"Come As You Are" Full Documentary

[Music] you can't have and underground or let's say a house

party without knowing what the loft is or was you know because it's a social that was important it was the different cultures and meet and greet that was

important it was the party atmosphere is family that was important [Music] [Applause]

[Music] [Applause] [Music] David Cousteau would say we were like

his orchestra and I thought that was special being at the morph was special you especially unless you went to that dare you it was

a certain the world your free memory nine-to-five working and no someday we'd just come to this one place if you get about everything

think about wafting it's an experience that's they can't believe but it can be done again the whole idea is the mentality that you must have when you

dare is about love first and you second because the sweetie put yourself first you're not doing what you're not you're not being communal you're not you're not respecting women you're not

understanding they get community you're not understanding that it's not about who you are it's it's how it's who you know what you know it's when you come from listen with inside you so it's a

house community never says you have any rules we never had rules except love the only rule we had is do your thing and enjoy the behind and get off every

dancer there had their own personality they had their own style no one was the same love dancing is expression of many elements that you make it your own it's

about sharing it's about learning from others and participating in a vibe that's so unique it's about everyone it's about everything it's about different

communities coming all in one room there's no black there's no white there's no Spanish there's no gender there doesn't matter who you were you were part of an extended family that

building the future it started [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause]

[Music] when you're in an environment like that there's less of a focus on you and you can just be you whatever that was you

know even if people didn't know what that was you know that's how it encouraged a person to be free by creating a safe space for them where there was no

judgment you know people will look at you but it was more a thing of they were with you in this journey as opposed to like well let me see what you got

because yeah Eagles the Eagles I'm sure you know but it was more of a sharing kind of thing like yeah I'm a big old beater you know that kind of thing if these come as you are parties because

basically that's what they were you can bring who you were to the club and you're forever changed when you look around and you see oh shoot people are dancing on the ground because

the ground was very important one thing that was prevalent about dancing in the law everybody tried to be smooth what

they did there was no jerky turkey beef jerky wasn't hmm it was about being smooth so if you spun you spun smooth if

you died you died smooth if you landed you landed smooth that was the whole groove of the place and that carried on

for many years you know and then even when the music changed that still maintained some of the movement changed yeah but the younger generation is look at the

older generation very carefully because it's got a lot of knowledge and that's with any culture you know you just don't sit back and say oh it's in to improve so I don't need to worry about doing it

now you start to dilute it you start to change it you know it's too much it's you know it's a house is a very sacred thing house is a feeling and you can

teach a feeling you have the experience of feeling and that comes from people like within you the DJ your self as if somebody's putting into it and the

crowds energy to do the same thing don't get it twisted it never begins with you it continues with you because if you go through our

time and look at the social dances from the 60s 70s 80s 90s our social climate economically also shows how people live so the social aspect of clubs was just

that for the escapism for us to be calm and like ok it's gonna be ok it's gonna be ok that's what all of that came in so people had more caring for each other and they danced with each other back

then look at Soul Train and all they dance with each other back then but when Reagan and them came in and the money started getting up and people started doing really really well

the closeness began even though they had more money to spend to go out it was more about what for what I have what I can do and then the dancing stop being

socially became separate as Marjorie would say when I we go and see her a class and she

would point to me and say excuse me boys and girls before we start this class or why would you go into class let me stop

the guy over there who made me what I do now because he danced with me and you

good you can learn classroom stuff you gotta learn how to go to a club in the social aspect of dances that you're

having a conversation when you're dancing with someone you're dancing with them you're not dancing at them this generation is taught to dance at each other it's always a war is

always opposing forces they don't think of it as a beautiful combination or a beautiful ballet they don't think of it as synergistically

becoming something new you have to connect with the person once you two eyes meet everything changes everything changes [Music]

you know no Mel likes female-male doesn't know how to do that because she is feeling her own energy in his face and she doesn't

know who this creep is what eventually happens is the male has to show his worthiness by serenading her by dancing

around Rome dancing with her if she goes and he goes at her and she goes away he goes back so it's the kind of yin and yang mixture of figuring out what to do

