We saw them party and march in the New York City Pride parade. They were unabashedly queer at a dangerous time \u2014 before protease inhibitors began to stem the AIDS plague and before most celebrities and politicians embraced the gay community in any real way. Being out in 1991 carried major risks to career and reputation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Enter Gauwloos, one of those brave dancers who vogued his way into the hearts of countless gay men entranced by his handsome looks, his stage presence, and dance skills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gauwloos \u2014 known then and now as \u201cSlam\u201d\u2014 sat down with the Blade to talk Madonna, the lasting impact of \u201cTruth or Dare,\u201d the public disclosure of his HIV status, and plans for a new book on his life.\u00a0<\/p>\n
His story is fascinating \u2014 from growing up in Europe to dancing in New York to landing the gig of a lifetime with Madonna. He performed on that tour while secretly HIV positive and went without medical treatment for 10 years because he was living in the United States as an undocumented immigrant. Not even Madonna knew of his HIV status. Two other dancers on the tour were also HIV positive but no one talked about it. Ironically, Madonna was singing \u201cExpress Yourself\u201d and advocating for condom use during her concerts yet backstage three of her dancers were secretly positive.<\/p>\n
\u201cA\u00a0lot of people were dying so I wasn\u2019t going to tell Madonna I had HIV,\u201d said Slam, now 57. \u201cAnd the others didn\u2019t either. It wasn\u2019t the moment to do it. She used to make speeches about Keith Haring and AIDS and I thought it\u2019s going to be me next.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gabriel Trupin died of AIDS in 1995. Slam was diagnosed at age 18 in 1987, a frightening time when a positive test result often meant a death sentence. He booked the \u201cBlond Ambition Tour\u201d at age 21 after moving to New York. His friends encouraged him to audition but Slam resisted because he wasn\u2019t a big Madonna fan.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was crazy, everyone wanted that job,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I wanted to dance with Janet Jackson and Paula Abdul.\u201d He listened to his friends and shortly after the audition, Slam received a call from Madonna herself inviting him to join the tour.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all wanted to be stars but not even Madonna knew how big that tour would become. The way it was choreographed and directed, the stars aligned. \u2026 It never looks dated even today.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/1990_Salim_Gauwloos_and_Madonna_insert_courtesy_Gauwloos.jpg\")
Salim Gauwloos dances with Madonna on the \u2018Blond Ambition Tour\u2019 in 1990. (Photo courtesy Gauwloos)<\/p>\n
The world tour kicked off in Japan in April 1990 then moved to the United States and Europe, stirring controversy wherever it went. There was the iconic cone bra; the aforementioned simulated masturbation during \u201cLike a Virgin\u201d; and religious imagery that offended many Catholic groups and the Vatican.<\/p>\n
And the controversy didn\u2019t end with the tour. Cameras were rolling throughout the tour for what Slam thought would be a \u201cvideo memory\u201d for Madonna. But as the tour unfolded, director Alek Keshishian reportedly became more interested in what was happening behind the scenes so plans for mere tour footage were expanded into a full documentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were young and partying and didn\u2019t really know what was going on,\u201d Slam said. \u201cYou live in this celebrity bubble and you sign a paper \u2013 I don\u2019t even know what I signed.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 1992, Kevin, Oliver, and Gabriel sued Madonna for invasion of privacy and fraud claiming she used some footage without their consent. They claim they were told nothing would be included in the film that they didn\u2019t want to be seen. In one specific incident, Gabriel alleged that he told producers he didn\u2019t want the scene of him kissing Slam to be in the film as he wasn\u2019t fully out.<\/p>\n
\u201cGabriel was forcibly outed,\u201d in the movie, Kevin said in a 2016 interview.<\/p>\n
Slam did not join his colleagues in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI couldn\u2019t sue because I was illegal but I wasn\u2019t ever going to sue,\u201d Slam said. \u201cI\u2019m not a suing kind of person. But good for them, they fought for it and won. A lot of people don\u2019t have the balls to sue Madonna.\u201d The suit was settled two years later for an undisclosed sum.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were all conflicted about the kiss,\u201d he said with a laugh. \u201cThe kiss, oh my God, my boyfriend is going to kill me! Belgian stress!\u201d<\/p>\n
Beyond worrying about his boyfriend\u2019s reaction, Slam had concerns about the impact of being openly gay on his modeling career.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 1990, you couldn\u2019t get high fashion campaigns as an openly gay model,\u201d he said. \u201cI was worried about that. I couldn\u2019t get a campaign because I was gay. My agency told me to say I was straight and it was just a game.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2016, pegged to the 25th anniversary of \u201cTruth or Dare,\u201d the surviving six dancers filmed a documentary about their lives post-Madonna titled \u201cStrike A Pose.\u201d In it, Slam publicly revealed his HIV status for the first time in an emotional scene with his former colleagues.<\/p>\n
\u201cI found the strength to tell the world I have HIV,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI was scared but I felt brave. The outcome and messages were beautiful. After I saw \u2018Strike A Pose,\u2019 I knew we gave people hope. And not just for gay people.\u201d<\/p>\n
He was infected in 1987 but didn\u2019t get treated until 1997. After the tour ended, he said he went into a depression and his agency dropped him.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI was partying too much after the tour,\u201d he recalls. \u201cI made a decision to live as an illegal alien.\u201d In 1997, Slam collapsed and was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThey started treating me and thank God the new HIV drugs were out, the cocktails, it took me a couple months to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madonna didn\u2019t participate in \u201cStrike A Pose\u201d and Slam said he hasn\u2019t seen or spoken to her since the end of the tour. He said he had no idea of the impact \u201cTruth or Dare\u201d would have.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou look at this movie in 1991 and you don\u2019t think it\u2019s going to be such a big thing and 35 years later it\u2019s still helping people,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was helpful for people who felt alone at that time. It was such an important documentary.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think younger gay people realize how important Madonna was to gay and queer visibility \u2014 she was a big part of it. We showed the world it\u2019s OK to be gay and that was the great message of this movie.\u201d<\/p>\n
