House of Pleasure

Musical talents of Willi Ninja

Chop N'Chan presents: House of Pleasure, featuring Willi Ninja and Diana Garcia.

Aside from House of Pleasure, Willi Ninja had other connections to the recording industry. He appeared in several music videos for commercially successful pop artists, such as Queen Latifah and Malcolm McLaren.

Here is a pic from a special tribute video to Willi Ninja, which I have motified using Picasa.

House of Pleasure is the name of a dance track single released by Endorfun.

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Willi Ninja: YouTube Video Tribute

The Legacy Continues...

A video tribute to Willi Ninja, the extraordinarily talented dancer and trend-setter, was posted on YouTube last week. Produced in collaboration with the House of Ninja, the video features music by DJ Chip Chop and video by Wolfgang Busch and Eileen Ninja.

From what I've learned about Willi from people who knew and worked with him is that Willi was highly respected and admired for his talent. And as I keep adding on to this blog, I continue to see examples of his influences in dancing. I hope you enjoy this video tribute, because it pays hommage to a very gifted man.

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Power of Community: Our Conversation with Harmonica Sunbeam: Part 6

Backstage at Escuelita night club with Harmonica Sunbeam

Harmonica tells us about the marketing aspects of being a famous female impersonator; she also gracefully lets us know who Willi Ninja was to her.

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Wolfgang Busch: How is Myspace affecting your audience?

Harmonica Sunbeam: I've heard of Myspace for quite some time, and I was totally against it only because I had my own website, and I was like, "Well, that was sufficient enough." And I didn't know the whole workings of the whole Myspace site.

LF: And wasn't there someone at some point trading on your name?

Harmonica Sunbeam: Right, there was someone who had opened up a profile with my name and my pictures from my website – on Myspace. And people were saying, "Oh, I sent you a message on Myspace." I said, "Well, I'm not on Myspace." And they said, "Oh, yes you are." And in order to get that person off, I joined. So, that's why my Myspace is under the Real Harmonica Sunbeam. And I didn't realize that Myspace was a community within a community. It really helps to get you in touch with long-lost people. And as an entertainer or artist with something to offer, it works out well for anyone, because it's free exposure. And who doesn't want that?

Wolfgang Busch: It helps to build an audience.

Harmonica Sunbeam: It's 24 hour exposure. You know, Myspace has also gotten me some bookings, so it works out.

LF: What does gay pride mean to you, if I can ask that kind of question?

Harmonica Sunbeam: It means accepting what you are and who you are, and not letting anyone bring you down about those two facts.

LF: How do you relate to other performers, other drag queens? Do you see yourself competing, always having to be better?

Harmonica Sunbeam: Well, I don't compete with other people. I compete with myself. I'm always trying to improve myself. I don't worry about other people, necessarily, with what they're doing. I focus on myself and making my own situation better. I think that there are a lot of people who use the term drag queen or female illusionist or female impersonator, and you have to do what you need do to in order to stay on top and keep your name out there. And keep the people – the managers and the owners of these clubs – calling you. And I think I try to be a better drag persona, because I opened doors for people. I helped other people, who are just coming into the business. I give them the chance that I had to fight for when I was just coming up. Some people are very insecure and don't want their light, so to speak, stolen from them, and so they won't give you a chance. There's enough light and stardom and money for all of us. And whatever you're going to get is what's coming to you. So, if you stop me from being in your show because you're jealous of me, you're not going to get the accolades if you don't deserve them, anyway.

LF: Just one quick follow-up: what you said about helping other people, didn't you help organize or host a mini-ball here?

Wolfgang Busch: That was in reference to the Eric Christian Bazaar -

Harmonica Sunbeam: - right.

LF: - yes, what did you do there to support the Ball community? What happened? Was that you being an example of - ?

Wolfgang Busch: - because there was a team from the BBC, and we needed an event, and we kind of tied that in?

Harmonica Sunbeam: Look, we are all part of the community, and it's all about us helping us. And if no one is going to help us, then we need to help ourselves. And there are many people who have come and gone and … we need to acknowledge and remember that it could be us. And you would want the same treatment for yourself as you would give to someone else. We all want to be loved and remembered and supported, and in order for that to happen, it has to be a give-and-take type of situation. So, I am always doing what I can. I can't always do much, but it's the thought that counts. So, we had this event. And it was a mini-ball, and we had the ball here.

