Dance Solo at Home Away From Home

It may be the only nightclub in town where you’ll never hear someone ask: “Do you want to dance?”

That’s because the movement at Dance Home in Santa Monica is almost always solo. Four nights a week the spacious hardwood floor is dotted with men and women, young and old, dancing by themselves.

“It’s uninhibited, like what you might do alone in your living room at home,” owner Randall Cooley said. “People express the feelings that the music brings out.”

L.A.-bashers would love Dance Home. Chicago columnist Mike Royko could make fun of the women who, like the character in Jules Feiffer cartoons, whirl and twirl in celebratory modern dances. Woody Allen could cast himself as the astonished visitor from New York, caught flat-footed between a gyrating elderly man in a bow tie and a gymnast dancing on his hands.

The Dance Home crowd, however, would not mind. Lack of self-consciousness is the whole point. People who barely know a left foot from a right share the floor with those who are trained in ballet and other forms of dance.

Around the room’s perimeter are forest-green futon couches. People sprawl like Bedouins, talking or doing yoga. To one side are exercise mats where tumbling takes place.

There are no cocktail bars, no waitresses hustling drinks, no smoking atmosphere. Refreshments consist of bottled water from a cooler and organic oranges, both self-serve and both free. Alcohol and tobacco are prohibited.

There is no age limit. Some people bring their children.

Dance Home is reached via a set of stairs that open onto Santa Monica Boulevard. It doubles as a dance studio by day, which explains the Spartan feel, the mirrors and the barres along the walls. UCLA and Santa Monica City College rent the room for dance instruction.

Cooley, who owns a high-end stereo shop, has pieced together an excellent sound system. Dancers find that the night’s selections depend on the disc jockey on duty. Music can range from rock to jazz to New Age to classical to funk.

Apparel is as unstructured as dance style. Express yourself, the dress code says. People wear anything from leotard and tights to shorts to jeans to evening clothes.

But what does it mean, this dancing alone? Is it a throwback to the free-form ‘60s, when people writhed singly at concerts? Is it a peek into a post-relationship future, when togetherness is futile, even for the duration of a song?

“It’s just fun,” said a young man one recent Saturday night.

“It’s nice to just let go and not worry about what your partner is doing or thinking or feeling,” a middle-aged woman said.

Whatever the reason, Dance Home appears here to stay. The club is in its 11th year. Cooley said he does not advertise because word-of-mouth attracts enough business, and the dancers prefer an uncrowded dance floor.

“There has to be enough room for people to do whatever they want,” he said.

Dance Home, 522 Santa Monica Blvd., Santa Monica. Admission is $4 on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, $5 on Fridays and Saturdays. Open 8:30 p.m. to midnight, Tuesday and Wednesday, 8:30 p.m. to 1 a.m., Friday and Saturday. (213) 395-0456.