and eventually the male golden round turning without touching her to show you I'm graceful I'm strong and I'm confident and that's why I can do these

things to you and the woman is going to like those guys did that so you must be pretty good that's us that's another four we want

the up form of something that you see other people do which is to go ahead and go around the person because communicating and serenading that person

we danced even if it was sexual it was refined and it was sexual but in a in a way that you didn't make anybody feel discomfort or uncomfortable you know I see these kids dancing today and the

girls are doing their dancing like if they have a penis and there's [ __ ] how are you gonna hit me with a penis when you have a vagina when we danced laughs

now dancing we danced to the words we danced to the rhythm to the strings so when we danced we didn't just

we danced it up so the beat could be going but if the strings are going our bodies were following that if she

was singing in a certain way our bodies follow that then when we stop you're hearing what we wanted to hear we went back to the beat so that's the difference between loft-style dances and

today and there was no such thing as a cypher there was something called a circle and when we danced in the circle we danced to complement each other we didn't dance

to compete on and even though there might be some slight competition but it was never a competition to say what's up it was more of a alright you got me this

time but that new move you you you know you just threw me for next week I'm gonna top it with just same move so you know and of course listen this is the way everyone gets better you bite used to see someone dance you bite if

shouldn't you try to make it your own that's the evolution of dance whoever says they never oh yeah I'm original [ __ ] listen we all bid how did I learn how to dance I bid every [ __ ]

body that I saw I bit their [ __ ] and I made it my own and that's how you become or you come up with your own signature moves or you know you expand there were

no cameras when we danced there were no mirrors when we danced you know I got mirrors here you see my mirrors right every time I look at my mirror and I try to dance I [ __ ] up

because I lose my feeling trying to try to perfect something that there's no perfection to you know your perfection is what your body tells you and that's

your perfection if you try to create it through a mirror it's not perfect than you know we did a lot of groundwork so what happens is like in breakdancing you see

all the dramatic stuff that you're doing in one area but you don't see you awake of them seem long if you want to call it you supposed to being able to do

I'm gonna give you the five or six elements of loft you have to give it ballet first if you have to give it jazz

and mind you I say jazz because this is before modern jazz is modern jazz before contemporary was contemporary you always had an influence of Africana and you hear that at all the music that was

played with the drums and the gold guys you always had tap there was a form it's happened that's where all those footwork movements come from then the other two

would be karate and gymnastics you gotta remember 1979 it was a very homophobic New York was a very homophobic City so

to see these strong guys that we knew were straight you know do almost like look what what looked like a plie or what looked like something out of a

ballet movie or something that me go buddy sneak off was doing it was amazing cuz as much as you wanted to say are these guys looking

it wasn't it's a multiple of different kinds of musical styles you have to bring them all you bring what you can't take that's the

difference between like launched and going to other clubs where you see great dancer but there was too much of like that individuality and

I didn't feel that either that wants me going office furniture theory dancing at the wall for me was like Church and we would say that you know we're going to

church to pray to pray flighted to praise joys and the the freedom to dance now if I was to do a signature move for

the law basically the Hat you take what you have in your dance with it with the hat you can just just be somebody be a

character play with your hands play with the walls play with the lights play with each other just play yes it was good

boozled is everything it was all the misfits that didn't have a place to go and this was their home their time their

family and I love that connection and then again there were people that they were with them that weren't gay it was music it was about interacting with each

other in one place at that time because we knew we need you back to the real world what everything was just so messed up New York City was at its worst if you

look at pictures from the seventies you see the decay building and this is this is where we lived you know we lived in decay buildings I lived in a building that was an absentee landlord

you know its ceilings you know the place was totally shambles so when you went out dancing you were able to forget about all of that stuff you were able to

you know just blow off all that steam from the frustration this is a time when two other judges came at the same time at the same time

