Dance has often been a medium that people turn to in order to express their true selves and feel comfortable moving their bodies. Adrian Nitti didn’t see any classes which represented people like them, so they set out to change that.
And thus Queerchata was born—a collection of dance parties and classes geared towards simply learning and having fun, with none of the traditionally gendered language or actions associated with most dance. Now a few years into its run, Nitti is bringing Queerchata around the country, including to Chicago.
It started with Nitti using a Bluetooth speaker in a park in Los Angeles to do pop up classes during early COVID-19 restrictions. He hosted mass outdoor socially distanced classes for a long time before they began to create the structure of Queerchata today.
Nitti began dancing as an adult in the same year they came out as trans. Born in Venezuela, they said there was an expectation as a Latino that they’d know how to dance—and they had always wanted to learn how. However, he had felt awkward in his body for a long time and didn’t feel ready to make the leap.
Eventually, they decided to start learning bachata, enjoying the level of drama that goes into the songs and dancing—“There’s no way I can play a salsa song and be in a bad mood,” they said.
Around the time they started dance lessons, he said he was in a “messy, really starting to understand [his] gender” type of era. But the classes he found were not conducive to that at all.
“I would leave feeling awful,” Nitti said. “I was like, I’m paying to be in this space, I should feel good.’ But it was the way that I was expected to move and the way that I was expected to behave, and that just didn’t align with who I am.”
Some of the experiences they had in bachata class included being forced into very stereotypical traditional gender roles—a man leads and a woman follows, movements being described as needing to be “soft and feminine,” or using very gendered language to describe how their body should feel or look while dancing.
After not finding any class that made them feel comfortable, they decided to create their own. Nitti began applying for grants and received one from the City of West Hollywood to do a Pride party. As they tried to find a venue to host, Nitti said many people turned them down and said there was no market for that type of event.
He eventually found a home at a queer, POC-owned bar in downtown Los Angeles. He hosted a pop-up with social and partner-focused dancing which attracted around 150 people—an overwhelming number for him.
And so they kept going. After starting to host recurring pop-ups in L.A., Nitti got messages and emails asking when they were coming to other cities in California. Last summer they made it happen via road trip, traveling from Seattle to Portland and down to San Francisco, L.A. and San Diego and selling out each one.
In the future, Nitti hopes they can bring queer dance to “every single city.”
What started out as Nitti in a park with a speaker is now a team of 15, with each instructor understanding firsthand what it means to be a queer or trans dancer. Nitti does have a regular 9-5, and enjoys the fact they don’t need to rely on an art form they love to pay the rent.
Nitti has also developed two types of classes, socials and more long-term in-studio classes. In socials—such as the one coming to Chicago—each person is given a name tag and asked if they want to lead, follow or switch. After a quick warm up, they get into basic beginner moves and try them with a partner, switching throughout the class in order to meet new people.
After an hour of class, the social dancing includes a mix of salsa and bachata. Nitti said they’ve also enjoyed how a majority of their venues have an outdoor part or quieter section, allowing introverts or shyer participants a comfortable place to retreat to if needed.
Nitti makes sure gendered language doesn’t come up in their classes.
“Everything that is easily described as feminine or masculine can be more accurately described with other language,” they said. “By masculine, do you mean sharp? … By feminine, do you actually mean fluid?”
In the studio classes, they said people get to really know each other and feel comfortable in partner dancing over a longer period of time.
The longer period also helps Nitti teach more soft skills, such as how to graciously accept a no or say no when asking people to dance, adjusting moves with a partner who has different ability needs or just learning how to walk away from a dance if someone no longer is up for it.
At the end of each class, there’s a gratitude circle. Nitti it feels great to see a ton of queer joy come out of each class.
“We really want dancers, but also just good humans who care about the community and the people that they’re dancing with,” he said.
The Chicago Queerchata social will take place at Charlie’s Chicago at 3726 N. Broadway on Aug. 23. The event is scheduled to run from 3-7 p.m.