UP ALL NIGHT / JEANNINE STEIN : If You Disco, You Should Catch This One

The lack of attitude at Catch One is refreshing. You show your ID to a woman who has “Shorty” embroidered on her white jacket, you’re quickly frisked with a metal detector by the affable security guard and you’re in.

So when a boisterous group of young women begin shouting angrily at Shorty, who won’t let them in because one member of the group won’t turn 21 for another hour, you find them especially offensive. You wish they would go away. After some ugly name-calling and a little shoving they do, and calm returns to the street.

While climbing the stairs, the sound of Martha Wash’s vocals pops out of the sound system in high-energy dance mixes. A huge mauve neon “Disco” sign announces the main dance room with its danceateria-style expansive floor with a bar on one side and bleacher-type seating running the perimeter.

The relentless funk-pop tracks attract incredible dancers, human vortexes who spin with apparent weightlessness, feet moving in fast-forward time, eyes set in concentration. Twirling lights catch them in stop-motion mid-whirl before they plunge into darkness again.

You can dance, you can watch the dancers, you can dance while you’re watching other dancers.

Catch One attracts a mixed-race crowd of gay and straight men and women. According to Carlton Youngblood, who describes himself as the club’s CEO, “Everyone is welcome. We have people calling from the airport who want to know where Catch One is.”

People come dressed in everything from Ozzie-and-Harriet middle-American prep to mean-street leather jackets with bandannas and crucifixes to ‘60s flower-power styles.

The club is in the midst of ongoing renovation, but there is room to roam, with a smaller downstairs disco, a room with a bar away from the madding crowd (called the “Roots Room,” with an African motif) and a pool table. Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays there is live music, deejays spin records the other nights. Catch One also operates as a community service center, holding health education seminars, political forums and cultural events.

A couple of hours after refusing admission to the almost-birthday girl, Shorty is still checking IDs and bantering with patrons outside. She seems to have all but forgotten that brief altercation. “It’s OK,” she says, shrugging the incident off. “Most people are really nice. What can I tell you--I love my job.”

* Name: Catch One, 4067 W. Pico Blvd., (213) 734-8849. Open 365 days a year, hours vary.

* Cover: Varies from $3 to $10, depending on the night and time.

* Doormen: An ID-checker and security guard who’ll frisk you with a metal detector.

* Drinks: Start at $2.25.

* Expected longevity: Considering it’s been open 19 years, its future looks bright.