The Evolution Of Voguing

Strike a pose, vogue, vogue, vogue.

1. New York drag competitions evolved from elaborate pageantry to vogue battles between the ’60s and ’80s.

Derek Mega

2. The dance style derived from the performance of fashion poses from Vogue magazine.




3. It was also heavily influenced by the poses in ancient Egyptian art and hieroglyphs.


4. Old Way voguing was all about hard angles and straight lines.

Miramax / Via

5. Willie Ninja took voguing from Harlem to the club scene. Madonna became obsessed and asked him to choreograph her 1990 megahit “Vogue.”

6. But in the early ’00s, New Way and Vogue Fem developed in the underground ballroom scene and brought voguing back into the spotlight.

New Way is characterized by rigid movements coupled with “clicks” (limb contortions at the joints) and “arms control” (hand and wrist illusions, which sometimes include tutting and locking).

Vogue Fem ranges from Dramatics (which emphasizes stunts, tricks, and speed) to Soft and Cunt (which emphasizes a graceful, beautiful, easy flow). There are five elements of Vogue Fem: hand performance, catwalk, duckwalk, floor performance, and spins and dips.

7. You can see Beyoncé dip and catwalk in her “Get Me Bodied” video. She also says, “Snap for the kids,” which is a nod to young queer kids in the voguing scene.

8. The dance group Vogue Evolution was featured on America’s Best Dance Crew. They made everyone want to Leiomy Lolly!

9. Even Beyoncé couldn’t resist — you can see her Leiomy Lolly throughout the entire “Video Phone” video.

10. Willow Smith featured the transgender member of Vogue Evolution, Leiomy Maldonado, in her “Whip My Hair” video. Leiomy whips and dips all over the classroom.


11. Because vogue blends fashion, dance, and music, artists often are drawn to showcasing it in their videos.


A Chris Brown dancer falls out in the “Kiss Kiss” video featuring T-Pain.

12. Voguing has also been used in movies like The Phantom of the Opera.

Warner Bros. Pictures / Via

In the masquerade scene, the dancers vogue.

13. Runway is one of the elements of voguing, so it isn’t a shock that it was featured during Paris Fashion Week.

Supermodel Karlie Kloss vogued at Jean Paul Gaultier Spring/Summer 2014.

14. Azealia Banks, a Harlem native, uses a lot of vogue elements in her music.

In the video for the song “1991,” she vogues and raps over some vogue music beats too. Banks also featured scenes from the documentary “Paris Is Burning” in her video for her song “Fierce.”

15. In 2012, Madonna returned to the dance, teaming up with Kazaky for her “Girl Gone Wild” video.

Kazaky is a Ukrainian all-male synthpop dance group that has helped make voguing popular internationally.

16. And even DJs are playing voguing music in clubs.

View this embed ›

Vogue music is a type of house music.



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