Mike Burley / Special to The Star Dancers at Dance Jam Ventura say they enjoy being able to do what they like on the dance floor, ranging from meditating to, as visiting children do, just running around the room and having a blast. Related Link

By Andrea Barkan, Correspondent
June 3, 2005

Some people need candles and quiet to reach meditative bliss. But during a recent Dance Jam in Ventura, Jim Bement seemed to find inner peace simply by donning a pink unitard and working up a good sweat.

Somewhere between old-school hip-hop and New Age tribal, Bement plopped down on the mat-covered floor at Makoto Dojo, closed his eyes and assumed the lotus position -- in the midst of his free-styling friends, who danced around him.

But every person attending Dance Jam finds stress relief in the come-as-you-are, dance-as-you-dare monthly event.

"Dance as if no one is watching" is an adage often advised, but Ventura's dance jammers actually do it.

"There's no judgment," Zabriskie said.

"Nobody's watching anybody," said Lara De Ann, who's been to Dance Jam six times.

"It's very therapeutic," De Ann said. "I dance my heart out. Every emotion stored up from the week ... is coming out."

Zabriskie started Dance Jam Ventura five years ago after discovering long-established Dance Away Santa Barbara and deciding Ventura needed a similar event.

She was introduced to free-form dance in Los Angeles during the 1970s and has no formal dance training.

"I loved to dance when I was a kid," Zabriskie said.

For Dance Jam, she rents Makoto Dojo, an aikido studio on Telegraph Road, at least one Saturday night each month, sometimes twice. The event is alcohol-free and open to all ages.

Disc jockeys vary.

"The flavor of the music changes every night," Zabriskie said.

As Mike Thornley, longtime Dance Away DJ, warmed up early one Saturday, Zabriskie's hips started swaying.

Soon she was on the empty dance floor, unconcerned that her party had yet to arrive.

Zabriskie tossed her head and swung her arms, twirling and whirling to Thornley's mix.

A gold-gilded sash strung on her hips undulated as she glided barefoot across the thick dojo mat.

A pile of sashes and bright-colored dance skirts sat to the side. Zabriskie offers them to dancers.

"Somehow bright skirts bring things out in people," she said. "It just brings out the dramatic. People have fun."

Those people, Zabriskie quickly pointed out, include both genders. A few male regulars happily sport the skirts.

But Bement stole the show Saturday in his hot pink unitard -- a souvenir from his many years in Santa Barbara's Summer Solstice Parade.

Zabriskie said 20 to 40 people -- singles, couples and families -- usually attend Dance Jam.

Stewart Bailey brought his 11-year-old niece, Whitney Stertz, on Saturday. Bailey's son and his friends often come to Dance Jam.

Zabriskie said many parents bring their children.

"The kids just run around the room and have a blast," she said.

Bailey said he doesn't normally dance but feels comfortable doing his own thing, often stretching out on his back.

"It's kind of mystical," Bailey said of the venue, which is lighted only by a multicolored hanging disco ball lamp.

"And I like the fact that everybody is doing something different," he added.