Last Dance

There may be no more inevitable closing number for a concert called Out On the Dance Floor than Donna Summer's "Last Dance," and on March 21, 2026, at Jaeb Theater of Straz Center in Tampa, Florida, the Gay Men's Chorus of Tampa Bay used David Maddux's arrangement to send the audience home exactly the way the program had promised: ecstatic and a little out of breath.

Maddux's arrangement honors the structural genius of Paul Jabara's original — the slow, almost torchy ballad opening that seems to be one kind of song, before the famous tempo change launches it into full disco euphoria. The chorus handled the opening with restraint, the quieter section sustained with patient ensemble singing and a careful sense of line. When the tempo shift arrived, the contrast was electric: a sudden surge of four-on-the-floor pulse, layered backing vocals, and a full-section commitment to the song's irrepressible groove.

The chorus delivered the famous "Last dance, last chance for love" hook with crystalline precision, the harmonies stacked tight and the rhythmic articulation crisp enough to register every syllable. The dynamic build through the final choruses was carefully paced — each repetition raising the stakes without losing the song's ecstatic clarity. Bodo's drumming drove the disco pulse with unflagging energy, while Pozenatto's keys handled the famous string-and-piano hooks with bright, percussive joy.

The Jaeb Theater's intimate acoustics carried the energy of the room as much as the energy of the stage; by the final chorus, much of the audience was on its feet, hands clapping on the backbeat. As the closing chord landed, the ovation was immediate.

As the closing number of Out On the Dance Floor, "Last Dance" did exactly what closing numbers should: it celebrated everything that had come before, and sent the audience back into the night still humming.