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The Future of Dance to Feed Your Spirit

One of my favorite quotes from the last issue of noiZe is the one from the Russian-American anarchist Emma Goldman: “If I can’t dance, I don’t want your revolution!”

As the year comes to an end with the holiday season, and the first decade of the 21st century also ends (remember Y2K? – yeah, 10 years ago), it is curious to see where the culture of dance stands in today’s culture. The events we all know and love have indeed changed dramatically—just as we had predicted here on the pages of noiZe. In total, there would appear to be fewer opportunities to satisfy the need for our spirits to dance.

Dancing is therapeutic and releasing in ways that we are only beginning to understand along with other meditative, trance states. Primitive man discovered the movement of dance. It’s something innate in us; always has been there, and always will be. This is true for indigenous tribes and peoples that dance in ceremony and as part of their culture. They may not have known the why or how of what dance did for their minds and bodies, but they knew it was important. Today you can find that dance is considered and used as therapy. Just check out the “dance therapy” entry in Wikipedia:

Dance therapy, or dance movement therapy is the psychotherapeutic use of movement and dance for emotional, cognitive, social, behavioral and physical condition. Dance movement therapy strengthens the body/mind connection through body movements to improve both the mental and physical well-being of individuals. As a form of expressive therapy, DMT is founded on the basis that movement and emotion are directly related. The ultimate purpose of DMT is to find a healthy balance and sense of wholeness.

So with fewer dance floors and more lounges and online meeting places, is the opportunity to dance slowly making its way out of our culture? Perhaps in venues that we have gotten use to, but not in some other innovative channels. Look at popular culture. For example, two of the biggest television shows right now are Dancing with the Stars, and the (nominally) hipper, So You Think You Can Dance. Both of these shows showcase dance in different ways, but provide an avenue for millions of people—and not just in the United States; there are international versions in most of the developed world—to experience the excitement and joy of dancing to music.

Ellen DeGeneres (you know, that fun-loving lesbian who happens to have one of the top talk shows alongside Oprah) dances to current music and hip-hop every day on her show. The audience dances. Her guests dance. If you doubt that these shows have an effect on the (gay) youth of today who may not frequent the clubs and festivals that we do, visit YouTube and watch hundreds of teenagers making faux music videos, dancing to current tunes, mashing gay-straight stereotypes together (and apart)—and experiencing pure joy while doing so. Remember the extremely obese guy singing into a hairbrush that took the Internet and Youtube by storm? Anyone can feel the power of shaking his or her booty, although I must concede that Beyoncé definitely has more booty to power than your everyday Circuit boy.

So in the last few months of 2009, remember that there are great opportunities to “feed your spirit.” Nowhere to go? How about White Party’s 25 year anniversary in Miami; Masterbeat’s 10 year   anniversary New Year’s bash in Los Angeles; the always-popular Alegria in New York; and Genesis in Miami? That should keep your spirit fed and happy for the rest of the year and the start of 2010. Check out our Calendar for other events that will feed your body and mind.

In This Issue:

DJ Ana Paula: Fresh out of Rio, this DJ brings a samba beat into the House. As the Circuit has become an international phenomenon, so have our DJs, and no one embodies the big tent better than this rising star, as Steve Weinstein explains in this, her first-ever English-language profile.

City Spotlight: Miami has become synonymous with hot weather, hotter men and the hottest parties, and no one knows the scene better than longtime residents Mark Thompson and Robert Doyle. Before booking a trip to White Party, Winter Party or just a winter weekend getaway, consult this comprehensive guide.

The War on Drugs: Forget Iraq or Vietnam. For decades the United States has been fighting an unwinnable war. Billions of dollars of later, thousands incarcerated, lives lost and whole nations devastated by this folly, we’re no farther than ever from winning this “war.”

Atlantic City: This city, best known for its gambling, has suddenly discovered the gay market big time—and the party boys are responding in kind. Can this southern New Jersey oceanside resort become the next Fire Island?

Tribal Spirituality: The Circuit has always been about more, much more, than dancing, men and sex. Christian Hart’s classic commentary on the way that the party scene has become our church has taken on deeper meaning since it was first published in 1997. Read this Circuit Noize classic.

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