On June 1st, Meow Wolf Denver hosted the latest iteration of Danceportation, this time featuring J. Worra as the headliner. As bombastic as these events are, they feel deeply personal, everyone in attendance searching for and finding the magic hidden within themselves. This is the nature of Meow Wolf. It’s about both external and internal exploration, finally discovering the secret avenues buried within. This feeling pervades Danceportation as under the lights and the glamour and sheer oddness of it all, there comes this very human realization that there is beauty in being lost, in discovery, in forming one’s own path when the way forward cannot be easily discerned. There is magic in this world, and Meow Wolf can show you how to look for it if you pay attention.
As with the last piece I did on Danceportation, I feel the only way to truly describe the experience is from the first-person perspective. Everyone there had their own unique, subjective experience, and this was mine.
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Once again, the event started a tad late with doors at 9:30 and music kicking off at 10:30. My friends and I arrived at around 9:45 or 10 and saw that, unlike the previous time, there was barely any line. We walked right in once we got through security. Almost immediately, we ran into a few other friends that we didn’t expect to see and stood for a moment talking as we each went to grab beverages or a snack or whatever was needed.
After saying our hellos and taking a few photos, we noticed people starting to make their way into The Perplexiplex, the venue inside the building but outside the main exhibit. My Friend Jordan was kicking his set — and the night — off. He set a great precedent as he played remixes of childhood favorites like an old Aaron Carter song and other Disney Channel-esque tunes. It created this atmosphere of wholesomeness, a kind of childlike wonder that pervaded throughout the night.
I should note that last time, we spent a large portion of our time in The Perplexiplex. It was a great time, and the venue is incredible, but we did feel we didn’t explore quite as much as we’d hoped to. We resolved to change that this time and soon left The Perplexiplex to explore the exhibit.
I tend to get a tad disoriented each time I get on that elevator. I always think we’re going down into the exhibit, which doesn’t make any sense when you think about it, but I feel that way every time. The disorientation helped me get into the vibe of things, and when we got off the elevator, the party was in full swing. C Street was already bumping, but we had a couple of people in our group who hadn’t visited Meow Wolf in a few years, so we decided to start in Numina to give them the full experience.
It’s always a bit breathtaking walking through the doors from C Street to Numina. This sense of resolution washed over me as I stopped and took one second to resign myself to getting lost, to getting a little weird. A slow smirk stretched across my face as I looked at that strange place and felt such a rush of possibility, all the magic hidden throughout calling to me.
My friends and I looked at each other smiling before making our way toward the pounding music we heard just around the corner. J. Worra was playing her first of two sets of the night and the crowd was already huge. We were up on the second floor of the exhibit, which was an interesting place to be as we could see people above us grooving over the railing and the sea of people letting their freak flags fly free below. We decided we wanted to join the movement, so we went down the quantum stairway behind us and joined the crowd.
This is where the vibe truly became a part of me, got into my bones, turned my blood neon to match the swirling colors adorning all in attendance. We were lost in a sea of shimmering glitter, cowboy hats decked out with lights and other trinkets, bubbles being blown and carried through the venue like fleeting dreams searching for purchase. At this point, a bit of a mantra that I’d hear from my friends throughout the night began to surface: “This is the coolest shit I’ve ever been to.”
After J. Worra’s set came to an end, we made our way over to “the castle,” Eemia, where Maro was just getting going. The structure is incredibly cool but there’s also not a ton of space within it. This made it a bit uncomfortable to be in if you didn’t get there at the set’s start as it was tight as hell and hard to truly enjoy without really squeezing your way in. Still, it was really cool to see a DJ throwing down in there, though.
From Eemia, we decided to go looking for some of the secret sets we’d heard rumors of. Here, I’m going to start being a tad vague. We found some secrets, but I don’t want to give them away, as a big part of the fun was in the discovery. The search for and finally finding something we weren’t sure actually existed was incredibly cathartic and had us all hugging and congratulating each other on a job well done. I will say the search was worth it, and what we found was pretty damn cool.
After a decent period of pure wandering, gathering more members of our group and meeting friendly, freaky faces everywhere we went, we found ourselves smack in the middle of C Street, dancing beneath Matt Suave ripping on the bridge above. It really felt like we were out in the middle of the street getting down at some pop up show somewhere, the world of Meow Wolf starting to make more sense than the one outside its doors.
Time had been flying by, and we realized that it was fast approaching 1 a.m., giving us about an hour left. We wanted to see Numina one last time from the highest point we could, so we climbed back up the stairs to look down at the kaleidoscope of people, all glowing and swirling like magic. We watched and grooved along over the railing for another 30 minutes or so and then left to catch the back half of J. Worra’s night-ending second set.
It was a great set to end the night. In addition to her massive production, she also had these two seemingly superhuman pole dancers joining her on stage. The sound and the performance became a bit mesmerizing, putting us all in one last trance before the night came to an end. And, soon enough, J. Worra thanked the crowd for such a special night and left them with new magic glowing beneath their chests, hidden no longer.
Were you there? Did someone take your photo? Check out Annie French-Mack’s full photo gallery from Danceportation!
