On Thursday I went to my usual evening dance class to find that the regular Afro-funk teacher was out and we had a substitute who happened to be a waacking and voguing dancer and a member of the dance crew House of Dangerkat (pictured above.) Both of these types of dance are underground club dances, inspired by fashion poses and historically most popular in the gay club scene. If you’ve heard of voguing, you probably know it from its mainstream surfacing in the early 90s when Madonna released the song “Vogue,” about the dance. Waacking, with its origins in the West Coast, bears some similarity voguing (from the East Coast) with waacking being somewhat looser and more fluid in style, and vogueing having an exaggerated sharpness to it. I won’t pretend to be experts on either- this is about the extent of my knowledge of these dances and for all I know, it could be inaccurate as well.
Apparently vogueing and waacking are making a big comeback now on account of lots of mainstream artists like Beyoncé and Lady Gaga using moves from the dances in a lot of their choreography, so you’re starting to see classes cropping up for them. All I can say is it’s a great workout and SO FUN!! And if you love dance and fashion, what a great way to combine them. It’s certainly not for everyone as it’s pretty extreme stuff, but channeling your inner model, doing dance steps based on runway walking and exaggerated magazine poses, working your attitude, while getting your daily dose of cardio? Win, win, win!
A couple of neat fun facts- the dance crews are typically called “House of ____” in homage to couture houses like “House of Dior.” Also they don’t have “battles” like they do in hip hop or breakdancing- instead, a voguing battle is called a “ball.” And who wouldn’t rather go to a ball than to a battle? How awesome!
Also, the costumes would be sooo fun to make, albeit less than practical for everyday wear. Check out a clip of House of Dangerkat performing at Hotel de Ville in Paris. (The woman who taught my class is the one in the bright pink pants and super exaggerated Gaultier-style cone bra.)
I’m definitely going to try to find ways to supplement my dance diet with a little more of this :)
13 comments
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August 14, 2010 at 10:44 am
Kristin
Work those cones girl! And is that a fur diaper on red belt guy? Nice. I’m not sure if you have an interest in the complexities of corsetry, but a cone bra would be amazing.
August 14, 2010 at 10:49 am
Beangirl
Well look at you being all selfless and such, posting links to other people’s video. Which, btw, is fab-u-lous. So thanks so much for your deeply selfless act of kindness. You have made my heart happy. I’m sure that was your goal.
August 14, 2010 at 11:00 am
lorrwill
I am such a wind style groupie it isn’t funny. I can’t do it, I try to in the privacy of own flat but I would love to have the guts to take a class. I could see me trying to work wind, vogue and waack all into some wicked thing but then again I sometimes dream about levitating too. sigh.
August 14, 2010 at 11:30 am
Rhonda
Simply WOW!
August 14, 2010 at 11:33 am
Janice
Oh, what fun. I think this would be great for So You Think You Can Dance!
August 14, 2010 at 11:49 am
Meredith P
Thanks for posting the fun!
August 14, 2010 at 12:16 pm
Rhonda
Just wanted to add a little more info to the history of voguing…
Madonna, although she was a good voguer, she did rip off (as was the case with so much of her “art”; she really was not as cutting edge, inventive, as folks believed her to be, she was just more observant of what others were doing that was cutting edge and she knew how to parlay the innovations of others to advance her career) the vogue culture, which was well documented in the 1990 documentary “Paris is Burning.” Also, voguing is specific to the black American “underclass” gay community from New York City.
August 14, 2010 at 1:11 pm
queentanya
Dance challenged–LOVED IT. Thanks, SS.
August 14, 2010 at 4:40 pm
Denise
I’ll be sure to go to one of those classes when it comes to Prescott. Did I hear a ha ha?
August 14, 2010 at 5:13 pm
harlenehercules
OMG! loved the video. I had forgotten about vogueing until I did a search and stumbled on your blog. I am gunna have to make my way down to that class in the future as Australia is a little behind.
I am shining my manolos as I write this.
5 snaps *****
http://harlenehercules.wordpress.com
August 15, 2010 at 3:54 am
FashionBoy
Nice video but weird costumes.
August 16, 2010 at 8:52 am
amber
Fun!!!
August 17, 2010 at 1:25 pm
Azadeh
Agreed, you must watch Paris is Burning!