He noted that, decades later, many of his friends have transgender kids and that queer culture is represented in much of mainstream pop culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s amazing how far we\u2019ve come,\u201d he said. \u201cI know we\u2019ll always be marginalized but we have come so far. I\u2019m really proud of our community. The current nightmare will be over and I do believe that things will get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Referencing President Trump\u2019s attacks on the LGBTQ community and crackdown on immigration, Slam described the situation in the U.S. today as \u201csad.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cEverything is such a mess,\u201d he said. \u201cSome of these people have lived here 30-40 years and they take you out of your home. I can\u2019t even imagine. It breaks my heart. When I was illegal it was a different story.\u201d<\/p>\n
Slam met his husband, Facundo Gabba, who\u2019s from Argentina, in 2000, and he helped him get a legal case together to win citizenship. He filed a case in 2001 and was told there was a 99 percent chance he wouldn\u2019t be permitted to stay in the United States because they weren\u2019t allowing HIV-positive immigrants to remain in the country. But he got his green card anyway in 2005 and became a U.S. citizen in 2012.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today, Slam and Gabba live in Brooklyn, though they travel a lot because \u201cI can\u2019t take the cold.\u201d The couple married in Argentina in 2010 and in the U.S. in 2016.<\/p>\n
Slam is still dancing and working as a choreographer. He\u2019s teaching at a contemporary dance festival in Vienna in July and even offers online lessons via Salimdans.com.<\/p>\n
As a longtime HIV survivor, Slam is dedicated to a healthful lifestyle.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to keep moving; when you move you stay healthy,\u201d he says. \u201cDance heals everything. I do yoga, I eat healthy and clean as possible. I don\u2019t watch much TV \u2026 I try to stay healthy and positive. If I absorb all of the negativity I would be sick.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Salim_Gauwloos_insert_2_courtesy_Gauwloos-400x600.jpg\")
Salim Gauwloos (Photo courtesy Gauwloos)<\/p>\n
In addition to his ongoing work in dance and choreography, Slam is in the early stages of writing a book about his extraordinary life and pioneering career.<\/p>\n
\u201cI always knew I had a book inside of me. I want to talk about my HIV status. I know I can inspire more people. I want to tell even more secrets in the book; secrets are a poison so I want to tell everything.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Among those secrets, he notes, is a desire to write about his strict Muslim father and the years he spent as an undocumented immigrant in America.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThose are the things I want to talk about, the struggles. It\u2019s a love story, hope and resilience.\u00a0I know it will help people.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for his friends from the tour, Slam says he remains in contact with Gabriel\u2019s mother and Jos\u00e9 Xtravaganza is his best friend. Baltimore\u2019s Center Stage theater is currently developing a new musical about Xtravaganza\u2019s life. And Slam said he occasionally talks to Oliver, though \u201che still can\u2019t pronounce Sandra Bernhard\u2019s name.\u201d<\/p>\n
At the end of our interview, Slam indulged a round a rapid fire questions:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Favorite song to perform in the \u201cBlond Ambition\u201d tour? \u201cExpress Yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Aside from Madonna, who was your favorite artist you worked with? Toni Braxton in \u201cAida\u201d on Broadway.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u2022 Favorite Madonna song? \u201cLive to Tell\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Favorite Madonna video? \u201cBedtime Stories\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0What\u2019s more stressful: performing in a concert or performing on the VMAs? \u201cBoth, because we always had to be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0Did you go to Madonna\u2019s recent \u201cCelebration\u201d tour? \u201cI didn\u2019t see the show but I saw clips online.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022 What do you remember most about performing \u201cVogue\u201d at the VMAs? \u201cIt was nerve-racking for them to flip those fans.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2022\u00a0When was the last time you vogued? \u201cI teach classes so a couple weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Most gay men of a certain age remember \u201cthe kiss.\u201d It was the moment Madonna\u2019s dancers Salim Gauwloos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":252131,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[48,111986,52,51,19099,19100,47,66843,50,49,111987,111988,111989,111990,111991,111992,111993],"class_list":{"0":"post-252130","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-la","9":"tag-la-blade-best-of-la","10":"tag-la-headlines","11":"tag-la-news","12":"tag-lgbtq-representation","13":"tag-lgbtq-visibility","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-blade","16":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","17":"tag-los-angeles-news","18":"tag-musician-ross-alan","19":"tag-non-binary","20":"tag-non-binary-artist","21":"tag-non-binary-musician","22":"tag-queer-music","23":"tag-queer-musician","24":"tag-ross-alan"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252130","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252130"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252130\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/252131"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252130"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252130"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252130"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}