Still Dancing: A Night at the Gallery with Nicky Siano

Our annual colorful and vibrant celebration of dance music’s queer roots returns for St. Pete Pride weekend, Florida's largest Pride celebration. We're following up last year's cheeky Don't Say Disco party featuring Victor Rosado with a night of epic proportions. Still Dancing: A Night at the Gallery will be celebrating the fabled club and career of illustrious NYC legend Nicky Siano — a larger than life figure and true original innovator of club culture as we know it today. Rounding out the lineup is our resident Austen van der Bleek and studious, next generation devotee Jubilee. Our venue for the night will be The Mad Monk collective's Graffiti Gallery, an immersive makers space in the Warehouse Arts District whose walls themselves are living pieces of art.

$15 Early Bird / $20 Advance / $25 General Admission / $30 Door still-dancing-pride-party.eventbrite.com ra.co/events/1907881

Nicky Siano is one of the last true pioneers of the inception of New York's dance music scene, a music genre that later became disco. Siano and his club, the Gallery, are featured in some of the most important recountings of disco history, including books like Love Saves the Day, where his club is credited as the first disco, and documentaries such as Maestro. Siano pioneered many aspects of DJing and night clubs, like being one of the first to beat match records (sometimes using three turntables and even a preliminary drum machine), designing the first crossover, building the first club bass horns, and becoming the first DJ to produce a record (1977's "Kiss Me Again" on Sire Records). He inspired owners to build such seminal institutiions as the Paradise Garage and Studio 54, where he was an original resident DJ and the very first to play the club, and helped launch the careers of iconic singers Grace Jones and Loleatta Holloway and DJs Larry Levan and Frankie Knuckles, to name a few. Siano continues to tour the world as an in demand DJ, playing parties and festivals like A Club Called Rhonda, House of Yes, Dekmantel, The Warehouse Project, and venues such as the Good Room, public records, Le Bain, Spot Lite Detroit, Ministry of Sound, and even the Royal Albert Hall.

Always remembering and honoring that the first Pride was a riot, we are excited to welcome a guest that actually witnessed the Stonewall Riots to join us for this important annual event. We'll also be celebrating Disco: Soundtrack of a Revolution, the BBC 3-part docuseries which celebrates disco's continuing musical and cultural legacy, heavily featuring Siano, set to air in the US on PBS June 18th. Finally, we'd like to recognize and note Siano's break away from DJing — living through the AIDS epidemic — to work as an HIV counsellor and the author of No Time To Wait, a widely praised and influential book on dealing with the disease.

“If anyone is to be called a legend it is SIANO.” New York Magazine, 2011

"Nicky Siano invented the segue." Nicky is named as one of the "100 People who Changed New York." New York Magazine's 35th Anniversary issue

"Nicky Siano IS dance music." Play Magazine

“DJ Legend Nicky Siano remains an important figure in the music industry.” Time Out Magazine

Nicky Siano (NYC)

The Gallery, Studio 54

nickysiano.com

www.wtpunk.com