Dance Party

Promoter David J. Gaar of Westminster is changing the location of the Cajun-zydeco dance parties he has been throwing on the third Saturday of each month. Starting with a Bad Boys Zydeco Band gig March 21, the place will change from the Sunset Beach Club in Orange to the Meadowlark Cafe, 6197 Ball Road, Cypress. Coming attractions include the Joe Simien Cajun Band, April 18; John Delafose & the Eunice Playboys, May 17, and the Cheryl Cormier Cajun Band, June 20.

Cedar Point plans to turn the Ohio theme park's Million Dollar Midway into the $6-million Luminosity nighttime spectacular complete with lights, lasers and fireworks tied to a stage performance with DJs, dancers and drummers. PHOTOS: Luminosity nighttime spectacular at Cedar Point Debuting on June 8, the 40-minute Luminosity: Ignite the Night stage show will be followed by a pyrotechnics finale that leads into a DJ street party designed to turn the midway into an enormous dance floor.

The Afro-Cuban All Stars turned their Royce Hall concert Tuesday into an usher's nightmare. The dazzling 17-member orchestra had the entire audience on its feet, with couples dancing in the aisles and on the balconies. By the end, with the house lights up, it felt as if a big party had broken out on a school night at UCLA's stately theater. Normally it's frustrating to watch salsa bands in a concert setting because there's no place to dance, and ushers try to keep the aisles clear.

STAGE Miss Hooker Beauty Pageant Dragonfly Bar, 6510 Santa Monica Blvd. 9 p.m. Fri. thedragonfly.com DANCE PARTY A-Trak Wiltern, 3790 Wilshire Blvd. 8 p.m. Sat. $30-$35. wiltern.com. MUSIC Tyga Club Nokia, 800 W. Olympic Blvd. 7 p.m. Sun. $26.50-$49.50. clubnokia.com. NEW BARS Los Angeles Brewing Company 750 S. Broadway Ave. Noon-2 a.m. daily labrewingco.com MUSIC Jonwayne @ Low End Theory The Airliner, 2419 N. Broadway Ave. 10 p.m. Wed. facebook.com/lowendtheory

Cedar Point plans to turn the Ohio theme park's Million Dollar Midway into the $6-million Luminosity nighttime spectacular complete with lights, lasers and fireworks tied to a stage performance with DJs, dancers and drummers. PHOTOS: Luminosity nighttime spectacular at Cedar Point Debuting on June 8, the 40-minute Luminosity: Ignite the Night stage show will be followed by a pyrotechnics finale that leads into a DJ street party designed to turn the midway into an enormous dance floor.

Thax is back! If that name's ringing a bell with you, you're old enough to recall the man with the dance party -- "The Lloyd Thaxton Show" -- who attempted to dethrone "American Bandstand's" Dick Clark. For eight years during the '60s, Thaxton, a popular Los Angeles DJ, was host of the entertaining, albeit schmaltzy, local show. His signature? At least once on every show, he lip-synced popular songs, hamming it up. "People started calling me a musical Ernie Kovacs," recalls Thaxton, now 75.

Let's merengue! Or maybe the jitterbug is more your style. How about the two-step or salsa? Don't worry if you've never boogied to country, swing or Cuban tunes. Here's your chance to learn in a party atmosphere with great music. Each Friday and Saturday through August, Universal CityWalk will hold free dance lessons and provide live music on the east end adjacent to Hard Rock Cafe.

Silent Disco Where: Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club, 1348 14th St., Santa Monica When: 9 p.m. Friday Price: $10 (plus $3.68 service charge) presale; $12 at the door Info: (310) 451-5040; http://www.centralsapc.com Where: Sunset Strip Music Festival, Sunset Boulevard between Doheny Drive and San Vicente Boulevard When: 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday Price: $55 in advance, $70 that day; $120 VIP with access to private lounges Info: http://www.sunsetstripmusicfestival.com

As a teen-ager, Dion Grant looked forward to weekly school dances, saving his favorite trousers and shirt for the gym parties. Today, at 48, Grant still joins the kids on the dance floor, proving he can move with the best of 'em. "Nowadays, these kinds of activities don't happen as much," Grant says of the booming Banda music that sends Crozier Middle School students, and principal Jerrie Martin, into a quebradita Latin dance frenzy.

In the troubled aftermath of last week's mega electronic music festival at the L.A. Memorial Coliseum, artists and local promoters are confronting a dauntingly familiar question: what to do about the "R" word and the "E" word. "R" stands for "rave," as techno dance parties have been commonly known since they were birthed in the suburbs of post-industrial Detroit and the underground clubs of Thatcherite Britain in the late 1980s and early '90s. The "E" word, as dance music aficionados know, is Ecstasy, the controversial, euphoria-inducing drug that's used by many ravers to enhance their connection to the frenetically beat-driven music.

