Not a safe space for young women. An older man followed me around, and would not leave me alone. Dance Friday staff were only moderately responsive to my report. My two friends (one male, one female) and were dancing together for most of the night. An older man with white hair started circling the three of us, with his eyes lasering in on me the whole time. My friend finally commented on his weird behavior and we all went to sit down. Later on, I heard one song I really like, and got up to dance. The old guy made a beeline for me as soon as he saw me, and got really close to me. I gestured to him to stop (palm towards him, meaning "stop", with a stern look), and went to the other side of the dance floor. He then FOLLOWED ME across the dance floor and kept it right up, dancing really closely and staring at me. I gestured "stop" again, and moved far away from him, and he followed me AGAIN. This dude just would not quit. Then he started waving his hands towards my body, getting close, almost touching me. I left the floor. At the end of the night, I went and told the facilitators. The younger guy I told just stood there, with an annoyed look on his face that read as "this isn't my problem". The older woman I told said that I should have told her about this at the break (even though my friends and I had showed up AFTER the break). She said something about "filling out an incident report", but she didn't explain the process, meanwhile, people were breaking down the lights and equipment, and it was getting noisy. This woman didn't create a space to deal with the issue, and she made no effort to follow up with me. She offered me free admission next time, and she said that she hoped me coming again would involve "shifting my experience" of what had happened. This pretty well pissed me off, as it's this harassing guy's BEHAVIOR that needs to shift, not my perception of it. Having been blamed for not reporting an incident before it happened, and having gotten nowhere with the staff, I got my stuff, left, and never went back. If you are a young woman, do not go! Creepy old men will descend on you, which apparently is just business-as-usual to these people. I imagine they think of it as "breaking down the boundaries" and "being intergenerational", but it's really just a place with poor security, where men are allowed to get away with predatory behavior. Growing old does not magically make a person good! There are creeps of all ages. One of them has white hair and a propensity for circling young women like a creaky old shark at Dance Friday. read more

I've been going here for over three decades... Their new location in HARVARD SQUARE at 3 Church St. is the most accessible location the dance has ever had - - a beautiful space that's clean, warm, and inviting. Two to three separate DJs per night spin a wide variety of dance music from all genres. Its non-judgmental attitude has been keeping people sane and healthy for decades! The music is hipper, with more variety & consistent quality than the previous locations. Hours are now 8:30 to Midnight except on the 3rd Friday of the month when we start an hour earlier so parents can bring young kids for some adult-and-child-friendly music. Don't worry... no Barney or Disney!! There's even a dance camp run every Summer where the same loose friendly creative juicy atmosphere goes on for about 11 days straight! Be sure to check out the sister dance (and original) Dance Freedom in Harvard Square on Wed. nights, too. If you really love to dance for its own sake as well as for social reasons, if you like to 'sweat your prayers,' if you like shaking off the tensions of the week and enjoy having a body again, you have to give it a try. Pure pleasure. Interesting creative people. Enjoy! Re: "The painful truth" review, there are two sides to everything. I deeply regret the experience this woman had. We have people to help with safety issues and we have had many discussions of behaviors that are not allowed, body language, etc. to prevent such events. We have banned dancers occasionally over the years for behavior like this. We encourage dancers to use their voice (in case for instance the offending person's sight was not good, or gestures were misinterpreted), and there are designated people to get a message across when it is not understood & respected coming from the dancer themselves. Forward people can be found on any dance floor, but Dance Friday IS a SAFE place. read more

So its Friday, I decide to give this place another shot. Have not been going for awhile since they don't really play music that I prefer. I get there for their middle, which is the break around 9:30, they talk about Haiti and how tonight its a fundraiser for Haiti. After that depressing start things start a bit slow, the rotating djs tend to play slower music. But at 11:00 this amazing D.J. named Andrew comes on and plays an hour and half of fantastic house and techno. He does'nt work any other places, but if I ever come into some money, I will open a club and he will be my main D.J. So I dance till I drop literally, and that is one of the good things about this place, you can stretch out and take a nap between sets in the back. I will be coming here only when Andrew spins. Their website is dancefriday.org for a schedule of their events. read more

I've been going to Dance Friday since 2005. They've moved to Harvard Sq. last fall and the space is wonderful. There are 3 DJ's most nights, so if one style doesn't work for you, then maybe the next will. The schedule is obtainable through a discussion list or FB so you can learn your favorites. There is one comment about feeling safe, which is one of the priorities of the dance. It is a safe place and there are facilitators there that help to make it happen. For me it has been a place to express my self in dance, find joy and move! I've always loved to dance and freestyle is the best expression. I've also started to DJ which is another expression and sharing that has brought so much to me. There are certainly nights that the music doesn't do it for me, but we are a community of dancers that put this dance on, now for over 34 yrs, for dancers to dance. We are always happy for those that are interested in something better, different, and ideas for better and more to step up and help it work! read more