Dance Club

The under-21 crowd will soon be able to boogie to techno music, without imbibing spirits, at a new nonalcoholic dance club called Bonkers.Soda for a buck will be the drink of the day when the 7,200-square-foot club opens Oct. 8 inside the Tradersmart at the Beltway Shopping Center in Glen Burnie. Light snacks, such as hot dogs, pizza and nachos, will also go for a dollar.A $5 admission charge, to help keep the price of food and drinks low, will be charged at the door, said Chuck Jackson, 43, who will run the club.

Herb and Mary Ellen Saffield used to do the jitterbug, but now they do the tush push and the slap leather.The Pasadena couple have given up their '50s dance style to don cowboy hats and boots and hit the floor to participate in America's latest craze -- country line dance.And they're pretty good at it, too. After only one year of dancing, the Saffields are scheduled to compete in September in the Capital Classic Line Dance Competition, believed to be the first line dance competition in the mid-Atlantic region.

The owner of a North Laurel nude dancing club has agreed to require that his performers wear G-strings -- at least until he gets a legal opinion determining whether the establishment is a private club.But Benham Zangenah, the owner of Good Guys Bar & Grill, accepted the compromise after state and county officials said he was violating a state law prohibiting the consumption of alcoholic beverages in public establishments that offer nude dancing. He also agreed to keep patrons at least 6 feet away from performers.

A North Laurel bar known for its scantily clad dancers turned in its liquor license yesterday and changed its format to a bring-your-own-booze private club with nude dancers.Without a liquor license, Good Guys Bar & Grill is no longer subject to the regulations of the Howard County Liquor Board, which in April fined the bar over its dancers and suspended its liquor license.Thomas Meachum, the attorney representing the restaurant, said the move was prompted by financial problems.He said that Benham Zangenah, owner of the restaurant, told him it had been difficult to maintain financial viability under the liquor board regulations.

Friday night, Audrey Custy and her friends in the Thunderbird Twirlers do-si-doed to the calls of Baty Hall for the last time.The square dance club of 30-some years is disbanding because Mr. Hall and his wife, Joanna, are moving to Texas."

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.

Supporters and opponents of Odell's, a private club on North Avenue, packed a hearing room at City Hall last night to testify on its request for a "dance hall" permit against a backdrop of recent violence outside its building."

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.

Forget the diet and don't waste time grocery shopping when you can eat out all weekend long -- the dinners abound and you can work off the pounds dancing. Start with the Rotary Club of Hampstead's 12th annual all-you-can-eat Benefit Breakfast 6 to 11 a.m. Saturday at the Hampstead Fire Hall on Main Street. Tickets are $3.50 in advance or $4 at the door, with children 7 and under free. Proceeds will benefit thefire department, Ladies Auxiliary and Rotary International.Information: 239-6966.

I t's 3 a.m. The average Baltimorean is snug in bed, briefcase by the door ready for the next day's work.But downtown, in an old warehouse near Camden Yards, the music is blasting and platform shoes are stomping to the pounding beat in a frenzy of fashion fantasy.Wild young women in metallic hot pants and motorcycle boots dance alongside sweet young things in Woodstock prairie dresses. Their partners range from clean-cut young men in denim shirts and floral ties to long-haired fellows in flannel tartans and jeans.