Capturing Communities in Words and Images:

Have You Ever Seen The Dead Dance?

On Wednesday, Oct 1st, at the Lower East Side bar Home Sweet Home, I went to check out the Goth club event Weird. After sliding past the bar and reaching the dance floor the first thing I noticed were what looked like dead people dancing. Should I assume they were alive when their eyes seemed so lifeless and their bodies beat back and forth to the music as if they hang from a rope with some devil-tasker were beating them methodically with a stick?

The dancer’s arms dangled at their sides. Their heads were hung over, and seemed to lift only slightly before methodically falling down again. All of their facial expressions were muted. Each of their eyes were cast downward, eyelids barely open, focused steadily on something that lay in their thoughts and not in this room. I was a little unnerved. I needed a timeout. I retreated to the bar for a drink. After surveying what others were drinking, I settled on a Jamaican Red Stripe.

When I entered, the bar was already half-packed. People kept filing in. “The more, the better,” I thought to myself. I wanted to see the Goth archetype in all of its expressions. As soon as my fascination waned after surveying the latest new entry, another person or group would file in and my attention would ratchet itself up again. I got through two Red Stripe beers this way. The bar, the dance floor and the deejay booth between them served as hubs of activity. I let my eyes roam across all of it. Meanwhile, a haze of mist hung in the air lightly, wafting, drifting. It had a scent to it. It smelled sort of like…crushed flowers. Interesting.

Then something in the atmosphere changed. I noticed a crowd forming on the dance floor, and organizing into a semi-circle. I looked and didn’t see anyone or anything in the middle. What were they gathering around? If was eerie. It was as if something beckoned them into a coven. Something was calling them and they were responding. Then I realized what it was –the music we were listening to had changed. This new music had an edge. I felt it. It had a pull to it. It was dark yet inviting. I responded to it. I left the bar and joined the coven.

2 thoughts on “Have You Ever Seen The Dead Dance?”

  1. Great description of your visit. It’s not only extremely visual but also physically immersing. I hope your next visit will give you the opportunity to chat some more with the drak patrons.

  2. There are so many moments where you show that you are working hard to get inside the community–paying attention to what they are drinking. Becoming an “insider” takes time. Keep at it.

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