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CONTEST ENDED – Thank you for submitting your stories!

Write a story that begins with someone dancing in a bar.

Posted in Character on May 3, 2024

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✍️ 66 stories

“My Reverie” by Webb Johnson

Submitted to Contest #249

During my grad school days at the University of San Francisco, I spent my nights behind the bar at Varni’s Roaring Twenties, a classy, energetic nightclub in the historic Jackson Square district.Varni’s, housed in a Barbary Coast-era brick building was transformed to capture the ambiance of a 1920s speakeasy. We had a trad jazz band that played prohibition-era music. Clientele danced solo or as couples, to classic moves: The Charleston, The Black Bottom, The Shimmy, and The Texas Tommy.The décor and the melodies paid homage to the Roaring Tw...

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“Oh Sweet Guard” by Emelia Whitla

Submitted to Contest #249

Alcohol ran like the ichor of gods; sharp, strong, and god-awful potent. But it lit up faces with a glow that was uncommon for the people. The bar was alive with bodies summoned by the whisper of the festival. Bright lanterns of every colour hanging from anywhere they could be hung, a plethora of beautiful woven art, banners on sticks whipping in the wind; signatures of the festival. Beneath the glowing colours, among bodies clad in meandering stoles of silk, among the soft brush of feathered wings, she could feel the life of it all. The fee...

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“Alice Come Sunday” by Carol Stewart

Submitted to Contest #249

Potentially sensitive/triggering content: alcohol abuse, underage drinking, reference to rape, ageism, mental health, infrequent profanity ***Knickers, knickers, made in Britain! Knickers, knickers, made in Britain…! Grabbing her sister’s new summer scarf while laughingly chanting the words of nearly fifty years before, Ellie spun onto the neon-lit dancefloor. She waved the narrow rectangle before her as her limbs shook loose to the hypnotic beat. ‘Sandstorm’ by Darude was playing at twice the speed she remembered, but even in her heels, and...

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“Green Light” by Stephanie Lye

Submitted to Contest #249

I couldn’t tear my eyes away from her. The way she moved, the way the music thumped through her body, and her, lost in her own world. It was like watching a car crash. What on earth was she doing? You wanted to look away, but you just couldn’t. Her arms were best described as flailing. Long, big gestures that moved contrary to the rest of her body. Like those inflatable men outside car dealerships. Her hips and legs somehow moved opposite to the beat of the music, black doc martens stomping into the ground. The DJ was loving it, nodding his ...

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“A Night at The Raven” by Dana Jennings Jelter

Submitted to Contest #249

“Mike!” Darla’s eyes darted around the strobe-lit room, nervously searching for her white knight. In this case, a 350-pound former boxer who she recently hired to keep her bar in check on nights when things got out of hand. He helped drag out men throwing punches, women pulling hair, and both men and women who couldn’t take “no” for an answer. He knew how to handle most situations — by extending his arms and plowing the perpetrator like a backhoe toward the nearest exit. His towering height and emotionless gaze made it easy to dissociate wit...

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“What It Means To Dance” by William Malave

Submitted to Contest #249

What It Means To Dance “Why are you moving like that?” I turned my head to face the voice that questioned me. The music was low and slow but the vibes were vibing. I felt…relaxed, happy even. It was my first time ever coming to this place, my first time around them. They stared at the two of us, knowing that we were different but too inebriated to care or talk to us.  “Like this?” I jested, swaying my hips and arms in cadence, moving to the rhythm of the song. I didn’t know the name or artist behind it but damn was it good. She was not...

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“Steps in the Shadows” by Matt Craig

Submitted to Contest #249

The Jazzy Fox was quiet for a Tuesday night. The usual crowd murmured softly under the dim lights, sipping their drinks and nodding to the lazy strum of a guitar. Eli was there, as he always was, a solitary figure by the bar, his eyes tracing the patterns on the wooden floor. He remembered when the dance floor was his world, when the applause was for him, when the music was his heartbeat. Now, the rhythm was just a backdrop to his thoughts, a metronome for his regrets. Eli stood up, the stool scraping softly against the floor. He approached ...

