, Miami and other cities where it was starting to grow before starting the scene here. He teaches at May I Have This Dance in Forest Glen, and many of the zouk dancers at Sensual are his students. His advice to new dancers: There’s no sense of competition. “You just feel so present in your body when you are dancing because you can’t be analyzing or thinking about this or that,” he said. “You don’t have time to be self-conscious about your body.”
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