Dance Floor

Club Choices Despite its fancy facade, Club Choices is nowhere near those suit-and-tie-relax-and-cocktail clubs. Instead, its smoky and dimly lit interior creates an atmosphere that will make "shaking-off" to Baltimore club music seem second nature. Where -- 1815 N. Charles St. Call -- 410-752-4602 Notable -- You've probably heard its name mentioned on the radio in the wee hours of the night. Or perhaps you've driven past the glitzy club on late Saturday nights and have seen people walking in and out. While every other club is closing its doors at 2 a.m. on Saturday nights, Club Choices kicks the fun into another gear and keeps the music pumping until dawn.

The sparkly mirror ball trophy signifying the newest winner of ABC's Dancing with the Stars went to race car driver Helio Castroneves and partner Julianne Hough on last night's finale. "I want to thank my team for letting me do this, second my family, the fans, and this special person here," Castroneves said, referring to Hough. Castroneves, Spice Girl Melanie "Mel B" Brown and entertainer Marie Osmond performed two dances Monday night for judges' scores and viewers' votes. Early in last night's episode, Osmond was named the third-place finisher, leaving her fellow finalists to reprise their favorite dance of the season for one last score from the judges.

RED VELVET DRESSES, beaded purses, capes, corsages and even faux fur -- it looked like Prom Night on Tuesday as Girl Scouts from Community 66 poured into Wilhelm's for the fifth annual Me and My Guy Dance.For one glorious night, Dad, or another significant other, danced the Hokey Pokey, dined on scrumptious food, and got a glimpse of his little girl's future."Dad was supposed to go on a business trip but he told his boss that he was going out with me," said Dana Shaw from Mechanicsville Elementary School.

Baltimore's Centro de la Comunidad celebrated its fifth anniversary with a Fiesta Latina, a shindig with salsa (both at dinner and on the dance floor) at Lista's restaurant in Fells Point.The evening began with a mariachi band and margaritas. No, that wasn't a conga line snaking onto the back balcony. It was just folks waiting for their chance at the burritos, black beans and rice.Among those enjoying this evening were Haydee Rodriguez, Centro's executive director; Dr. Magaly Rodriguez de Bittner, chair of Centro's board of directors; Dr. Leonardo Ortega, board vice chair; Dr. Wilfredo Nieves, Hector Torres and Andrew Jezic, board members; Angelo Solara, vice chair of the Mayor's Committee on Hispanic Affairs; and Rahn Barnes, Provident Bank of Maryland.

This young lady has got the swing-era look down pat. From the tips of her black-and-white shoes to the top of her black pompadour hairdo, she seems turned out for an evening in the 1930s or '40s. Her deep-blue dress has padded shoulders to give her body more body.For colorful contrast, the dress has big red buttons. For that matter, this dame also has big red lips. And her husband is no slouch. He looks natty in his fedora, vest and vibrantly patterned tie."We're into vintage things," Samanta Sargeant, 23, says before embarking on another retro spin around a Catonsville dance floor.

They danced to the musical stylings of the 19-piece Mr. Dance orchestra. Graceful couples twirled, dipped and sashayed to the sounds of their youth -- Glenn Miller, Frank Sinatra, Benny Goodman -- the men in classic tailored suits, the women in chiffon, silk and satin.And when it was time to choose the king and queen of the prom yesterday, there wasn't really any competition. Bill and Betty Byrne, who effortlessly glided around the Boumi Temple dance floor all afternoon, were the obvious choice for the honors at the Senior Citizens Prom, sponsored by Loyola College.

Let's get right to the central issue here, Susan, with which only a fool would argue: Most men can't dance.Actually, that's not quite strong enough, is it?Maybe this is better: The average guy on the dance floor resembles nothing so much as someone trying to fend off wasps while stamping out a cigarette.Not a pretty picture, right? You want to cringe and turn away when you see something like that. Or else you want to bust a gut laughing. This, then, is the root of the phobia so many men have about dancing.

Are you having a good time?" asked the man in my arms as we two-stepped around the wooden dance floor to the twangy strains of "All My Ex-es live in Texas."

It figures. Just when we'd finally written him off as a musical irrelevance, banished forever to the nether regions of the gossip columns, Michael Jackson goes and upends our preconceptions by making a good album. Is the guy trying to make life difficult for music critics, or what?Appallingly enough, Jackson pulls it off without even bothering to deliver a full album of new material. "Blood on the Dance Floor: HIStory in the Mix" (Epic 68000, arriving in stores today) is basically a five-song EP, padded out to album length by eight remixes from his 1995 album "HIStory."

THE LIGHTS ARE dimmed, and "Rockin' Robin" is ripe for swinging -- you can feel the music's four-four rhythm. Unfortunately, it's not strong enough to move you out of your seat.It's another dance and another night of watching other couples swing effortlessly across the floor.If this is the closest you've come to ballroom dancing, then you might want to consider a few lessons Wednesday or Friday nights at Dancing Made Easy in Westminster. The studio will soon have you tackling the tango.The studio, which has a long history in Westminster but is under new ownership, will offer "Social Success Nights" on Wednesdays and Latin dances on Fridays, both beginning next month.

