Eldergays, did you go dancing at THE SAINT?

Loved hearing some oral history on the place here...

[quote]Did any of you make it onto the dance floor there "under the stars"?

Many made it. Few were alive even in 1995, much less 30 years later.

Yes, I went there and most of the NYC dance parties. It’s was fun… while the drugs worked.

R2 speak for yourself. I'm in my early 60s. The Saint was open 1980-1988. Many of us were there and many of us aren't even pos let alone dead of AIDS. We were the youngest guys there, of course. And most of us were more into different scenes. The East Village scene outside the doors of The Saint was radically different than The Saint. Also it was the time of Area, Danceteria, hipper scenes, mixed scenes. Then the new mega clubs competing. The Saint was kinda fringe and gay ghetto, but it was fabulous in its lane, don't get me wrong. Very very well designed. That was the lure. It also had good flowers, of all things.

Later, it was a venue for circuit parties, so some of those in my age cohort knew The Saint for those. They aren't dead either.

Sheesh.

I loved it! It was our studio 54! I miss dancing until my jeans were wet with sweat! I miss not having that energy now :( . The most handsome, well built men in NYC went there. No club since has matched the planetarium light show and the acoustics of the sound system. I was at my peak back then in my early twenties it was the right place at the right time for me. Sadly the AIDS epidemic hit within 2 years of the club opening forever changing everything. I am grateful for having the chance to experience it!

R5 / DiscoEldergayat60 - you couldn't be more aptly named for this thread! Love hearing these recollections from you, and the others in the thread! If it's something you'd enjoy, the clip I posted at R1 is part of a series of 5 or 6 video interviews with people you may have known... architects, designers, FOH and BOH employees, patrons and fellow club owners of the era.

Shocking to me how dancing has largely disappeared from the scene. So sad. Dancing was/is so spiritually and sexually and emotionally fulfilling - I find it depressing that it’s so rare now. Yes, I know you can find it if you try in obscure Brooklyn locations - but so symbolic how it’s no longer THE thing gay men do.

Is dancing really gone? I haven’t really gone out in at least two decades, but are there no dance clubs any more or big DJs like Junior?

Dance clubs are pretty much gone from Manhattan. And there a very few real dance clubs in BK/Queens. The economics dont work in NYC anymore. But I also don’t see it anyplace else i travel TBH. My sense is dancing just isnt a thing people are interested in doing anymore - at least not the majority of gay men which is the way it used to be. Bizarre - and IMO sad.

Beirut has big dance club scene including mega clubs. Go figure.

Although I wasn't a member, my first night dancing at the Saint was a couple months after moving to NYC at eighteen in the fall of 1981. I remember that it was the night Dreamgirls opened on Broadway which meant it was December 20, 1981. I saw guys changing out of their tuxedos and into jeans. Although the famous NY Times "Rare Cancer Seen in Gay Men" article had been published that July, none of that terror or awareness was evident.

The design of the club was incredible, and the original staircases which sort of criss-crossed were still there. They were redesigned soon after for a simpler stairway design that perhaps made more sense, but was less exciting. I was terrified having been in maybe two neighborhood gay bars in my life and had certainly never entered a real night club. I was kind of dating one of the guys in our group of guys from my part-time job and we sat on the bleachers and made out most of the time we weren't dancing.

I couldn't believe all the hot men who seemed very intimidating and I saw guys with amyl-soaked rags in their mouths. I had no idea what that was about. I couldn't believe they didn't sell booze, but I believe you could get a soda which may have been free and there were bowls of green apples on the bar! Sorry for the random thoughts, but that is how I remember them.

I went once. Unfortunately, I had taken to not wearing my contacts (too much pollution and grit in NYC), so I probably missed 90% of the special effects and only saw the hot men when they wandered into my frame of vision. I think I must have gone after they redesigned the stairways. I was not a muscle god. I think I would describe myself in those days as a relatively cute twink. Not the look that was in favor at the time in a club like the Saint. Still found my share of admirers, but I'm quite sure I went home alone from the Saint.

R11 - don't you dare apologize for the "random thoughts" -- hearing from folks who actually visited The Saint was what I genuinely hoped for. Loved hearing your (and R12's) recollections. And, I'm grateful you both made it out of that dark era. MUAH!

I don’t dance.

*Won't

For a second I got confused and thought OP was talking about The Limelight, which I am old enough to have gone to. The Saint was unfortunately way before my time. (Well 20 years anyway.)

But I am fascinated by what r9 said because I haven't gone dancing since the 2000s (partnered and super boring since then) and often wonder where the dance clubs are now, since I never hear about any. I loved going out dancing in college in the 90s through my first few years here in NYC. Makes me sad that isn't happening now. I had the best times, just completely losing yourself in a great big mass of sweaty people all moving together like that. People need escape like that right now ffs!