Hot Dance Music! Champagne! Porn stars! Oceanliners! New Year's Eve is the best night of the year in L.A., and whether you're looking to party with tens of thousands of your closest friends, laugh with your kids, or meditate to candlelight through year's close, we've got your night sorted. Angelenos are a particularly party-hearty lot, and we've combed through a night teeming with chances to wear your party gown, don a stupid hat, pop champagne, dance yourself silly and wipe the slate clean with either a bang or a whimper.

Silent Disco Where: Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club, 1348 14th St., Santa Monica When: 9 p.m. Friday Price: $10 (plus $3.68 service charge) presale; $12 at the door Info: (310) 451-5040; http://www.centralsapc.com Where: Sunset Strip Music Festival, Sunset Boulevard between Doheny Drive and San Vicente Boulevard When: 1 to 10 p.m. Saturday Price: $55 in advance, $70 that day; $120 VIP with access to private lounges Info: http://www.sunsetstripmusicfestival.com

On a Saturday evening in June, the dance floor at Santa Monica's Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club was packed with patrons enthusiastically dancing, singing and doing call-and-response with the DJ. It's a scene that could have been unfolding on umpteen dance floors across the city, but in this case, something very different was going on. The cool-kid crowd was moving and grooving to silence. Or so it seemed. Actually, the revelers were taking part in a phenomenon known as "silent disco," a dance party where the booming music is both private and shared.

If time-lapse photos existed to illustrate the movements of the crowd during the first two nights of the Electric Daisy Carnival this past weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a bird's-eye view would show clusters of human ants, an estimated 80,000 for each of the three days of the annual electronic music festival, moving in packs within the grounds of the 1,200-acre complex as if by mysterious force. Zoom in, and patterns would begin to emerge. Within the facility's 1.5-mile oval track, home on most weekends to racing events like the Kobalt Tools 400, thousands of bobbing heads gathered in darkness around five booming, crystal clear sound systems, bouncing among carnival rides and strobing lights to the sounds of some of the world's most popular DJs -- including Benny Benassi, DJ Tiesto, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, and Skrillex -- and some of the genre's most innovative and forward-thinking masterminds, such as Richie Hawtin, Green Velvet and Rusko.

The president of USC is warning students not to attend raves, saying use of the illegal drug Ecstasy at the massive dance parties "can create a ripple effect of dangers that lead to catastrophic consequences. " "I wish to warn you about a specific danger that has become increasingly prevalent in the city of Los Angeles: raves. Occasionally, these are held close to our campuses, often at the Coliseum or the Shrine, and they present serious risks to all who attend," USC President C.L. Max Nikias wrote in the letter sent by e-mail Wednesday to USC students.

The new ElecTRONica nighttime party has activated a dead zone at Disney California Adventure , turning a long-dormant corner of the Anaheim theme park into a teeming, pulsating, alcohol-infused, all-ages nightclub. ElecTRONica, which serves as a movie tie-in for the upcoming " Tron: Legacy " sequel, runs on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights through April and will be nightly during Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's weeks in the park's Hollywood Pictures Backlot.

If time-lapse photos existed to illustrate the movements of the crowd during the first two nights of the Electric Daisy Carnival this past weekend at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway, a bird's-eye view would show clusters of human ants, an estimated 80,000 for each of the three days of the annual electronic music festival, moving in packs within the grounds of the 1,200-acre complex as if by mysterious force. Zoom in, and patterns would begin to emerge. Within the facility's 1.5-mile oval track, home on most weekends to racing events like the Kobalt Tools 400, thousands of bobbing heads gathered in darkness around five booming, crystal clear sound systems, bouncing among carnival rides and strobing lights to the sounds of some of the world's most popular DJs -- including Benny Benassi, DJ Tiesto, David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, and Skrillex -- and some of the genre's most innovative and forward-thinking masterminds, such as Richie Hawtin, Green Velvet and Rusko.

On a Saturday evening in June, the dance floor at Santa Monica's Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club was packed with patrons enthusiastically dancing, singing and doing call-and-response with the DJ. It's a scene that could have been unfolding on umpteen dance floors across the city, but in this case, something very different was going on. The cool-kid crowd was moving and grooving to silence. Or so it seemed. Actually, the revelers were taking part in a phenomenon known as "silent disco," a dance party where the booming music is both private and shared.