Cary the Angel – 1994

"Oh what, wow, he’s the greatest dancer…Oh what, wow, that I’ve ever seen…"

-Sister Sledge, "He’s the greatest dancer."

"What is the light that you have shining all around you. Is it chemically derived?? Cause if it’s natural, something glowing from inside, shining all around you, its potential has arrived. Looking into space it surrounds you."

-The Flaming Lips, "What is the Light?"

The Europeans are less inhibited than Americans, so it is much more fun to dance with them…

There is a response triggered deep within the being of some people that only a few types of music could elicit. The shedding of self-consciousness. The ability to float through and around the rhythm rather than dancing to the beat. Heightened awareness yet very selective focus. Unconscious unified aerobic respiration. The duality of frenzied physicality and the relativity of a trance-like state running parallel. It is old and innate and powerful and is experienced by far too few. But that is also what makes it special.

The dancer is black and his features are beautiful. It seems apparent that he is happy, yet he rarely speaks. Usually he is dancing by 12:30, no later than 1:00. And when he dances, it is Motion. A sight to behold, so beautiful, so graceful… He is a dancer. More than that, really. I think he’s an Angel. I can’t really prove it, but this man inspires such positivity from those around him when he is in his element of the Dance Floor. The smile this man has when he is in harmony with himself and the rhythm! His movement is coordination from some other plane, very precise and fluid, twirling like a drill bit, then bending like long grass flowing in the wind. Amazing.

He only comes out at night. His beauty is so striking, so appropriate. He dances and sweats and gleams, throwing off so much wonderful energy, freely given to whomever is dancing around him. His drown-brown eyes have a smile all their own when he’s inspired and inspiring.

I would dance next to him or just watch from a few feet away. I always felt like I was in the presence of an Ethereal rather that a mere mortal, because men are too closely linked with the earth. Sometimes I thought he would just float off somewhere in mid-step, his movement that light. People would start dancing all around him, spontaneously, just to be close to his energy, his impact that profound.

There is no doubt he is very old, as he has fully mastered the language of rhythm, yet he is not boastful of his talents. My friend Ana says that no one in Key West is deserving of him. He is too special. I hope he’s not lonely, because I think she is right.

He draws out what is good of the people who dance near him, and for those moments, that time, it’s all that is important. This lone beacon, a divinity, joyfully dancing alone after midnight in a club in Key West.