I started dancing in the streets about 1971-72 which I was 10 years old 72 73 were very very important years for music you guys do your history you'll

find that Apple anther of music came out that was very very influential and change the course of where we were going those two years is when I started up rocking you know up rocking his burning

you know old school you know just you know a turkey rhythm and that's what I was doing I was a little kid and I was that was like you know I saw the bigger guys do it the guys are wearing gangs in the neighborhood I grew up in a very

rough neighborhood Manhattan Louis I gangs ran some you know some neighborhoods daimoku so I had opened

his doors after the Stonewall incident where I think it was downtown by Christmas Street where the police officers were harassing the the gays and

transgender and they were mistreating them so daimoku so opened his doors and made his home a place for everyone to

come down and his fellow friends come down and how that triple down was one friend put another friend and look friend was about you had to earn it you had to be interviewed to go to the

applause you have to be interviewed maybe recommended by people who lost the gay community didn't open their doors to

us and form this family called diversity so many of us would have been lost there's so many people who are now doctors lawyers

practitioners ballroom dancers actress singers Grammy Award producers all came from that culture the beauty of us when

we were doing this was that there was no YouTube there was no Facebook so we never thought of this as a going beyond your neighborhood so we were doing it because it was the [ __ ]

thing to do the love the music the gathering about friendship it was our powwow where today these kids want to learn it so they could have their own video channel on YouTube so they can run

around and say that their teachers you learn from not just classroom whereas on being in the club understanding the dance etiquette understanding the the

the the whole vibe you bring into the vibe you never take out of the vibe people go into circle to take out the other why because they are saying my not

me being in the circle is important for me to have the vibe basically you bring other people

involved into the by so it can whose house is communal and learning is usually done by at least four dance

anyway you see you copy that's it well that's one aspect of it before you do something people don't normally teach you the motivation behind

why you do something or where something's from in any language of discipline a person should know a route or inspiration

before they take it somewhere else because that's almost like repeating yourself you wouldn't want to do that if you want to involve something for instance if I move my hand this way

and if I if I do this because I'm thinking yeah alright that's in my head what it was but if a person just sees this they may put the emphasis here

we're rhythmically it was mmm I got it not because this now means something totally different and the whole language has

changed now if a person went like this and they knew that that's what that was if they're going now that in itself is different than

this but it's the same inspiration that created that new movement with that flavor it's different but with that flavor that's how you keep an integrity of

of a discipline if you get so far from the root and they're not enough people to tell stories or to to to fill in the blanks people just do the natural thing they just make [ __ ] up and they just run

with it you know ergo like right off if they have a goal you have fold but then you have vague you know about your vote a person is let's say teaching lofting

first of all I personally we need to know really okay where did you get that out of curiosity because coming from that

scene knowing what that was knowing what that is and even in order for something to evolve you have to have a linear to it blah blah blah you know you never even been there did you didn't even do

your homework are you gonna do that and just take it and run with it let's see that's a generation take two classes go teach you know I don't get it I took me 19

years did you go through the door the first thing I noticed was a mannequin with stickers markers

what is this place and then everything that was on the wall it was like a giant thrift shop of toys and on top of that

they had this big net of balloons I was like where am I going first thing I noticed was this wall the everybody

would jump and put their baby powder foot print on the wall now is that initiation I want to do that if they can do it I want to do that so you have

people who just like Indians you have people who were fashionistas you had people who wore everything from Army and

Navy down to Canal James okay you have people who just cut up their t-shirts and took markers and mark their geez the first martial arts movie that came to

America was five fingers of death and that changed everything it changed underground dance it changed everything had changed it pop it change

everything wasn't there then but it changed everything it influenced everything so back in those days the idea was to wear Chinese pants

Chinese hat and kung foo slippers I thought that you have to fit a certain code because of most places you have to

get dressed up to go to a club to be in but this is the first place where I saw different people in the same place and all their concern was about was that music

maybe there might have been people trying to pick each other up I never saw that maybe's where my head was at the time because being around all this freedom I thought Wow and gay people

straight people hanging out in the same place even trans people that's the first time I remember kind of also seeing the styles the different fashions you know the baggy pants were so called um rebel

pants the turtle was you know the white gloves the band uh the bandana round the head cut up shirts and everybody dancing kind of the same you know and

you went upstairs and they had a table big table with fruits and everything and then there was a punch and everybody was saying go ahead and drink that punch and you know a lot of people clueless to it

and there were people that would drink the punch and not realizing people were throwing tabs of acid in that punch people would drop acid in the punch

one time to drop acid in the water and I didn't drink you know I don't drink or smoke and you know but I was thirsty and I didn't want to drink the water in the bathroom so

