As I sit here, sipping on a cold pint of Asahi, I find myself wanting the scour the internet for videos of people vogueing; I want to stare at people creating beautiful hypnotic movements that are almost as liquid as this beer.
Voguing has recently erupted in popularity – turning it from an underground dance scene to a very over the ground, everywhere I point my cursor, videos-all-over-the-newsfeed dance scene, partly due to now-mainstream artists like fka Twigs including it in their performances, bringing it to the front and centre of the dance world. This is not a bad thing at all in my opinion.
I don’t know if I have my facts right, but here’s a little bit about vogueing from someone who can’t vogue, doesn’t vogue, but does shout “YASSSSSSSS” from the sidelines hoping to be a part of something bigger than myself. Vogueing is a style of dance inspired by the huge fashion magazine “VOGUE”. It originates from the 70’s; from aspirational folks who couldn’t afford to go to those high fashion runway shows/ manage to be on the cover of those big gun fashion magazines/buy that $123,000 pencil skirt, suit, dress with that crazy big collar that my dad keeps going on about.
Instead they replicated this by integrating model-like poses into their regular dance performances along with showing off their gourmet garments to a room of hungry eyes in their own catwalk shows. It found its way to the mainstream in the 90’s after Madonna introduced it to the everyday punter in her music video for 'Vogue'. It is an established dance form that originated from gay ballroom scenes throughout cities in the USA and has spread like a wild fire across the world.
If someone approaches you on the street saying “Hey, do you like that highly stylized dance movement Vogue?”, your response is “WHAT STYLE OF VOGUE MATE?” because there are different styles – Fem, Old Way and New Way.
Fem derived from the word feminine (of course) – exaggerated feminine movements and hand gestures makes this style unique from the others. Old Way is more lines and symmetry and New Way more clicking and contorting your body into crazy shapes like a pretzel (or other shapes, like: a more open pretzel). New Way is Old Way but New. Either way, the New Way will be Old Way in a few years; thus the evolution of dance. Here are some examples of the three… Ways.
Oh my goodness gracious let’s get on going with the old school, Old Way. This way is all about precision and symmetry, and began as a form of old school dance battle between two people (duelling). Have a gander at this, it’s like watching two swan like waiters from the titanic square up using their precise arm movements to assert dominance. Coming from Essex, these are the kinda battles I wouldn’t have minded seeing take place on a Friday night out front of Asda.
They make it look so simple but in reality, It’s not. I’ve given it a pretty good go and just can’t make it flow naturally. It might be my lack of dance ethic – or the fact I’ve polished off a two litre bottle of White Star cider since that Asahi – but either way I just cannot pull it off as well as the real competitors. It’s a difficult skill to master.
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Now here's a Way – New Way. This talented dancer, who *plug alert* was in the video for our single “MYO” (we’ll get to that later), is sporting a feisty zebra/snow tiger get up with luscious pink hair. She’s also showing us some bare skill in the New Way department. It’s based around fairly rigid movements – similar to popping + locking – and the intense hand movements which in turn shape the body. You can see the cat like flexibility, rigid contortions and effeminate movements go hand in hand (paw in paw?).
This turnt up environment – AKA a Ballroom (more commonly called a Ball) – is like a huge dancing fashion based battle ground, sporting beautiful flailing limbs battling each other for ultimate glory… in the battle. They range in competitiveness, from friendly competition between friends – for respect etc – to actual full blown competitions – for money etc.
Did I hear someone say Fem? Probably not; I’m all alone. As I said earlier (keep up), it’s about exaggerated feminine hand movements, and is very, very fluid – none of that rigid New Way stuff. Now as a raging lesbian this excites me – here’s one of my favourite voguers, Elena Ninja from the House of Ninja.
Houses are like clans of vogue dancers with one mighty leader whom they call Mother. I think so anyway; folklore and all that. If I was the mother of my own vogue house it’d be called Vogueboi’s and I would in turn be called Abi Vogueboi’s. The future is bright for me in the vogue world I just know it.
The world of Vogue is a deep intriguing hole which I want to explore; there is still so much to learn and this is really just scratching the surface, but I have a keen interest in this. As a gay woman who was living in Essex during her teenage years, there was very little to do (in both ways). With the rising influx of secondary school bullies lining up to isolate me in an already isolating environment, I wish I had discovered this unique group of people to teach me how to be fabulous – which is partly why I’m embracing it so much now.
I found a way of escapism through music in my band Plaitum, with my friend Matt; now I told you it was coming – we made a music video last year to our 90’s dance track 'MYO' which involves a lot of talented wonderful creatures, showing their own skills on the dancing front.
The scene is growing incredibly quickly – if it’s something you’d like to be a part of look out for a ball near you and follow some cool vogue people on Instagram – this is normally where you’ll hear about stuff happening! Here are a few places to start:
http://instagram.com/benjaminmilan
http://instagram.com/divadmagnifique
http://instagram.com/helennev
http://instagram.com/nittamonamour
http://instagram.com/fayestoeser
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Plaitum's debut album 'Constraint' is out now.
For tickets to the latest Plaitum shows click HERE.