Let's face it, Ocean City is built for sin. Sure, there's a beach, a boardwalk and things to do for families in the light of day, but Maryland's O.C. is most essentially a watering hole on the water, a place to spend one's days soaking in the sun, and nights quenching that fire with cold, alcoholic beverages. Nightclub after nightclub fights for attention along the oceanfront highway, coyly beckoning travelers with brassy neon lights and come-hither drink specials. Though a visitor to Ocean City would hardly need help finding a bar, we thought it would be a service to narrow your choices somewhat, to better your chances of finding the sort of spot that fits your mood, your imbibing needs.

Baltimore police have arrested a second person in connection with a March shooting outside a nightclub in Mount Vernon that authorities say was sparked when women bumped into one another on the dance floor. Kimberly Moody, 22, of Gwynn Oak was arrested Monday and charged with assault, conspiracy to commit assault, a handgun violation and accessory after the fact in the March 7 fatal shooting of Sctario Tia Edwards outside of Coconuts Cafe, in the 300 block of W. Madison St. Moody's role in the shooting was not immediately clear.

Barack Obama gave the nation's governors a stimulus they couldn't resist: Earth Wind & Fire. The R&B act, entertaining the National Governors Association on Sunday after Obama's first formal White House dinner, had even the stodgiest state executives asserting: Yes, we can dance. "The day before ... we were wondering who the music was going to be," Maryland first lady Katie O'Malley said. "And when they said 'Earth Wind & Fire,' I said, 'Oh my God. We're not going to be able to sit at our tables.

Several dozen folks gingerly lined up on the dance floor at El Patron restaurant, as they followed the salsa moves of a dance instructor. This was "Salsa for a Reason," a fundraiser for Healing Hands Foundation. The year-old nonprofit was formed by several local surgeons and nurses to go on surgical missions around the world to help underserved children. "When you go on missions to South America, you have a lot of people who want to dance salsa," said the foundation's fundraising director, Lisa Garrett, explaining why the event was a perfect fit. Dylan Stewart, an assistant professor of pediatric surgery at University of Maryland and one of the foundation's founding surgeons, admitted while he had never danced salsa before, he was certainly game.

James E. Troxel is barely discernible on Iguana Cantina's crowded dance floor, lost amid a mass of drunken patrons gyrating to thundering music under pulsating lights. One moment, he's there, the next moment he vanishes, swallowed by the crowd without missing a beat. Thirty seconds later, one of 14 club surveillance cameras shows two yellow-jacketed security guards pushing through the throng to reach the young man who by now is on the floor and can't be seen on the video. All you can see are the guards bending over, the man's stunned friends watching while others dance around them as if nothing had happened.

These are tough times for the dancing-impaired. I say this because the country is absolutely nuts about dancing. TV shows like Dancing with the Stars and So You Think You Can Dance? get top ratings. The dance-happy movie High School Musical 3: Senior Year is a box-office smash. Dance studios report business is booming, even with the economy tanking. This only makes the dancing-impaired feel worse about themselves. Look, we know we have no rhythm and no timing. We know we're incapable of making any fluid movements or moving any part of our body to the beat.

Mardi Gras beads were on the bars and pulsing beats were in the air Friday night at the new Bourbon Street super-club. It was Ladies Night, which meant women got in and drank for free. Bourbon Street was primed for partying; all that was missing were the people. At 11 p.m., Baltimore's newest mega-club was less than a third full. I scratched my head and hoped it was a fluke, because Bourbon Street has a lot going for it. True to its history, the building (which formerly housed Hammerjack's)

Something caught William Ryan's eye, compelling him to venture into the throng of teens grooving to Rihanna's "Don't Stop the Music." The principal inched forward amid pulsating violet light, waving an index finger and admonishing a couple who he felt were getting a little too close. Ryan sent the pair off the River Hill High School dance floor for a 10-minute "cooling-off" period. "This is not a club, it's a school," the 44-year-old principal said later. "There is a difference." It's a timeless conflict: Youngsters stretch the bounds on the dance floor, and the grown-ups find the moves scandalous and take steps to ban them.

The sparkly mirror ball trophy signifying the newest winner of ABC's Dancing with the Stars went to race car driver Helio Castroneves and partner Julianne Hough on last night's finale. "I want to thank my team for letting me do this, second my family, the fans, and this special person here," Castroneves said, referring to Hough. Castroneves, Spice Girl Melanie "Mel B" Brown and entertainer Marie Osmond performed two dances Monday night for judges' scores and viewers' votes. Early in last night's episode, Osmond was named the third-place finisher, leaving her fellow finalists to reprise their favorite dance of the season for one last score from the judges.

She's been through a lot in the past few weeks - fainting on live television, her father's death and her son's entry into rehab - yet she's endlessly chipper. But, frankly, we're pretty much over Marie Osmond and her inexplicably long run on Dancing With the Stars. Hardly any of the prognosticators on this sort of thing thought she'd make it to the finals because of her weak technique and simple choreography. Sure, her fainting episode was memorable; too bad such a highly replayed moment had nothing to do with her skills on the dance floor.