Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a two part series on the styles of street dancing known as "waaking" and "voguing". This post provides information & comments about voguing and showcases six videos of styles of vogue dancing.
Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/03/waacking-and-voguing-street-dances-part.html for Part I of this series.
Parr I provides information & comments about waacking and showcases two videos of that dance.
The content of this post is provided for cultural, entertainment, and aesthetic purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all the featured dancers. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of this video on YouTube.
WARNING: Music played for street dancing may contain mild profanity (such as the word that rhymes with "ditch") or more than mild profanity. Also, a number of YouTube street dancing comment threads contain profanity, homophobic content, and other content that may be considered objectionable.
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INFORMATION ABOUT VOGUING
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vogue_(dance)
"Vogue, or voguing, is a highly stylized, modern house dance that evolved out of the Harlem ballroom scene in the 1980s.[1][2] It gained mainstream exposure when it was featured in Madonna's song and video "Vogue" (1990),[3] and when showcased in the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning (which went on to win the Grand Jury Prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival)...
Inspired by Vogue magazine, voguing is characterized by model-like poses integrated with angular, linear, and rigid arm, leg, and body movements. This style of dance arose from Harlem ballrooms by African Americans and Latino Americans in the early 1960s. It was originally called "presentation" and later "performance".[2] Over the years, the dance evolved into the more intricate and illusory form that is now called "vogue". Voguing is continually developed further as an established dance form that is practiced in the gay ballroom scene and clubs in major cities throughout the United States—mainly New York City.
Formal competitions occur in the form of balls held by "houses"—family-like collectives of LGBT dancers and performers.[2][5]... ("Legendary" in ballroom terms refers to a house that has been "serving", that is, walking or competing on the runway, for twenty years or more). The House of Ninja was founded by Willi Ninja, who is considered the godfather of voguing.[5][6] Members of a house are called "children". Sometimes children legally change their last name to show their affiliation with the house to which they belong.[2]...
Styles
There are currently three distinct styles of vogue: Old Way (pre-1990); New Way (post-1990);[7] and Vogue Fem (circa 1995).[2] Although Vogue Fem has been used in the ballroom scene as a catch-all phrase for overtly effeminate Voguing as far back as the 1960s, as a recognizable style of Voguing, it only came into its own around the mid-1990s.
Old way
Old way is characterized by the formation of lines, symmetry, and precision in the execution of formations with graceful, fluid-like action. Egyptian hieroglyphs and fashion poses serve as the original inspirations for old way voguing. In its purest, historical form, old way vogue is a duel between two rivals...
New way
New way is characterized by rigid movements coupled with "clicks" (limb contortions at the joints) and "arms control" (hand and wrist illusions, which sometimes includes tutting and locking)...
Vogue Fem
Vogue Fem (the spelling being an English appropriation to fr. femme, feminine) is fluidity at its most extreme with exaggerated feminine movements influenced by ballet and modern dance. …There are five elements of Vogue Fem: hand performance, catwalk, duckwalk, floor performance, and spins and dips. When competing in a Vogue Fem battle, contestants should showcase all five elements in an entertaining fashion.
Hand performance refers to the illusions and movements of the arms, wrists, hands, and fingers. The catwalk is the upright sashaying in a linear fashion. The duckwalk refers to the crouched, squatted, foot-kicking and scooting movements requiring balance on the balls of the feet. Floor performance refers to the movements done on the floor using primarily the legs, knees, and back. The dip is the fall, drop, or descent backward onto one's back with one's leg folded underneath. Mainstream dance forms popularized the dip, which is occasionally called the "death drop" when done in dramatics style. Due to popular media, the dip is sometimes incorrectly termed the "5000", "shablam", and "shabam"; such misnomers likely stem from older commentators chanting the word "shawam" when a voguer successfully completed a dip"...
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Additional information about voguing is also included in Part I of this series.
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SHOWCASE VIDEOS
These videos are posted in chronological order with video with the oldest date posted first.
Example #1: Vogue Classique
trill, Uploaded on Jun 10, 2006
Energetically edited clips of all the legendary children (Willi Ninja, José and Luis Xtravaganza, et al) of the New York houses from the late 80's to early 90's. A handsome portion of New Way style thrown in with mostly Old Way (no Vogue Fem Queen this time; sorry Miss Dramatics) stylings. Features clips from the video for Malcolm McLaren's "Deep in Vogue," public access television demonstrations, and ball performances.
