With a Hi-NRG burst, ‘On the Floor’ dives again into queer nightlife and the AIDS crisis

The hottest ticket this weekend is the queer pas des deux On the Floor (Fri/6 and Sat/7) at The Joe Goode Annex. Created by local performer Maria Silk and French interdisciplinary artist Théophylle Dcx, On the Floor returns to the Bay Area almost a year after its first performance at Counterpulse. Those who missed last year’s debut performance will have the chance to take in the latest evolution of the piece. 48 Hills spoke with Silk, Dcx, and their composer, Izaak Schlossman, about On the Floor’s development, its loving engagement with San Francisco’s queer nightlife past, and its spectral links with the early decades of the AIDS crisis.  Silk and Dcx care deeply about the queer past, especially San Francisco’s. When they met in 2024 their respective research projects dovetailed. Silk’s research on queer nightlife had led her deep into The Stud bar’s archives, while Dcx had come from Marseille to San Francisco seeking out the city’s storied legacies of HI-NRG and disco. Bonding ove