I didn't know any put acid in the water acid and I remember you know getting high you know what it wasn't when when I started

dancing but I also remember because of dancing I stopped getting high idea was back in those days they didn't have like a licenses so to actually have like fights or anything like that at a house

party it was like it doesn't happen I in this scene there's a lot of choice people get caught up you know people lose their way

people find their way you know and I always say that scene I will be forever grateful because that's shaped and mold me to Who I am today it's not until the loft closed

what's interesting when the love closed a lot of people got on drugs there was no outlet there was nothing the loft closed the garage closed and I started seeing my friends getting

heavily into drugs we had no more outlet so it kind of reversed what people accused us of doing in the first place from law if they want to freestyle dance

it went to house dance and even the first house dancers if I remember it I remember seeing these kids that were hip-hop influenced trying to

los how do I see the difference in law often house foundations are very similar very similar the only thing is I don't see

too many graceful dancers everyone is not that they're stiff but they're doing things so fast and so quick that even if there's something in there that's

graceful it's it shits so quick that you don't get to go wow when I first went out dancing like I told you before I I wasn't connected to my Latin roots at

all I lived in Long Island all I heard was rock music I didn't know that

experience that though especially the Latin music it's very much from the ground it's not in your head like you feel it that's why the movements are all

like in the hips and you're like this you're not like you know like that and going with the head banging that's not happening so when I first went out to

the clubs and my first I the first place I went to was the garage and that was a little bit of a different experience it for me it was more of a black experience

because I used to go on the gay night and that was mostly you know a black big crowd so they were connected very much

to their roots that originated from Africa and so a lot of the music had that down stomping down music

getting you know nitty gritty and all of that and so when I loved that when I went there I was like yeah you know I I

feel the music I feel the sound I it's organic it comes in you and then you mean and when I went to the loft the

loft was a place where they the music had no boundaries so you could be hearing classical music and then you could be hearing

an African you know influence and then you could hear like you know a disco sound that was you know a 50-piece Orchestra

you would hear all kinds of music there and that was where I met more of Latin people oh I I went to the garage late

the garage started in like 77 78 and it was very very gay and very it was I wouldn't say it was private but not

everyone knew about it and because it was a gay scene and the people there that were going you got to remember these days there were a lot of people who were closeted and they wanted to go out and express themselves but they

didn't want no one to know so you would go there and that's why they didn't allow cameras cuz you believe it or not you go they even let you looks to the side you may see somebody that you knew and you would never think they would be

there you know and if it was on a Saturday night where you know it was hardcore gay you that maybe the person who was maybe you know experimenting but the person couldn't tell you anything

because they're like well maybe but you know but you did get away from the violence and then this tree you know it was you look forward to just going out and having a good time with your friends

and we will go in packs like I remember going to the front house and you know walking from the train to the front house they had the projects and the guys then it would stand they would hang out

in groups and and and take you you know take your coat if you have a sheepskin or bomber you know your your nice

sneakers so you know it was different

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you know no matter who else does it along the way down the road this came from the ghetto you know and it's cool that in Detroit and Chicago in New York you know it was a very black thing and

it was like you know there was great dancing in New York and there was a lot of different kind of dancing going on a salsa of course came out of New York but when it came to house it was like I

guess it was people that was more interested and like evolving into Africa where they just throw it all together

and just really like let yourself go to the music you know New York sound is based on dancing first and foremost I don't think there's anywhere in the world I see dancing like New York and

that's what's cool so I mean it's you know back in the days in the law of the garage the loft is really cool because you know as a lot of people don't know if you haven't been to the law they play

every record from beginning to end which is really good because I spoke to David Mancuso wants about it and he said you know it's important to hear a song from beginning to end hear all the new sauces

nuances and everything involved in it because a lot of these musicians made these records to be heard from beginning to end I think the most common story at least from you know black youth that

grew up in the scene everybody from the children it refers to casein which kind of like was you know founding fathers whole see you know a lot of people like

you know there's there's rumors that you know the term house you know where it came from some people say to warehouse something you say they're there you know and you know a lot of people don't even

know that Frankie Knuckles is from the South Bronx you know and they were trying to get Larry Levan down there you know and larry-san said I'll send my protege down which was

