This month, CounterPulse premieres On the Floor, a new performance by Maria Silk, Ph.D. student in Performance Studies at UC Berkeley, and collaborator Théophylle Dcx. On the Floor is a 2025 Psychedelics in Society and Culture Fellowship project, supported by the BCSP, Flourish Trust, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation’s NEW program, and the Zellerbach Family Foundation’s Community Arts program. The work channels the queer legacies of 1980s post-disco and hi-NRG dance music as a vehicle for altered states of embodiment, reflecting on the role of psychedelics and nightlife in shaping queer community during the early HIV/AIDS epidemic. Moving through hedonism, exhaustion, escape, and discipline, the performers explore how dance becomes a portal to pleasure, grief, and collective memory.

On the Floor runs at CounterPulse alongside Trashflower, a work by Rose and Zoey Huey, as part of the ARC Edge residency. Performances take place at CounterPulse on September 4, 5, 12, and 13.