by erin thursby scopes1925@msn.com
Every Saturday night at Eclipse, you’ll find the rake-thin Epaeon grooving it up on the dance floor. Some nights he’ll let down his ass-length hair, while wearing a distressed, black shirt that seems to be made entirely of minuscule scraps held together by safety pins.
To an outsider, Epaeon seems pretty Goth, he wears black eyeliner, has a Goth name and wears real Goth clothing and shows up every Goth night at Eclipse. But if you ask him if he is Goth, he balks, saying “I don’t consider myself a Goth, but if I was in a subculture, that would be the one I fit in best – I guess.” He knows how sensitive those who consider themselves Real Goths are to every Tom, Dick and Mary who slap on thick eyeliner, head to a club and call themselves Goth.
Despite the seeming exclusivity of the mythological Real Goths, everyone is pretty friendly at Eclipse. The Goths who stick to the shadows, peering out of the dark, mainly act as set dressing for wanabe-Goths (aka me, Mall Goths, Hot Topic Goths or Weekend Goths).
Epaeon is one of the most dedicated dancers on the scene. He enjoys mid-beat songs, finding most of techno too fast to dance to and some of the older Goth tunes a bit too slow to really dance to. When asked what he prefers to dance to, he says “I love dancing to She Wants Revenge, and they seem to be quite popular amongst the Goth club scene. “
Epaeon was taught to dance by a Dominatrix stripper, but says that his “style of dance is an amalgamation” of different dances he likes. “I mimic bits of each kind and throw it all together to dark-themed music. I’ve learned a little classic ballroom, mainly East Coast Swing, I try to emulate a little salsa, tango, waltz, raving and dances I don’t even know the names for. I kind of evolved my own style.”
When I watched Epaeon and his fellow club-goers dance, I noticed a pattern. Goths dance alone. Very rarely could you pick out couples or even groups of friends dancing, and each dancer was in their own world, creating their own choreography. It isn’t just because they’re loners. According to Epaeon, some of this is due to the classic Goth style of dancing, which somewhat mimics medieval court grace and dancing. Each subculture has its own variation “from the rivetheads to the gravers.”
“The styles that most of them come up with and learn don’t work well with partners dancing close together, though you do see some every now and then.”
Most dancers don’t have an exact dance with steps (unless you look up classic Goth dancing steps online), so few personal styles work together.
“Dancing is my release, my escape. I can let all my frustrations with the world out when I dance by expending all that pent up energy, by trying to move to the music and not fall on my ass. I honestly don’t care much for the club scene, I don’t like being surrounded by people even if I do know a good amount of them, but there on the dance floor, even if I’m surrounded, I am in my own little world. If I happen to be dancing with someone, they are [in that world] too.”
If you should decide to go Goth for a night on Saturday at Eclipse, you’ll be dancing to stuff from David Bowie, the Cure, Souxie and the Banshees, Bauhaus, She Wants Revenge, Nine Inch Nails, Rob Zombie, KMFDM, Depeche Mode, Joy Division and tracks from the Queen of the Damned soundtrack among many others.
Max Michaels is the reason that there is a Goth Night every Saturday at Eclipse. He’s been Jacksonville’s Goth King for about 10 years; he’s the one who gave the scene mouth-to-mouth during its near-death lulls, and he’s the one who’s made it into the scene it is today. He’s the promoter for Goth Nights at Eclipse, which he says is “the original and only weekly venue catering to the Goth culture dance scene in Jacksonville” and runs a scene-oriented magazine called Movement. He says he works each week to bring “the most unique local/international live music, theme parties, movie giveaways, art exhibits and stage shows I can find to give our scene a diverse and memorable club experience each and every time they come to FACTORY [nights at Eclipse].”
Eclipse, though it does have the only weekly Goth Night, isn’t the only thing going on in the world of Jacksonville Goth. Other, less regular events go on in different clubs across the city, most notably the French Quarter where Forbidden State is held. The promoters for this event are Jeremy Craig and Onyx.
Onyx can only be described as a Dominatrix with a Southern twang and vampire fangs. If anyone qualifies as the Dark Alternative scene’s reining Queen, it would be Onyx. Though she moved to Jacksonville just last year, whip in hand, she’s already made waves in the local scene. She heads up the VAMPIRE meet-up group on Yahoo and runs the JAX Night Freaks Group on MySpace. She’s a part of the BloodFeast Gatherings (Goth/Vampire Fetish Nights) held in clubs such as Club Fusion, Martini’s and Fat Cats. Those are just a few of the groups she’s connected with. These groups sometimes go to other cities (like Savannah and Tampa) but that just means that people from other cities show up to events she helps promote.
Sex sells, which is why events that feature Goth girls dressed up in very short Little Red Riding Hood outfits or wearing nothing but electrical tape on their naughty bits, draws people. This is true of the Forbidden State Events, in which Onyx performs. Make friends with Onyx on MySpace (myspace.com/onyxvampyre) to get the skinny on all the local Dark Alt events, or just visit her page regularly.
To read more about the Goth scene and interviews Erin conducted click here.
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