A Bona-Fide Disco Album That Feels Urgently of the Moment

"Many of the paired dances of the twentieth century-the foxtrot, the waltz, the Lindy Hop-reflected the binary gender dynamics of the day: men led and women followed, on the dance floor as at home. There were exceptions, such as in the underground drag balls that developed out of Black culture and grew in popularity during the nineteen-twenties. But they were still seen as a niche movement for "perverts," according to a moral-reform committee investigation from 1916."

"In 1970, in the aftermath of the 1969 Stonewall rebellion, the d.j. David Mancuso began hosting invitation-only underground dance parties at a place that would come to be known as the Loft, at 647 Broadway. Around the same time, two gay entrepreneurs, Seymour and Shelley, purchased a failing venue called the Sanctuary, which had formerly been a church in Hell's Kitchen."

Paired twentieth-century dances like the foxtrot, waltz, and Lindy Hop reinforced binary gender dynamics with men leading and women following. Underground drag balls emerging from Black culture provided exceptions but remained marginalized. Disco disrupted binary norms and, after Stonewall, catalyzed inclusive underground parties such as Mancuso's Loft and the Sanctuary, offering physically and emotionally liberatory spaces where new imaginaries could be built. New York legalized same-sex public dancing, yet social acceptance lagged, making these venues crucial for marginalized communities. A backlash against disco in the late seventies reflected reactionary politics. The album Cut & Rewind by Say She She channels disco's urgency, blending disco soundscapes into 'discodelic soul.'

Read at The New Yorker