Karen’s Quirky Style Channels the Village People at Chelsea’s Fabled YMCA

This is a first for Karen’s Quirky Style—Karen in drag! Were you wondering who that mustached dude was? Ha, it’s me! This is my attempt to appear as Randy Jones, the captivating cowboy from the Village People.

Why did I take it in my head to do this, you ask? The spark was a New York Times article about a $14.5 million loft in the old YMCA building at 213 West 23rd Street. The story included a link to the Village People’s 1978 video for their song “YMCA,” which was filmed on the sidewalk in front of the Y.

I watched the video and my mind was instantly flooded with a dance beat and memories. My arms started to form a Y-shape. I was transported back to June 1979. The Village People played at the Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver that year, and my Uncle Dwayne persuaded my parents to let him take me and my sister Kim to the show—our first concert! Wow!

We gazed in star-struck wonder, seeing the Village People on stage performing in the costumes we knew from their album cover. I wouldn’t have dared to dream that one day I would dance on the same New York pavement they filmed on.

I’ve passed by the YMCA building on West 23rd Street at least a hundred times. But I never noticed the inscribed letters carved in marble above the doorway, spelling out Young Mens [sic] Christian Association. I always hurried past the gym, rushing from the subway to an appointment that I was probably going to be late for.

Now that I knew what had happened there, with the song pulsing in my veins, I decided it was imperative that I dress as Randy Jones’s cowboy for my next column and disco in front of the YMCA. I went to the location to check it out, and tumbled down a rabbit hole.

I stopped by Gym U—the latest of several gym incarnations to live there since the YMCA sold the building in 2002—on my way home from work. Three handsome men at the front desk—Bryce, Max, and David—greeted me warmly. When I explained my mission, they beamed. Everyone loves that video! And the folks who work at Gym U are proud to be part of the history of the location.

What I didn’t realize was that I was about to be whisked into the legendary world of Gym U’s founder, the bodybuilder and Chelsea icon David Barton. Soon I was sitting at the bar in the gym’s lounge, ShrUmz, chatting with a fabulously tattooed, braided bartender named Bear (who was reading The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle and changing her life), drinking a $5 glass of wine and taking in the vibe. Bear said, “This isn’t like your usual gym, its vibe has personality.”

House music filled the space, punctuated by the clinking sound of dozens of weights being hoisted and reseated in their resting places in the open-space gym. A DJ booth overlooked the scene and the lighting was like a nightclub, with shades of deep blues and purples. The lounge’s wall was papered with iconic record covers. I spotted Changes One, A Love Supreme, Parallel Lines, Rumours, and yes, the Village People. I felt I was home in the violet cave.

A few days later, I was sitting in ShrUmz across from David Barton as he told me about his history with this spot. He owned a chain of gyms and lived across the street at the Hotel Chelsea when the YMCA decided to sell and move down to West 14th Street. He remembered, “I would look out the window and say, ‘Wouldn’t it be incredible to have a gym at the YMCA?’ One day, when the stars were aligned and the universe was smiling upon me, I got a phone call that this space would be available. Would I want to put a gym here? It was my dream.”

He moved his Chelsea gym to the YMCA location, and decided he had to rescue the YMCA sign that is prominent in the Village People video. As you can imagine, it’s not light. David recalls seeing a man put up a notice that said “Guys who carry stuff.” Fortuitous! “So me and these two large dudes carried this sign down the stairs. It’s the heaviest thing I’ve ever lifted in my life, and we put it up on the wall. I still have the painful remnants of having carried this thing in my connective tissues!”

David operated the gym at the YMCA location until he sold his chain in 2013. Things swung around counter-clockwise in a semi-circle during the pandemic, and David was again offered the chance to lease the YMCA gym space.

“I wasn’t planning to go back into the business of operating gyms, but I love it, this is my neighborhood, I love this space. And I wanted to connect,” David said. He wanted to buck the trend of living an online life. “People need a place to go and have eye contact, fear of rejection, and conversation,” he said. Gym U is David’s new vision for a science-supported fitness community with his famous dance club workout vibe.

David said, “Some people might spend 10 percent of their waking hours at the gym. There’s the tangible outcome someone wants from going to the gym, to help them change their body, but there’s also the subjective experience of coming here, enjoying being here and hanging out. I tried to create something so you’re part of the community.”

To make a space for hanging out, David partnered with Bill Gilroy, co-owner of Employees Only, to develop the ShrUmz Café. It’s open to the public as well as gym rats, and features $5 wine and beer and a curated collection of smoothies. High protein post-workout snacks and freshly-cooked dishes are also available. But the special offering is performance- and health-enhancing medicinal mushrooms, available in tincture format and in the signature ShrUmz smoothie.

David toured me through the space and invited me back for a workout to experience first-hand the feeling of community that he has created at Gym U.

The following Monday I took him at his word and returned to the gym in workout attire. I found an exercise bike that was already set to my height, jumped on, and started pedaling. A gorgeous young man walked by and gestured that he loved my hair. Ah! I relaxed into feeling I belong, and enjoyed the experience of watching Chelsea’s beautiful people working out to stay looking and feeling beautiful.

Next, I went to a 30-minute 360-degree ab workout in a remarkable disco studio. Juicy pomegranate shag carpeting on the ceiling made lying on my back a visual delight. Strip lighting under the windows changed colors at the instructor’s command. The Hotel Chelsea sign beamed through the wall of windows.

There were four other women in the class, and our instructor, Stephen Lincoln, took us on a fun journey that ended with some serious burn. I felt the after-burn about 24 hours later, and it continued to light up my core for another two days. Now that’s a good workout! I walked out feeling high on music, color, and movement, my soul permeated by the rhythms and hues of David Barton’s world. Young man, there’s a place you can go...

Style Notes

Putting this outfit together to replicate Randy’s cowboy costume as closely as possible involved a treasure hunt through some of my favorite vintage and secondhand haunts, including Reminiscence (cowboy hat, bandanna), Crossroads Trading (vest, bolo, belt), Buffalo Exchange (shirt). Plus Chelsea’s magical Abracadabra (mustache), and my own Narnian closet (jeans, boots).

Karen Rempel is a New York-based writer, model, and artist. Her Karen’s Quirky Style column illuminates quirky clothes and places in Manhattan. For an expanded version of this story, see https://karenqs.nyc.

Fun Fact: How the “YMCA” Dance Began

Did you know the “YMCA” dance was invented on the TV show American Bandstand? Dick Clark presented the dance moves to the Village People when they performed on the show in January 1979. When they shot the video in 1978, what may have appeared as the “Y” movement of the dance was actually just clapping over their heads. When Dick showed them the dance on Bandstand, lead singer and lyricist Victor Willis gamely jumped in, doing the movements along with the audience, and the dance was born.

Guinness World Record for the “YMCA” Dance

Guinness says the world record for the “YMCA” dance was created when over 41,000 people danced while the Village People performed at the 2008 Sun Bowl game in El Paso, Texas. The Village People may have set a new record when they performed live at Times Square on New Year’s Eve 2020, on the eve of the pandemic. That March, Library of Congress added the “YMCA” song to the National Recording Registry, and it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in December 2020.