To return to the circuit after a brief hiatus, be it self-imposed or merely a consequence of a long break between circuit weekends, is to be re-welcomed into the embrace of the brotherhood. That’s how it feels when we hit Space on the Friday night/Saturday morning of this year’s edition of CareResource’s White Party week. The main floor was packed with cowboys and fops, b-boys and g-boys, professionals and not, and boys on the box—all working it out together under a skyful of angel wings. It was just after 2:30 am—and the circuit world had come together again, to celebrate CareResource’s mission to help those living with HIV/AIDS. Tony Moran was in the booth, werking Maya’s “Love Me,” with its insinuating lyric, “I’ve been everywhere/I know that love is there somewhere.” And it was clear love was in the air. There’s nothing like the first party of the circuit weekend: everyone fresh and primed, anticipatory and happy. Their flights have landed; they’ve checked their baggage—and now they’re flying free.

As producer Hilton Wolman put it, it was one of those bump-free nights. No drama, no hassle—just the whole circuit world sharing in the good time. There was Patti R. in the booth with Tony, beaming with pride, and there was MedEvent Christian and Eric, and Chad and Leo, Shane and Victor, Alex from Task Force, Parzham and August, Andrei and Andrew, Georgie and Jon—and best of all, there was Tony Moran.

Beneath a mirror ball galaxy that spun overhead, fluttering the skyful of angel wings, Tony unleashed his signature sound, that haunting neo-Arabian chanting which comes from deep within the circuit soul. With songs like Mary J.’s “Just Fine,” and “That Beat In My Heart,” and “My Daddy,” Tony gave the crowd what they’d come for: exquisitely long moments of sheer release on the dance floor. This was a crowd that knew what it wanted—and got what it needed.

There are few others working in the booth who hit heartstrings with such frequency as Tony does. His is a haunting ability to intuit the yearning and the desire that exists deep inside all of us. Small wonder then that the angel wings fluttered right through to the final beat. And at night’s end, it was perhaps not surprising to feel that those of us on the floor were somehow connected to a more generous world.