With the term "dance club," there are two ways to go.

There's the myopic view, where the term strictly means the glitzy, glamorous, fabulous clubs (once known as "discotheques") that maybe aren't specifically for dancing but certainly do include it in their arsenals, and there's the panoptic view, which refers to any venue where dancing occurs.

For the sake of this piece (and for the sake of accuracy, really), the latter is where it's at. So, Houston's Top 8 Dance Clubs:

8. Ei8ht: Ei8ht, one of Washington Corridor's first truly awe-inspiring nightlife facilities, is the closest to a traditional "dance club" venue as any on the list. It is everything you'd want in a nightclub. There's a built-in red carpet (which, incidentally, is streamed to a large monitor in a separate location inside), a fancy-pants water fountain, some look-at-me VIP booths and a second-story patio ideal for people watching. (LOOK AT THOSE SCHMOES WAITING IN LINE! FOOLS! AHAHAHA.) More important, though, it is always stuffed full. Ei8ht is Christian Bale in American Psycho, minus all of the murdering, of course.

5102 Washington, 713-880-3500, Web site

7. Houston Flea Market's Club La Noche: Yes, this belongs here. It seems counterintuitive that a place you can go to to purchase a quinceañera dress, a picture of your kid on a pony and maybe a bootleg version of The Avengers on DVD would also house one of Houston's best dance clubs, but that's exactly what's going on at HFM.

HFM has been open for more than 40 years; it is a city staple. And its nightclub, Club La Noche, a surprisingly large extension of the flea market, has existed in some form or fashion for more than two decades. Live music, big dance floor, hundreds of people, all that. If you're looking to turn a Sunday afternoon into a Saturday evening, there is no better place in Houston.

6116 Southwest Fwy., 713-780-0070, no Web site

6. Grooves: Grooves is a do-everything venue, a gargantuan nightlife spot that flexes its might within the black community. It has a large enough dance floor to accommodate its hundreds of guests, a steady lineup of some of the city's best DJs and a proper menu of food at your disposal. There are TVs, private spaces and more. There might not be a more enjoyable place in the city to listen to Bell Biv DeVoe's "Poison" while trying to figure out a way to talk to that attractive woman at the bar all the guys are staring at.

2300 Pierce, 713-759-9700, Web site