Today, January 8, would've been David Bowie's 73rd birthday. (More on that here.)

As a Madonna scholar (hey, it's a thing), I am well aware of her love for the guy, and his influence on her. He was her first concert (and she lied to her dad about going), she inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and she has clearly taken much inspiration from his conceptual use of personae and eras.

There are pictures of Madonna and Bowie (and Billy Idol and Sam Kinison) backstage at his Glass Spider Tour in 1987, and she also performed a tribute to him on her Rebel Heart Tour when he suddenly died in 2016. But leave it to her first backup dancer and friend (and sometimes stylist) Erika Belle to give us the news that Madonna once performed for Bowie in Yoko Ono's living room!

Belle tweeted about the evening, confirming that she was invited by Keith Haring to Ono's apartment (yes, that one, in the Dakota) in the '80s, where David Bowie would be. Belle and Madonna did the “Dance of the Cygnets” from Swan Lake ... in gorilla masks (the masks being Madonna's input).

Can you imagine?

RIP, Bowie.