Weeknight Adventures: Dance the night away

Thursday night after work I had every intention of finally going to the Brooklyn Library to get/validate a library card. I emailed a friend who lives in the vicinity of the Brooklyn Heights location about an hour before the end of work, asking her if she wanted to come with. She called me right on the dot at 5 o'clock and said she and another friend (someone we went to college with) were actually going to go dancing and that there was this sangria open bar thing in the Meatpacking District. This was very much the opposite of going to the library, but I thought, why not? Sangria and a free bhangra lesson? These are two things I enjoy very much.

And then I realized this was all a precursor to the famed Basement Bhangra nights. Since high school, I have been obsessed with Bollywood movies, Bollywood dance, and bhangra. (My love of Indian food goes further back to when I became a vegetarian at 10 years old and started experimenting with cooking). Anyhoo, not only was this something unexpected that sounded like fun, but also something necessary. I always looked forward to DJ Rekha coming to play at the Black Cat in D.C. and now it was time to see her where it all began: NYC!

The sangria open bar for $5 at Sob's ran from 7-8 p.m. and the free bhangra lesson began sometime after 9 p.m. All-you-can-drink white or red sangria is a pretty sweet deal and by the time the bhangra lesson rolled around, the place was packed. The crowd ranged from those who clearly needed no lesson to those who were curious to learn. My friends were even called on stage along with other volunteers from the audience to help demonstrate some bhangra moves. So indeed, a great time was had by all.

And apparently Sob's hosts these bhangra nights about once a month or so. The next one is for this Thursday, Jan. 5. Choose your own adventure. Again, there's an open bar from 7-9 p.m. $5 before 8 p.m. The free bhangra lesson starts at 9 and if you want to stick around for the actual DJ Rekha show, which is bound to be energetic and awesome, tickets are $13 in advance and $16 day-of. If you miss this one, you'll have another chance on Thursday, Feb. 2.