How 'the oldest person on the dance floor' became a Hamilton nightlife legend

DJ Julie Fazooli was drained. It was "hot as hell" in mid-June and she was getting ready to close out an eight-hour set at the Sidewalk Sounds outdoor music event on Hamilton's Concession Street.

Then the man she calls "the light" of the city's dance scene showed up.

Rohan Jayasekera started dancing and Fazooli got a second wind. She joined in and started cheering for him, singing along to the music, and bouncing up and down. Having fun, Fazooli stayed late so she could play a few more songs while Jayasekera danced.

When she stopped, Jayasekera helped take Fazooli's tent down and neatly pack gear into her car while they had a "genuinely amazing conversation," Fazooli said. "He's such a solid dude."

After moving to Hamilton five years ago, Jayasekera has become a well-known, if surprising fixture of the city's dance scene. That's in part because of his high-energy solo dance style and partly because he's not who a lot of people expect to see breaking it down.

"I'm old," he told CBC Hamilton, without wanting to reveal his exact age. "I'm usually the oldest person on the dance floor." Sometimes young people will come up to him and tell them they love his energy. 

"That's not what they expect," he said. 

On his Instagram account, Jayasekera describes himself as a future go-go dancer. "Nobody has yet paid me to dance because I'm not young and hot, but it can be aspirational," he said. 

Instead, Jayasekera earns his living in the tech sector, where he's worked for several decades, co-founding the internet service provider Sympatico, which eventually became Bell Internet, back in the mid 1990s.

He's lived in Montreal, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ottawa and Toronto, but didn't dance much until he moved to Hamilton. It was here that he discovered the dance bar Sous Bas on Main Street East and everything changed. The venue was "inclusive," he said, and he "felt comfortable as the old Brown guy." 

He had a good time there and wanted more. "I [thought]: 'Why shouldn't I go out every weekend, especially when there's such a great place like this?'"  

Now, Jayasekera dances every weekend, often Friday and Saturday night if he can. Sous Bas changed owners and is now called Andthenyou. Jayasekera said he still dances there, along with a variety of spots including The Casbah, Studio L14 and the Collective Arts brewery, where he signed up for a dance-a-thon this Saturday. He keeps a close eye on Hamilton's events and will go to Toronto to dance, too.

When looking for haunts, Jayasekera said he wants a place "where people are accepting of my being a severe outlier." He excludes places where young people go to "try and hook up or impress people." 

For Jayaskera, the community aspect of the dance scene is important — and what he loves. He said he wants to support DJs, some of whom he's become friends with. That means showing up at their different shows and "doing my duty" by being the first person on the dance floor.