Dance Club

After a two-year battle with North Laurel residents and state and local government, Howard County's only all-nude dance club permanently has closed its doors.Good Guys, a North Laurel club that opened four years ago at 9920 U.S. 1, closed April 8. Owner Benham Zanganeh said his business lost thousands of dollars in revenue because of state restrictions imposed on nude dancing in 1992."We're not making any money," Mr. Zanganeh said. "It's just not worth my efforts."He is looking to sell his portion of the business to two investors who own 10 percent of the dance club's management company, called the 9920 Corp.

For more than 22 years, Friday Night Swing Club has welcomed thousands of dancers 16 and older of every ability to tango, cha-cha, foxtrot, jitterbug, salsa, waltz, hustle and others, from 9 p.m. to midnight Friday nights. The club started at the ROTC building at Johns Hopkins University, then moved to the Boomi Temple on Charles Street until that property was sold to Loyola University Maryland. Through the years, the club's home has been the Scottish Rite Temple in Tuscany-Canterbury, Tall Cedars Club and the Towson Armory.

After a two-year battle with North Laurel residents and state and local government, Howard County's only all-nude dance club has permanently closed its doors.Good Guys, a North Laurel club that opened four years ago at 9920 U.S. 1, closed April 8. Owner Benham Zanganeh said his business lost thousands of dollars in revenue because of state restrictions imposed on nude dancing in 1992."We're not making any money," Mr. Zanganeh said. "It's just not worth my efforts."He is looking to sell his portion of the business to two investors who own 10 percent of the dance club's management company, called the 9920 Corp.

At 2 a.m. last Saturday, small clusters of people - young, old, black, white, suburbanites and city dwellers - made their way to a cavernous warehouse underneath the Baltimore-Washington Parkway. It was the same excursion thousands of others have made over the past 21 years to the Paradox, the 13,000-square-foot renovated warehouse in the outskirts of Baltimore. The club, alongside Club Fantasy (since closed) and Club Choices, is where B-more Club music, the furiously aggressive strain of hip-hop and house, was cultivated and finessed - where DJs K-Swift and Ultra Nate got started.

A U.S. District Court judge has ruled that Good Guys Bar & Grill, a nude dance club in North Laurel, no longer can let patrons drink alcohol if it continues to feature nude dancing.But the owner of the nearly 3-year-old club already plans an appeal and says he will deny patrons the privilege of bringing alcohol into the club rather than halt nude dancing."It's obviously a sad day for me," said Behnam Zanganeh, 48, who sued to block a state law prohibiting alcohol and nude dancing in a public place.

FRIENDSHIP SQUARES Square Dance Club is sponsoring an American Lung Association of Maryland benefit dance from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m. March 23 at North County High School, 10 E. First Ave.The dance program will include square, round and country line dancing. There will be refreshments, door prizes, a raffle and a 50/50 drawing.Admission is $4 a person for square dancers, and a donation will be requested from nondancers. Donald and Linda Hampshire are co-chairs for the event.The Friendship Squares have been dancing together for 25 years.

Three men were shot and killed in separate incidents in Baltimore yesterday, police reported. A 19-year-old man died of gunshot wounds after a confrontation that started at a downtown dance club turned deadly, police said. Homicide Detective John G. Thanner identified the victim as Jawan A. Jackson and said he was living with his grandmother in Baltimore County. The detective would not further identify the address, saying the investigation was continuing. "He [Jackson] or his friends were involved in an argument at a club at Eutaw and Mulberry streets called the Tunnel," Thanner said.

Baltimore County police have increased patrols around a popular Towson nightclub for teen-agers because it attracts hundreds of patrons and might be connected to a few minor scuffles. As many as 600 teen-agers converge on Generation Xtremes, in the 400 block of York Road, on Friday and Saturday nights to dance at what is billed as one the area's largest teen dance clubs. Police said that although the crowd is generally well-behaved and the club is well-run, added officers will help ensure safety.

Fifteen-year-old Kelly Morlan was "jamming" in Edgewater last week. Snapping her fingers to the latest Michael Jackson hit, she swayed down the street to advertise a new teen dance club.Called Silopanna in Motion, the Annapolis club is an updated, flashy version of 1950s sock hops for the MTV generation. But the laser lights and big-screen television are about to fade -- just two weeks after the first dance -- unless the founder can come up with more money.Michael Mackessy, who started the Friday-night dances at Annapolis High School, needs at least $2,000 to keep the club going until the first taped videos are aired on local cable stations.

It is called Facade -- and to Baltimore officials, that's an apt name.The city contends that the building at 5507 Reisterstown Road in Northwest Baltimore, originally zoned as a restaurant with dancing, is not a restaurant at all but a front for an unlicensed after-hours dance club.City officials are moving aggressively to shut it down. They are being backed in their efforts by area police and business leaders, who say the teen-age and young adult patrons of Facade create problems with vandalism and crowd control outside the club.

