There’s blossoming disco balls as big as eight feet in diameter, and a multitiered stage, created by the Tony-nominated set designer David Korins, who did “Hamilton” and shows for Lady Gaga.
Roller-skating is having another flash of popularity, but the DiscOasis sets itself apart from the city’s other rinks and pop-up events (Rockefeller Center is temporarily hosting wheelers, too) through its production value, theatricality and pedigree. (The ’80s were wild.) With some skill on wheels, “You feel like you have special human powers,” Rodgers said in a recent video interview. He curated music for the DiscOasis, and, with voice-over introductions, provides its cultural through line from 1970s and ’80s New York, when he used to frequent the city’s now shuttered, once legendary rinks with Diana Ross and Cher. Hovering over this opening night like a sequined demigod was Nile Rodgers, the Chic guitarist, funk-disco eminence and lifelong skater. For 10 minutes, it was all hot pants and acrobatics, and then regular New Yorkers - many with a style not far-off - slid back in. Funkmaster Flex’s booth, as the crowd - some wobblies, some more expert - parted for the pros: One roller dancer in flared jeans dropped to a split, while another flipped off her wheels, uncoiling into a headstand. “Good Times,” that 1970s party staple, blared from D.J. Spotlights shone onto the surrounding trees, as a concert-level light show bathed the space in cyan, fuschias and golds. On Saturday night, more than a thousand skaters packed Wollman Rink, laced up their quads and spun off into sparkling nostalgia. But to its devotees and to the creators of the DiscOasis, a new skate experience in Central Park, it is transformational, spiritual - time travel on four wheels. To some people, a roller rink is just a place to skim around in a circle, not even very fast, going nowhere.
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