The soundtrack opens with the intro to "Happiness" by the Pointer Sisters and segues quickly into "Dub Break" by Ellis D, one of Junior Vasquez's monikers.
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Example #2: Old School Vs. New School Vogue
chuckiechuckles2006, Uploaded on Jul 3, 2006
Vogueing ball footage from the guys at Sterile Cowboys & Co. Uploaded on Jul 3, 2006...
More info at www.sterilecowboys.org Video by Nicolas Jenkins
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Comment:
Franklin M. Lopez, 2012
"Those who comment negatively about "VOGUING" have no concept about the culture and its importance. VOGUING is about BELONGING, FAMILY, PRIDE, EXCELLENCE and is also a GATEWAY to MUCH greater things...Where "Kids" prove themselves by earning their "10's" and many get discovered by artists and accept CAREERS as professional dancers, models"
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Example #3: Best VOGUE CLIPS you can't stop watching
PhillyProdigy09, Uploaded on Jun 27, 2010
some performance battles I just can't stop watching
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Comments:
Koleton Cox, 2012
"Can someone explain to me why is it this big deal when someone falls down to the beat? like i have seen this in every video i have seen on youtube and i never really got the history behind it? where does it come from and why is it used so much when dancing to this beat?"
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LadyOrnitia, 2012
in reply to Koleton Cox
"It's called a dip, one of the elements of Vogue Fem."...
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Example #4: Battle the Kings -vogue myzak-neu & beck be fab vs Honeysha Khan & amber lee revlon(2)*
Bruno Marignan, Published on Jan 4, 2013
Battle the Kings 2vs2 hiphop, house dance, popping, break et waacking-voguing.
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Comments:
itzpokey891, 2013
"yall betta work honey...a lil to wild but it was awsome where yall frm?"
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*Corrected video title as per the dancer's comment:
Roseau Sabin Kevy, 2013
"from paris !! n thx u but my name is honeysha khan , from house of khan n not honey shak lmao !! but thx :) i appreciate that"
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swaid wise, 2013
"How the hell you expect to win a vogue battle with no dips, no dives, or deathdrops?"
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FERN IGU7, 2013
"two different era of vogin"
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cojack424, 2013
"WHy am i just seeing this.......Work out.......I love a good old fashion vogue battle.....Although this is vogue fem vs new way vogue, but it's cute.......I'm sorry but the guy in all black is serving......He has all the elements of vogue,,,,arms, hands,.....He gets 10's across the board....... plus he's a cutie"
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Example #5: STREETSTAR 2013 - Vogue Femme Final Battle Lasseindra (FRA) vs Ida"Inxi" Holmlund (FIN)
Published on Aug 22, 2013
Streetstar Vogue Femme Final Battle: WONDER WOMAN Lasseindra (FRA) WINNER against SAILOR MOON Ida "Inxi" Holmlund (FIN) at the Streetstar festival february 2013 in Stockholm, Sweden.
Judges: Archie Burnett (US), Javier Ninja(US) and Leiomy(US).
Dj: Vjuan Allure.
Comentator: Dashaun Wesley (US).
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Comments:
Naiilah Raks, 2014
"Actually Inxi (Sailor Moon) is a woman and Lasseindra (Wonder Woman) is a drag queen from the famous House of Ninja. Both are feeeeeeerce though!
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Helen Preis, 2014
"...Women dance differently. Which is why ideally there should be separate categories for femme queen performance and women's performance. Girls are a bit more cautious if they do dramatic dips. But Streetstar did a great job doing old way, new way, femme and runway that year. "
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Example #6: JAVIER NINJA - Vogue Demo at STREETSTAR 2013
streetstar, Published on Aug 22, 2013
Fantastic dancer Javier Ninja presents a New Way Solo at Streetstar.
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Note that the commenters on this video's viewer comment thread loved the dance but had less praise for the announcer as demonstrated by this comment:
Down Clown, 2014
"...the commentor was attempting to chant which is distracting to the dancer if not done right. Chanting is just as much part of vogue as are the angles of the dance, so you can't say that it isn't a big deal. Again, you don't know what your talking about homie.”
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