The Paradox, the sprawling dance club near M&T Bank Stadium, will close temporarily for renovations in January. The club will close the third weekend in January for four to five weeks, said promoter Lisa Suit. It plans on upgrading the sound system, DJ booth, and adding new seating, an outside deck, and a lounge area. The club will still host parties until late January, including a recently announced dance marathon January 14. The party is in honor of the 20th anniversary of Murk, the Miami house music production team that has had several hits on the Billboard dance charts.

My first visit to the new Inner Harbor club and music venue Baltimore Soundstage was inauspicious. Though it had been open for a week, its bar was limping along without liqueurs or vermouth; only a few domestic beers - by the bottle - were on sale. The kitchen hadn't come online yet. And the place was so empty it echoed. It was about 1 a.m. and only a few inebriated stragglers remained from the Monday night party Noise in the Basement. But the night wasn't a total bust, thanks to the two bartenders on duty.

The fourth season of 'The Jersey Shore' - in Italy - premieres tonight and producers say it's the craziest shows yet. Somehow, that's not hard to believe. The cast is back on U.S. soil, though, and already filming the next season from Seaside Heights, N.J. But Vinny Guadagnino is taking some time out of the house to visit Ocean City next week - maybe that explains those rumors that Vinny has left the cast . On Aug. 10, Guadagnino will get the party started around 9 p.m. at H20 nightclub - an under 21 dance club - just off the boardwalk on Worcester Street, before moving on to The Party Block , for the adults, at around 11 p.m. The clubs are hosting MTV celebrities every Wednesday night throughout summer.

On an old "Seinfeld" episode, George gets invited to a dance club where the dress code is "smart casual." Stumped, he asks Jerry, "What is that?" "I don't know," Jerry replies, "but you don't have it." Let's hope the people who live by Baltimore Country Club's Five Farms course in Lutherville not only know what constitutes "country club casual," but have it. Otherwise, they won't be able to drive to or from their houses for nearly a week. The country club sent a letter to neighbors recently alerting them that a stretch of Mays Chapel Road will be closed Sept.

Picking the perfect house-party playlist can be a tricky task. Maybe you'll start with a little Bob Marley, ease into some vintage James Brown and then go full throttle with Justin Timberlake's new single. Or you could spice it up with an '80s monster ballad or two somewhere in the middle. Playlists - which can be burned onto a CD or uploaded into an iPod - are this generation's mixtapes. They set the tone for home parties and the pace in the gym. Music downloading Web sites such as iTunes have made millions of songs available, allowing average house-party hosts to easily play DJ for their friends.

Chris Mayne is almost as surprised as his partner, Sarah Jones, at how smoothly they're moving with this ballroom dancing thing. Mayne, 17, is the giddy one as he extends his arm while Jones, 15, firmly grasps his hand and as gracefully as possible spins away from him. "We're good," Mayne, a senior, announced over the music, chatter and laughter filling the cafeteria at Winters Mill High in Westminster. "I'm so proud of myself," Jones, a junior, said as Mayne reeled her back in. It appears the two were born for swing dancing.

Until it closed in 1994, Finkelstein's was a landmark in downtown Towson, a place to go for high-quality sportswear -- brands like JanSport, Timberland, Gant and Duck Head. But none of that matters to Carl Yungmann and Bob Schmuff or to the teen-agers they hope to attract to a new under-21 dance club they're opening in the old Finkelstein's building. This time, the name brands in demand will be Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and the Backstreet Boys. Generation Xtremes will open May 18 in the 400 block of York Road, where the clothing store was in business for six decades.

The fourth season of 'The Jersey Shore' - in Italy - premieres tonight and producers say it's the craziest shows yet. Somehow, that's not hard to believe. The cast is back on U.S. soil, though, and already filming the next season from Seaside Heights, N.J. But Vinny Guadagnino is taking some time out of the house to visit Ocean City next week - maybe that explains those rumors that Vinny has left the cast . On Aug. 10, Guadagnino will get the party started around 9 p.m. at H20 nightclub - an under 21 dance club - just off the boardwalk on Worcester Street, before moving on to The Party Block , for the adults, at around 11 p.m. The clubs are hosting MTV celebrities every Wednesday night throughout summer.

Anne Arundel County may be known as the seat of state government, home of the Naval Academy and an area rich in maritime traditions - but after a full day of history, education and enlightenment, it's time for a little entertainment. From sophisticated theater and classical music to high-energy bar bands and amateur boxing, the county offers a wide variety of live entertainment, holding its own against the hot spots of nearby Baltimore and Washington. Among the top picks for those seeking to sample the local nightlife: Annapolis Summer Garden Theatre, 143 Compromise St., Annapolis, 410-268-9212, www.summergarden.

IT'S FRIDAY NIGHT IN Greater Severna Park. Do you know where your teen-agers are? Chances are, if they're middle schoolers, they're at the Severna Park Dance Club at the Severna Park Elks Lodge on Truck House Road. In the lodge's large auditorium, the young teens listen to their favorite recorded songs and watch music videos on a big screen. Sometimes, they even practice a couple of moves like they think the older teens are doing at the Columbian Center on Ritchie Highway or the Holy Grounds Youth Center on Old B&A Boulevard.