With every death there is birth.

With every ending there is beginning.

With every shadow there is light.

Come be in community Sunday May 1st as we find our way back to each other through the medicine of music, dance and celebration. The culminating event of the Dancing Thru Death Festival is an experimental therapeutic and community care space for folks who want to be held in their experiences of loss, life and change these past two+ years.

Event Happenings:

4:00-4:30 —> Arrivals + Music + Punking/Waacking Open Floor Sign Ups

4:30 - 5:30 pm —> Queer Wisdom Share Panel: Learn from Queer dancers and djs who will be sharing their lived experiences and visions for a better future in a post Know-Your-Rank-Era Retrospective talk. The panel will cover topics such as inclusion, safety, gender, sexuality, mental health, transformative justice, cultural appropriation, and a vision for the future. Panel will be live streamed and recorded. Community questions will be fielded prior to the event through this form.

5:30-6:00 pm —> Pre-show Vibez: DJ set by Liz Videnda + Punking/Waacking Open Floor Sign Ups

6:00-7:30 pm —> Showtime! Performances by Amber Julian, Pita Meanata, Solasta McIntyre Ethridge, Prince Leezy Amor, Jai Severson, Karla Flores and a Punking/Waacking Open Floor.

7:30-8:00 pm —> Dance Party: DJ Set by Liz Videnda

Activities throughout the event include food + drinks provided by 7th West, Queer Crafts n Club Fair and interactive art installations to support your own processing of the pandemic through storytelling art.

Context:

With the death of Diggs Deeper and No Mirror Movement, and the ongoing fragmentation of the all styles dance community in a post-Know Your Rank/#MeToo era, community organizer and artist Solasta McIntyre Ethridge, previously known as SammyMac, is bringing folks together one more time to witness and be witnessed so we may understand, heal and grow together again.

After taking a break from the freestyle scene due to ongoing unaddressed misogyny, homophobia and transphobia, and their personal experiences of assault, harassment, and other abuses of power, Solasta has been called to make space for community healing for those who are ready enough for it. Through a series of live performances by a queer-led cast - all of whom were present and involved in the 2018 Know Your Rank community talks that took place at 7th West, we hope to reengage folks of all walks of life and relationships to dance into these important conversations and begin the long-term work of repair.

Club spaces are Queer spaces. This event serves as a reminder of this history.

The event also aims to fill the gap from Diggs Deeper by providing a therapeutically oriented celebratory space for the medicine of music and dance to help us hold, move and grow from complex human experiences, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Let’s send community members Pita and Solasta off with love and care as they leap into the unknown of a new beginning in New York.

Tickets:

Sliding Scale ticket model.

$5-$15

30% of sales go to Sogorea Te’ Land Trust

60% of sales go to Rainbow Connection Club - a collaborative of multi-talented queer gender expansive artists in the Bay and NY.

*All Project X ticket holders can attend Dancing Thru Death for free. If you would like to purchase a ticket to our event as a donation we welcome it, though it is not expected.

COVID-19 Precautions:

COVID Guidelines for Guests:

All guests must have/wear a mask to enter 7th West. All guests are required to complete 7th West’s digital Health Declaration Form and agree to the following:

Agree to participate in our Contract Tracing Program

Agree to a temperature check as 7th West does not allow anyone over 99 degrees to enter

Agree to accepting hand sanitizer provided by 7th West upon successful completion of the Health Declaration Form

Agree that anytime guests leave their table to go to the bathroom, talk to another table or if they are leaving the venue, masks must be worn at all times.

Masks can be taken off while eating and drinking.

All ordering of Food & Drink is contactless and must be ordered at your tables through the QR codes. Once items are ready, staff will bring them out directly to the tables.