Danceteria had a few locations over its lifetime. At the original location on 37th Street in Chelsea, Kid Creole and the Coconuts, pictured here, hit the stage in July 1980 to perform their brand of genre-bending music. Their music was smart, edgy, and always danceable, appealing to the still-dancing disco denizens, die-hard new wavers, and everyone in between.

When the second location opened in 1982, the club had three floors, DJ booths, and performance stages, as well as incorporating a video lounge. Starting at the first location, Danceteria was one of the first places to play video on site.

The club became a center of new wave music, featuring a variety of artists from the Beastie Boys, Cyndi Lauper, and Duran Duran to Billy Idol, LLCOOLJ, Run-DMC, and more. Perhaps most famously, this is the place Madonna made her debut and performed her musically publicly on December 16, 1982.