RETURN TO THE DANCEFLOOR.
And we’re back!
It’s been a long, hard year and we’re all coming back to each other with our own experiences, our own choices, and our own pain. We’ve lost, we’ve learned, and we’ve wondered what life would be like when we do return from this strange, strange place we’ve been.
But alas, time heals all wounds, and as we regain our strength, we breathe, and fill ourselves deeply with the energy we have been collecting about us for months upon months and stretch out one long, polished acrylic nail to flip open the local FagRag and see what’s happening at the club girls!
I needed my return to be right. And when I heard that Morabito would be playing her first live in-person set since the pandemic started, and that it would be at Xion in Atlanta, I knew that would be right for me. Xion is where I got my start, and Morabito has served some of the fiercest sets I’ve ever had the pleasure of attending, particularly her Pines Party weekend closing function for which I had my dance card punched in 2019.
I came alone with the solitary intention to dance again as I can only do with myself and me only. And it was pure bliss. Thank you again Morabito.
As I spun my spells on the dancefloor, a particular track struck a chord within me, delivering a message I needed to hear and could only have heard there in that moment. When I moved to Atlanta, something happened I never planned, something I’m eternally grateful happened. I fell in love very fast with someone very sweet. But I was in the wrong place, at the wrong time, and the worst version of myself. But he still loved me. Last I wrote, I had let him go. But I hadn’t. I’ve been carrying him with me since that day everywhere I’ve been. It’s easy to let go of someone physically, but it’s another to do so emotionally.
The track Morabito played was “If You Love Somebody Set Them Free,” by Sting & Dave Aude, remixed by Tom Stephan. You can listen to it here.
If you really love somebody, set them free. In that moment, I realized I’d have to let go if I wanted to keep going. While I may have let him go physically, I was still emotionally tied to him. It was still our future I was working toward, and I was working on myself for us. But there is no us, because I let go. It’s rather like a balloon tied to your wrist. If you untie it and watch it float away, try as hard as you may, you can never have that balloon again. Take a hot air balloon ride if you must, but I daresay it will only leave you grasping for thin air. So come back down to Earth, breathe, and be happy you had a big, red balloon, even if for just one day.
I feel like all of us have a balloon we’re chasing; something we haven’t let go, need to let go, or just plain refuse to part with. But how much more whole could we be if we let it float away, and refocus on what makes us harder, better, faster, stronger?
Let go.
Listen to Lily in your ear Harry, “Let go. Sweetheart, you're ready. Let go. LET GO!”
Parting truly is such sweet sorrow, but remember the words of Frou Frou, “There is beauty in the breakdown.”
When I think of that, I recall listening to Calagna’s Remix Your World podcast series discussing that very topic: #29 Motivational Mixdown - Finding Beauty in the Breakdown. Go give it a listen.
So please, again I ask you to let go. Because now is the moment.
We’ve been given the opportunity of a lifetime - truly. This may never happen again, and we pray it does not. But this past year, apart from the great tragedies we experienced, was the greatest gift you could ever receive, because it’s the greatest gift you could ever give – time. It is the silver lining of an ongoing global crisis.
We’ve had time to stop and look around us, and time to stop and smell the roses, and time to stop and say this is not okay, and time to stop and speak up for what is right, and time to look in ourselves at what is wrong, and time to heal, and time to work, and time to grow, and time to plan for a time when we could all return to each other renewed with a sense of grace and purpose and a real mother fuckin’ reason to dance again.
Do you realize why we dance now? Why we connect now? Why the music transcends all the languages we’ve created to speak to each other without words now?
If you know, then you are ready. If you don’t know, you may never be ready. Because now is the time we dust off our heels, push back our hair, and prepare to step fiercely back in time to the beat of the DJ as our doors reopen.
This is our Return to the Dancefloor.
Can you feel it? That funky beat running through you, speaking to you, and sharing something with you. If you can, you better share it with the person next to you. Because that is why we dance. It is how we communicate on a different frequency. Because Music is the Answer.
Now some of us have been working toward this moment. And some of us have not. But all that matters is what you do starting now. And if letting go of something is what you can do, and it will make you a more whole person, then that’s the start we need. It’s been said and I’ll keep repeating it – the change we want to see in the world starts within ourselves. You work on you. I will work on me. And then, as Tyler Perry said so beautifully at the Oscars, we can all, “meet in the Middle.”
Bring your best self to the Middle so we can do the work together, dance together, and move forward together. Because Together is the feature and the headliner, and if you can’t get into it honey, you need to stay home. Because we are all in this Together.
But Together is not going to be chasing your damn balloon down the street you messy queen. Get in or get out. Because this dancefloor is about to be rockin’ and there is no Guest List tonight.
So if you’re ready for this grand return diva, then I do have a few sage suggestions. I’m so glad you asked.
Be Yourself.
Easier said than done. I know that is true honey. I have spent my entire life running away from who I am as a Southern person. But it is intrinsically what makes me so me. I have exhausted so much energy dialing back my Southern drawl and covering my Alabama tracks so to speak, but at the end of the day, it is who I am and gives me my Southern flavor. And while Alabama has never felt like home to me the way NYC feels like home to me, it certainly has held all the staples of a good home - people that care dearly for me, a place where I can feel secure, and room for me to grow.
I was listening to an incredible podcast that I highly recommend, especially to all my Southern queens out here, when I had a true lightbulb moment. During Dolly Parton’s America on NPR, they stated that a third of all LGBTQ+ people in the United States live in the Southeast.
A THIRD!
Jeez louise that hit me. Did it just hit you? Yeah I see it just hit you. Heeheehee.
But that astonishing fact reminded me that not only is my Southern charm inherent in myself, it also gives me a responsibility to give those that do call the South home all the things I left the South to go find. You follow?
I’ve always held the purpose of giving others permission – permission to have fun, to dress wild, to put on a bit of lipstick and a bad wig, to just get up and dance if you feel like it. And where better to do that than where I come from AND where I want to be? A little bit Southern and a little bit New York. A little bit David and little bit Daisy. They meet in the Middle. Won’t you? Be yourself. Let go of what is not You, and embrace what is very, very You (if it makes you better.)
My secondary suggestion would be that if you have plenty of cash for all these fabulous parties, and they do deserve your support as nightlife workers and artists have been without work for over a year, please also make a donation to organizations that still need our help, our time, and our full attention. We are not going backward, only forward. Please make a donation today to one of the organizations below or one of your choice, make a post about them, and tell a friend too. If you can spend $20 on a cover while sending a meme to your IG “close friends” in your rainbow assless singlet sponsored by Red Roof Hotel and Econolodge, then surely you can do the same for these organizations that are putting resources to work where they are needed.
For the Gworls / Trans Asylias / Black Excellence Center /
Magic City Acceptance Center / The Masha P Johnson Institute /
Thirdly, start using a nice toner and sunscreen every day darling, even if it’s cloudy out, especially if it’s cloudy out!
If you heard that last bit in my best James St. James played by Seth Green voice, you’ve learned how to read this little skosh of blog quite well darling.
I’ll see you on the dancefloor.
I’ll be right in the middle.
Happy Pride everyone.
Be Yourself.
Xx,
DavidXDaisy
To further prepare yourself for your Return to the Dancefloor, please see my 95 Theses of Clubland.