The Last Dance
The Last Dance is an underground (literally) arts venue and performance space that sprawls throughout the tunnels just beyond the fringes of Kowloon. Trim and streamlined, it is a darkly colorful and evocative space that inhabits several intersecting alleyways, providing both a comforting density and a claustrophobic atmosphere. Every alleyway appears to have a different theme, different parties or events happening, but all are connected as one under the banner of the Last Dance.
With a focus on art, cuisine, music and theatre, the Last Dance is a front for a vast network of intermingling cultures that reflect both the joyous remembrances of Springstar with the austere hopes of Highstorm. Businesses within the Last Dance range from dark corner taverns rife with exotic perfumes and smoke, inhabited by salt-of-the-earth old-timers trading the same stories again and again, to golden displays of theatrical might with cavorting dancers and entertainers upon makeshift, pop-up stages a la Cirque de Soleil.
UPDATE: With the opening up of several tunnels when Skysong was uplifted, The Last Dance was exposed fully to the light of the sun, and has experienced some changes. While the very nature of the venue has not changed, being in the open has certainly made it feel much more like an open air bazaar spilling out of the tunnels of the Below. The Last Dance now associates more with Old Springstar and courts artists among this community, though it still trickles down into the tunnels of the below. The Last Dance can be seen as something of a bracer, a link that ties the two together, with one foot in Downtown Kowloon, and one in Old Springstar, marrying the principles of both in a harmony that is dissonant, but no less beautiful for it.
Community
The Last Dance is owned by the community found in the Old Springstar. Located at the edge of Uptown, the Last Dance is the foundling child of a variety of like-minded libertines from Old Springstar itself, with express invitations made to those of Highstorm during its creation. Created as a neutral space, the Last Dance evokes the timeless quality of equality, equity and uncontrolled freedoms — it is defended by the people who inhabit its sprawling, flowing alleys and given to periodically selecting clients as "leaders" due to their longevity of attendance.
The current authorities are a triumvirate of impassioned artists, whom majority agreement grants the right to represent the Last Dance in the realm of defense, publicity and investigatory quality. Shard-Bearers have been known to find their way into positions of power within the Last Dance, with the understanding that the business entity is a hivelike structure focused on supporting freedom, artistry and boundless pleasures.
Inspiration: The Old Vic Tunnels, London, bazaars and underground artistry.
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