Lest we end this unofficial last dance of summer on the dour and sour note signaled by this post, here is the second part, with an extended dance mix for Donna Summer’s ‘Last Dance’ – to prolong the magic, to elongate the dance, to perpetuate the summer for as long as possible – the way only a good old-school remix can accomplish. At the five minute mark, the flutes flutter in for a brief reprieve, to allow some of us to catch our breath and restore lung capacity for that final thrust of choreo… and when the bass and those 70’s strings take off a minute later, our Solid Gold Summer flies again – because this summer is not yet over… and if this is one of the final songs, let’s make it last…
Hubris-free factoid: I’m a good dancer. Whether it’s the Filipino blood in me or the gay gene, I know how to cut a rug. (The Filipino karaoke chromosome completely skipped me, so my talent remains solely in footwork rather than anything coming out of my mouth.) Dancing is something that just comes easily and naturally to me, from the days of choreographing routines to the opening themes of ‘CHiPS’ and ‘Dallas’ to the moments of dancing to Madonna, when at night I’d lock the door so no one else can see. Every once in a while, I’d take it to a club and lose myself in the music and the marvel of the community that could always be found there. Madonna knew what she was talking about when she said the dance floor is not just a place, it’s a threshold – a ritualistic space where movement replaces language.
It is here where some of us found a sanctuary and safe place – where being different didn’t matter, where together we moved as one – becoming part of something greater than our individual selves, while being more absolutely ourselves than perhaps anywhere else. As this Solid Gold Summer sounds its last dance, I remember the movements of the past, the dances that were over too soon, and the people I could only know on the dance floor.
