Voguing
Voguing began in the 1980s by Latin Americans in New York,
La Bronx and Harlem and became popular in the UK during the 1990s. It started
at balls and was used as a safe way of throwing shade through dance instead of
violence or arguments. The balls were conducted in Houses such as House of
xtraveganza, House of Saint Laurent, House of Princess and House of LaBeija.
The houses were places where you could be yourself in a time when you weren't
accepted for being gay or transsexual even though transsexuals were often seen
as more beautiful than women. It was a place you could go to if you were
rejected by your family and were in need of support or even create a new
family.
The Houses would have competitions with categories such as
realness, butch queen, schoolgirl/boy and military. These competitions would
include men and women creating this look and walking like they are in a runway
show to house music. You didn’t have to be rich to go to these houses; however
during the late 1980s it was a must to wear designer labels. The competition
also started with people wanting to look like LA show girls and later on people
were more inspired by singers, models and actresses such as Marilyn Monroe.
Octavia Saint Laurent stated "I want to be somebody. I
mean, I am somebody. I just want to be a rich somebody."
in
the documentary Paris is burning. I believe this was a very popular
view for people at these times as it seemed better to be rich, especially a
rich white girl.
The dance voguing was inspired by the poses in Egyptian hieroglyphics
and gymnastics moves. Even the costumes worn were inspired by Egyptian clothing
and culture. FKA twigs Stated “(Derek Prodigy) taught me that every hand
movement that you do in voguing is a figure of eight and that is eternity,” she
said. “Every single move has to flow into the other like the eternal move that
never stops moving. I was really inspired by that concept.”
Voguers have gone on to inspire singers such as Madonna, FKA
twigs, Beyoncé and Azelia Banks. In Madonna’s song Vogue she mentions how tough
it was in the 1980s and how dancing would help people forget the ‘heartache’ in
their lives. She also mentions the names of people voguers were inspired by. For
example Grace Kelly, Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rodgers were famous
faces listed in her lyrics. I can tell
that FKA twigs has been heavily influenced by Voguing from the curls in her
hair to her music video ‘Glass and Patron’ including voguing the choreography.
Voguing is one of the few subcultures that have carried on
on a large scale into the modern day, especially this year with designers using
vogue dancers in their catwalk show and I think it will continue to inspired
people in the future.