Frankie Knuckles the term house you know a lot of people think it comes from the warehouse and you know they you know I'm not taking anything away from Chicago they took it and they ran with it they

put their stamp on it you know but the New York scene had so much to do with how so you can say we started house you know with the law of the garage and everything again not trying to take

anything away from them and a big part of it you know a lot of people don't mention is the houses you know the the gate houses you know in the bold scene and the ballroom scene and they used to

be the house of this house of that house of Stravaganza house you know Beija go on and on and on and a lot of us you know I thought at least

you know that term house came from that's the music they rock you know but I just want to throw that out there because that was something that I always believed and others in my circle

believed and you know there's a lot of things that's been hijacked from New York you know we don't get any love from the ground and we've done a lot and on the ground just the whole solitary Louie

Vega all these cats Pal Joey they're just the roots of all of it and there's still music today trying to mimic how they sounded compactive you know so that

says a lot

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you know about the garage was there was a lot of unity and and you saw when you went to the garage if someone threw a paper on the floor someone would come and tell them you know please turn

in the garbage can and it was like everyone's home and everybody took care of the club and that's why it lasted so long you know and and when people went there for the first time and heard that

sound system and the lighting there were like mesmerized so they were like whoa we got to come back here so you know and and there was rules and and the members also

try to they always if they took friends they would you know teach their friends first before you know giving them a lecture before they go into the garage you got to behave this and that you know

it's a gay club you know and people respected that and and and after that I mean you know the homophobia everything you

forget about everything and who knows like a lot of the guys you know you have a lot of martial artists I mean thugs street guys you know drug-dealing I mean everyone will go to the garage and you

know you see these guys in a gay club but you know every people just liked it and everybody the main thing was the music and everybody forgot everything around them you know and it was also a

place like I remember going to to get my membership like the the membership drive you see this big line everybody coming after work we had lawyers maybe doctors

you know people dressed up in suits you know to get that membership and then but then on on Fridays and Saturday you see them with some baggy pants you know that capezios ready to you know sweat yeah

and it just was a way of releasing all the tension that you had from that 9:00 to 5:00 that whole week and then the weekend come and like Larry would play you know weekend I want to see all you

know and just you know and Arthur Russell all my friends at once you know and that was more it was just the music you know uniting everybody together not

Richard long and rich long creative Yuri mixer at the time and he was just the sound genius and everybody was talking about this sound system that he put up in the garage the garage that is and

they're like oh you got to go just to hear the sound system once oh but it's really K it's really K you don't want to but you got to hear the sound system so of course me being a music junkie I was like okay I got to see what this is

about you know I never heard a Larry Levan I never heard of the man is went in there knowing about Richard long which is interesting and when I got there it was just the line went around

the corner which is always it was this line that always stretched around the corner and on this line it was just

young old just it was mostly black and gay we got to put that out there too because it was very specific they only allowed a certain amount of women in I think it was like one

kid you not there was rules I'll give it to you but you could only bring one woman it was deep like that so I was actually pretty homophobic I grew up very

homophobic and I honestly didn't learn how to dance until I went to the garage I thought I was a dancer I was a breakdancer I used to hang out that disco fever of town at the Chams

