By Tony Phillips

A 30-something man hits the dance floor in a striped dress shirt and places the fingers of one hand alongside his temple.  The fingers of his other hand come to rest on the front of his khakis, turning his upper body into a lopsided eight. He holds this pensive pose for a few beats. Suddenly, his hips begin to gyrate and a smile washes over his goateed face while his hands flutter up toward the mirror ball like isometric birds.

He’ll repeat this hip-quake later, holding a drink. It goes from stirred to shaken with a few thrusts of his pelvis. Soon he’s power blending, and most of the people dancing around him are wearing his cocktail. They don’t seem to mind.

Habibi is one of the most graceful yet welcoming dance floors in this city, but staring too long from the banqueted sidelines will eventually end in outstretched palms locking onto you while fingers slowly curl inward. It’s a universal invitation to the dance, and it’s impossible to resist.

This occasional Arabic dance party is the brainchild of a former accountant named Abraham Joseph, who also spins under the nom de disc I.Z. Habibi is a one-man show, with Abraham juggling everything from grooming e-mail lists to choreographing belly dancers, but the party has outgrown venues like Downtime and shifted from a quarterly to almost-monthly event. It currently resides at Club Shelter and has allowed Abraham to shelve the bookkeeping and live “La Vie Boheme” 24/7.

“I’m bored with hip-hop and house music,” the impresario said, “I’m bored with seeing the same thing everywhere I go.” And that ennui, coupled with a hunch about demand for his kind of party, caused him to jump in just after 9/11. 

“I really saw a market for Middle Eastern, Arabic music and a party that was different from everything else,” he says. “That’s what encouraged me to give it a shot.”

When we get together after his party, he’s hesitant to say much more about himself. He’s not shy, but prefers to give off an air of mystique.

“I hate labels,” he explains. “I want you to come to this party with a completely open mind. The least amount of information I give, the better it is for you and me.”

He does allow that another pair of hands on deck would have to be adept at shooing patrons away from the DJ booth. He doesn’t mind requests, but not while he’s working. 

The oddest request I entertain at Habibi—Arabic slang for “sweetheart”—is a patron asking to borrow my scarf. I oblige, imagining him ducking outside to smoke, but instead he knots it around his waist and bucks his hips, following the bouncing scarf around the dance floor.

Abraham’s expecting 500 revelers at his next party, but hopes to soon double that number. He’s also on the lookout for “a really big space where there are video screens.” 

Still, part of Habibi’s charm is an absolute economy of means. With no Phazon, at times the needle drags across one record, landing on another disc entirely—yet the crowd is frenzied.

“Prime time”—the hours between 11 and 3 a.m.—kicks with “Arabic music from all over the Middle East that I mix with some Indian and Latin music,” Abraham said. “I always add the Arabic touch. If it’s Arabic music, I add a global touch, like house beats, so it’s a complete blend.”

The next Habibi event takes place March 25 at Club Shelter, 20 W. 39th St. For information about other upcoming events visit izmix.com.