ALAIA DE SANTIS ODABASH

“The White Hotel” - dance floor
October 2025
C-print
A4

@m3_7lw
Last year I went to The White Hotel in Manchester. I didn’t know then that it would end up meaning as much as it did. I stayed until the end, leaving feeling full. These photographs are from that whole night arriving, the dancefloor, and leaving as the fog came in with the morning. The streetlights, the people still finding their way in and out, the new friends made somewhere along the way.
I started making work about dancefloors because they are spaces to escape from the noise of daily life, from everything we carry. I needed to document the places that made me feel safe and happy. I love to dance. It helps me let go.
I heard last week that The White Hotel is closing next year. It feels important to say that. The works are an ode to the spaces that make places like these become second homes. You never know when you might lose them, and I wanted to make sure I documented them before they disappeared.

These images are currently on show in Venice at Palazzo Mocenigo Nero for Dance Dance Revolution, 2026.