Inspired by the films ''How Do I Look'' and ''Flow Affair,'' this blog will focus on the pop culture trends created by the ''Ball'' community in dance, fashion, music, and runway.
Showing posts with label Voguing (dance). Show all posts
Showing posts with label Voguing (dance). Show all posts
The Honey Trap music video has inspired Jolin Tsai's fans to create their own vidéo clip versions on YouTube.
We all saw the YouTube phenomenon that happened when Beyoncé's fans made their own versions of Single Ladies, including this famous internet sensation and the one that went very, very wrong. Now, that same social media trend is happening with Jolin Tsai's new music video.
Jolin Tsai's new hit music video for Honey Trap is creating a world-wide community of fans, who have been moved to learn the voguing choreography used by Ms. Tsai's. Here are other fans, who have reinterpreted Honey Trap in the form of their own vidéo clips.
Willi Ninja was featured in the music video for the song 'Deep In Vogue'
"In 1989, [Malcolm McLaren released] the album Waltz Darling, a funk/disco/vogueing inspired album. Waltz Darling ... helped to spread the news about the previously underground practice of vogueing" (see the Wikipedia page for the complete, unedited information about Malcolm McLaren).
The music video for 'Deep In Vogue' (from the album Waltz Darling) featured the dancer and choreographer, Willi Ninja. In this music video, dancers paraody the poses of runway-fashion models.
Ballet Neo dance company also performed 'Deep In Vogue'
The dance company BalletNeo performed Malcolm McLaren's hit with a troupe of 6 dancers, using vogue choreography, in an undated video posted on YouTube.
I found the music video for Queen Latifah's hit song "Come Into My House" on YouTube. The music video for "Come Into My House" was released before Madonna's music video for "Vogue," according to the dancer and choreographer Willi Ninja. Queen Latifah's music video features Willi Ninja and some early examples of vogue dancing.
Unfortunately, embedding of the video was disabled, so the only way you can watch the video would be to open the link for "Come Into My House" in a new window.
Although it wasn't a line that was used in my favorite movie, "Desk Set," I immediately thought to myself, "When in doubt, check The New York Times." I looked up the obituary published by the NYTimes following the passing of Willi Ninja. Willi was a star in the "Ball" community. In fact, The New York Times referred to Willi as the "Grandfather of Vogue" . Here is some more information from that same obituary:
Vogueing had been around for years, but Willi Ninja brought it to a level of visibility and perfection in performance that no one had ever reached before, said Sally Sommer, a professor of dance at Florida State University (See NYTimes obituary tribute for Willi Ninja).
From what I know about Willi from the documentary How Do I Look, I know that he was an inspiration to a lot of people. And it was no doubt through connecting with so many people (including celebrities and personalities) that Willi helped popularize "Vogue" as a dance form. I promise to keep looking for more references to how "Vogue" was popularized.
I did a quicky search on Wikipedia (27-Nov-2007), and I saw that there was a music video for the song "Deep In Vogue" by Malcolm McLaren, and on a page dedicated to dancing fads, here is what I read:
Vogue (dance), a popular style in New York gay discos in the late '80s, evolved from a much earlier style known as "performance". In this flowing freestyle mode, dancers punctuate their movements with an improvised series of static poses which, as the name implies, are meant to evoke the poses seen in classic fashion photos in publications like Vogue magazine. This style was first popularised/exploited internationally by entrepreneur Malcolm McLaren, whose single and music video for the song "Deep In Vogue" was the first to namecheck the style in the mass market. Vogue enjoyed its widest recognition in 1990 with the hugely successful single and music video "Vogue" by Madonna (See Novelty and fad dances).
The interesting thing for me was that when I then looked up the singer, Malcolm McLaren, I found no reference to his vogue dance hit on his personal Wikipedia page:
In 1989, he returned with the album Waltz Darling, a funk/disco/vogueing inspired album. Waltz Darling incorporated elements of his former albums, ie spoken verses, string arrangements and eclectic mix of genres but featured such prominent musicians like Bootsy Collins or Jeff Beck with a glitzy, LA-style production aimed at the US market. The singles, "Waltz Darling," "Something's Jumpin' in Your Shirt" became top-20 radio hits in Europe. While for once McLaren's instincts failed him (there was no sudden interest in waltz music) it still helped to spread the news about the previously underground practice of vogueing (See the Wikipedia page on Malcolm McLaren).
How odd. I guess Lady Bunny is right when she wrote that there is some confusion about who popularized "Vogue" as a dance form. I promise to keep doing some more research.
Of course, there is this video, which was responsible for bringing the "Vogue" style of dance from the runways of "Ball" competitions and onto the dance floors around the world:
According to Wikipedia (as of 27-Nov-2007), with the release of the music video for "Vogue:"
Madonna brought the hitherto underground "vogueing" culture into the mainstream with the release of her song (See Vogue_(song).
Meanwhile, Lady Bunny, a New York City night life personality, claims that it is not entirely clear who should be credited with bringing "Vogue" the dance form to the masses:
There are disputes over who first brought vogueing to the mainstream, but Willi definitely played a large part in it (See Lady Bunny's blog post about the Willi Ninja Benefit).
1989: A critical year for 'Voguing'
Update (20-Jan-2008): I have assembled an early history of voguing, as reported across newspaper and magazine articles in 1989.
History of 'Vogue' dance style in American pop music videos
Who were Madonna's vogue dancers? One of the men who dances in the music video for "Vogue" is Jose Xtravaganza, who also appears in the documentary, How Do I Look.
History of 'Vogue' according to How Do I Look documentary
I was on YouTube this morning, and I found this great video of a guy who calls this a "virgin Vogue." In spite of his humility, it is a very good dance sequence. The song to which he is dancing has got a marked rhythmic beat, and it is augmented by the chant (or "commentary") by the commentator. It includes some profanity, but that is keeping with the tradition of some of the commentary that is used at Balls.
