Betteridge Michael: last dance
for septet (ENS)
Betteridge Michael: last dance
for septet (ENS)
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About
last dance is a love letter to queer nightlife in Manchester. There was a time when I’d be on the dance floors until the very early hours several nights a week. There was, and still is, a strong sense of community in these spaces that I never quite experienced in the same way in non-queer nightlife settings. You could quite easily arrive at the club alone knowing there would be someone there you knew, or, if not, it was guaranteed someone would sweep you up into their social circle.
At the time of composing this piece, I can distinctly remember my last and penultimate clubbing experiences: one during Manchester Pride in summer 2021 and one on tour with my choir in Europe in summer 2023. Both of those experiences featured a moment of solitary dancing – having lost the group I was with – and a succumbing to a growling bass, allowing the sheer density of sound to infiltrate every part of my body. Two memorable, fleeting moments of total carefree ecstasy.
However, this ecstasy is hard-won in last dance. There are glimpses where the groove settles, but mostly the pulse meanders and fluctuates, creating a sense of momentum, but without a fixed beat to latch on to. The piece doesn’t necessarily attempt to recreate those feelings of ecstasy on the club floor, but instead is a reflection on them. Whilst there is a very loose narrative, and outlines of characters in this work, denoted by particular soundworlds and instruments, the listener is invited to find their own path through the piece, whether that is narrative-driven or not.
last dance was first performed by the Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican’s Milton Court in April 2025 commissioned as part of their Magnum Opus scheme.
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- Betteridge Michael: last dance