Grandmaster Flash I was in the mix but the thing about those places was like you had to keep a certain kind of cool you know you were in the ghetto on but

you weren't like letting loose like letting it all out which didn't happen and so I got to the garage like as soon as I was online there was like a song that came on we were going up the ramp

some came on and dude behind me just screamed he's just started jumping that was like oh and the sound from the because there was a bigger ramp it was literally garage

turned into a club so there was this long ramp that you had to go up on line and every time the door is open uses her welcome back in those days the state of

the art system was a Richard long system but Davis system was cliffs I think cliffs

horns he had and he was very specific he had turntables built by an architect they would draw belt-driven the stylus

alone was $1,500 each it was actually a book that came out in Japan this actually has like and who was who in the house and

producers DJ's remixers you know like the top songs that were played in the garage actually there's like evil pictures of like the studios a lot of the people recorded these were the

speakers in the garage the booth this is Joey he was like head security and this is these are like well the console that ladder used to you know at the garage

it's the stores dance tracks eight-ball records black market in the UK Larry of course Walter Gibbons Mancuso

and these are actually exclusive interview with Larry that uh was he was interview by Manny Neiman from vinyl mania Mac a

record store he was the owner of the garage yeah and this is what Mick Jagger you know he's too you know good friends relaly

yeah a lot of celebrities hang out at the garage like Mike Tyson Eddie Murphy Diana Ross MacGyver crazy Jones

yes he you know the garage was about just good music yeah you know Larry didn't like he hate it when

people named it this is garage music or you know like this hip-hop we didn't like you didn't want little and I remember going one time and he played I think it

was Sugar Hill Gang like five or six times in a row and people really got pissed off at him they were sitting on the floor and they were screaming bullying him but it was just a

way of him trying to you know tell the people you know you have to open up your mind and listen to everything there's not just one genre you know it's everything and that's what he was about

it and rock was very big influence to all of us and you know that was him and his open line you know he wanted us to

expand rules from the garage so you know this was like no sleeping or you could get kicked out

it was just crazy but the garage also was know but also the flute like the floor had sand in the bottom so your knees won't

get tired throughout the night well they would give us a music appreciation course because he didn't play disco all

the time he play rock'n'roll he played a lot of African tracks he'd play Brian Eno has a song a hijo

this thing I'm thinking this psychedelic Hey and so now what grew out of that is a

type of style so to speak when a person says oh that's a lost classic there's certain sound that's equated and

associated rather with the law certain records that they could just be made yesterday and then stop that wall feel only a person who was there would know what that is

music is freedom and we respect the past we respect the future and expect the future we expect each other I adore the young generation

I adore the innovation that they have and you have more access than reading I reach back then everything was invented work we had beepers ten cents per phone

there were times we had no money and he's dancing the street well practice in the street makes you know if you're looking our bag there's money now the networking is different is more

electronic I just hope that this expression to the three continues I want

to see the artform develop evolved and has enhanced on it has done if people say it's developing and involving for the wrong that's not true because I

feel like this I'm older I have to not stay in my name but I have to allow the new generation to do that they to show you know because I'm not going around it's

not about that it's about extending the hand say dude you know I'm glad that someone's taking the sceptre you know someone's taking in there and they're flying with it and they feel justice

just as crazy as I was about it because I mean I'm just don't head over heels about music and the culture and everything about it cause like I said it helped me find who I was and hope to

find the person that I am and I don't want anyone to be deprived of that and it's sort of like giving somebody the bad advice selling them all you need to

do it in a different way so you find your own way I I really think that because we have so much of these competitions on TV like American Idol

who is the best dancer you know best cool that there's a marine set of like you've got to be better and you gotta be the best and you have to make a lot of

money you have to you know I just say it makes them noise like make your own noise I think people need to hold on to what makes them unique so if you're

African how are you gonna hold on to your African nests and still be a world person not having to do the same thing

that that other person is doing and we should do that as is in dance and in life like hold on to what makes you feel

happy feel whole and feel the values that were given to you in

your family in your community and then find a way to live in that world community and still hold and tap that

which you have we don't want to dilute ourselves our uniqueness but we can be together we can have like a collage

that makes a beautiful big picture without giving up this is what life's about look at this we're doing [ __ ] Margie said this I'll never forget we're doing [ __ ] nations

can't do these people all over the country all over the world don't even speak the same language that they're coming together under that one thing music

nations can't even do that [ __ ] that is powerful that is poignant I will

never figure that

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