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“The Rival” by Eden Haggans

Submitted to Contest #249

[Tw: alcohol, harassment, mentions of drugging.] [sorry :( ] The bar was dim but filled to the brim with noise. People chattered over drinks and food and laughter echoed off the red brick walls. Detective Palmer surveyed the room, bored out of her mind.  Her gaze dropped quickly to the drink in her hand when a man came sauntering by, “Hey there, sweetheart,” he leaned against the bar, his hip sticking out awkwardly around a bar stool, “You lookin’ for someone?” She turned the other way, drink still in hand, “Not really,” she hoped her ...

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“Amazing.......from despair to the joy of life” by David Nutt

Submitted to Contest #249

Amazing…... from despair to the joy of living There he was tap dancing in a pair of work boots with steel toes and metal under the heels. First it started by a seductive rhythmic tapping sound on the tiled floor of the bar. The sound picks up pace with a haunting beat. He then jumped up on a stool and performed a few taps as though he was beating on a drum. In a quick move he transferred to his feet tapping to the bar counter dancing with amazing skill amongst the beer glasses. He stopped at the far end. The crowd cried out for more. He came...

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“Everyone Must Carry Their Own Luggage” by Tony Smith

Submitted to Contest #249

'Everyone Must Carry Their Own Luggage' It's the third double brandy J B Foxley MBE, has tipped into the plant pot, the palm looks healthy enough but might feel a bit groggy in the morning. Foxley was awarded an MBE for 'services to export': in spite of a severe bout of yellow fever contracted in West Africa he had bravely continued to carry out export duties, and Foxley vowed in future to resist the welcoming ladies at the Ikeja Club in Lagos. He is watching the boy dancing with a whore. Mohamed is only eighteen, soft-baked, his first time...

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“Shadow Dances” by Rita Barrocas

Submitted to Contest #249

As I stand on the stage, my heart pounds as I breathe in anticipation.The first musical notes float through the air, and I feel the familiar thrill of butterflies swirling in my stomach; it is both exhilarating and agonizing.I close my eyes and let the melody wash over me, each beat fuelling my energy. My fingers slowly trace the curves of my body.From the front row, someone releases the sweet smoke of a cigarette and, it spreads to the stage like a wave.  The lights dim. A single focus on red light se...

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“Walking Miles” by Jan Harri

Submitted to Contest #249

Reya glanced at the corner of the bar where she would ordinarily be found nursing a very dirty martini. A dismissive smile played on the corners of her lips as she closed her eyes and swayed her hips sensually. She felt a strange pressure in her arms, a build-up of tension that up until a few years ago was completely alien to her. Reya had learned to stop fighting her body when an urge took over so let her arms go free. They shot up in the air and slowly snaked down, fingers raking through her hair and down the back of her neck before smooth...

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“Playing With Fire” by Kristy Garrett

Submitted to Contest #249

The hazy air and dim lights hid the sadness in her eyes, as she danced by herself in the grungy bar. The lead singer was watching her, offering a wink when she glanced to the stage. She wasn’t there alone, though. The man she loved was sitting at the bar, watching her slip away, knowing he couldn’t do anything about it. Their affair had been going on for over two years now and there was no true endgame. They couldn’t be together, but they weren’t good at being apart either. The dried tear stains on her cheeks were nothing new. The last few m...

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“Stranger” by Evi K

Submitted to Contest #249

He turned his waist clockwise, bent slightly backwards, and drew curves on the air with his fingers. Time slowed down; he was moving in slow motion, and everyone around him blended together into a blur. The speakers were playing Sinéad O'Connor. And I fell in love.I didn't believe in love at first sight. He was a proper lesson in irony. The music drowned everyone, and he was the only one who managed to swim. He opened his arms gracefully and slowly. He rotated his body twice, lowered his hands on his chest, and rocked his hips twice, from on...

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“The Barback's Folly” by Kate Hathaway

Submitted to Contest #249

“He Stopped Loving Her Today” was not a danceable song, but Kathleen was a little tipsy and didn’t want to go back to her barstool just yet. She swayed in time to the music on the narrow strip of wood floor between three small tables and the old polished wood bar and squinted over at her husband as he tossed back his third Jack. She wasn’t a local like Warren and didn’t know half the songs in the jukebox - George Jones hadn’t exactly been a college radio mainstay back in Kingston, Rhode Island. Another song, twangier than the last, came on j...

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