Officials said 146 people were injured and emergency crews were still working to pull survivors from the rubble as families of the victims gathered at the site searching for their loved ones.
Juan Manuel Mendez, head of the Dominican Republic's emergency operations centre, said that efforts to rescue those trapped under the debris were continuing although the exact number of people inside the club at the time of the collapse remained unclear.
The disaster struck during a concert attended by politicians, athletes and other prominent figures.
Among the victims was Nelsy Cruz, governor of the northern Monte Cristi province, President Luis Abinader said.
Cruz was the sister of former baseball player Nelson Cruz, a seven-time Major League Baseball All-Star.
Former MLB pitcher Octavio Dotel also died en route to a local hospital after being pulled from the debris, a spokesman for the sports ministry said.
Dotel, 51, debuted for the New York Mets in 1999 and played until 2013 for more than a dozen teams including the Houston Astros, Oakland A's, New York Yankees, Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers.
"Thinking about our people in the Dominican Republic," Carlos Mendoza, manager of the Mets, said in a press conference.
"We have a lot of the Dominican community in the baseball world."
Nearly 150 people have been taken to local hospitals for treatment, according to the government.
The cause of the roof collapse remained under investigation.