Wolfgang Busch: And Willi was working coat check. And I don't know who was M.C.-ing, Kevin or somebody, called him out. And he came out.

LF: So, did you know Willi Ninja?

Harmonica Sunbeam: Yeah. Willi worked here on Thursday nights as one of the door people. Well, I had known him from the Ballroom scene before I started working here.

LF: What did you think about him?

Harmonica Sunbeam: I think he was an inspiration and a role model for a lot of young kids in the scene, and for many more to come. And I think his name and legacy will always live on. And it's good that we remind the upcoming kids of who paved the way – the people who helped pave the way, that were there. I'm not one of the people. When I first started coming out – I graduated high school in 1987 – and I started coming out about '88, '89, these were the people that I saw when I was just going to the Balls and sitting in the audience, as opposed to before I stared walking. This is back in the days when everything was basically located in Harlem.

LF: What Balls did you go to up there?

Harmonica Sunbeam: Pretty much it was at the Elks Lodge. It was such a fascinating culture for me that, as often as I could and being a young person having a mediocre-paying job and stuff like that, I couldn't always afford to go. And transportation, curfew, and so many other issues, that when I did go, it was a fun and enjoyable event.

LF: Good. Thank you for allowing Wolfgang and I to come visit you here at Escuelita.

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Go back and read the previous installments of this exclusive interview:

Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, and Part VI

For another unique experience with Harmonica Sunbeam, please watch the independent documentary, How Do I Look, directed by Wolfgang Busch.

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1989: The year 'voguing' began to reach the mass media

I have created a list of newspaper and magazine articles, which document the early history of voguing. These articles make it clear that 1989 marked the critical year when news about the vogue style began to spread across the United States. I hope you find this historical information useful and educational. This post only contains reference information that can be independently verified by visiting a news website. On the Squidoo page for How Do I Look, I assembled a list of music videos (based on an interview with Willi Ninja conducted by the filmmaker Wolfgang Busch) that chart the artistic progression of voguing in pop music. Please leave comments to this post, if you know of other links that record the early history of voguing. Thanks for visiting my blog.

Thierry Mugler took 'voguing' to his Paris fashion show

In 1989, Paris fashion designer Thierry Mugler invited two vogue dancers* from New York to perform at his Parish fashion show, so reported Time magazine.

With background training in ballet dancing, Mr. Mugler was one of the first fashion designers to incorporate the vogue dance style into his runway show.

Read the Time magazine article that refers to Thierry Mugler's 1989 fashion show.

* Note: I promise to try to identify who were the dancers who performed in Mr. Mugler's fashion show. If anyone knows who these dancers might be, please leave a comment to this post.

The New Yorker magazine features a sketch of 'voguing'

According to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch, even The New Yorker magazine was able to recognize a national trend forming around "voguing" when it featured a sketch about the dance style.

Read the news digest that refers to The New Yorker magazine's sketch.

In May, the New York fashion industry organized the "Love Ball," an AIDS benefit, featuring a 'voguing' performance

The Design Industries Foundation for AIDS organized a fundraising event at the Roseland Ballroom on May 10, 1989. According to The New York Times, the event was to have featured "an extravagant presentation of 'vogueing,' a stylized version of runway modeling based on poses from Vogue magazine."

The Love Ball featured a rising star in the voguing dance movement: Willi Ninja. "The average person can do it, just using the hand movements," Willi Ninja, a top voguer, told The New York Times.

A couple of years later, The New York Times looked back at the original Love Ball and noted:

"The original Love Ball in May 1989 introduced voguing to a wider public and featured the spectacle of poodle-walking voguers from Barneys New York competing against staff members of Metropolitan Home magazine dressed as telephone tables and --setees. The event raised $400,000 for the Design Industries Foundation for AIDS."

Read the benefit's teaser and the recap, which were published by The New York Times.

Time strikes a pose

Following the success of the Love Ball, Time magazine reported about the role of Patricia Field in helping to spread the success of voguing:

Myra Christopher, a salesclerk in designer Patricia Field's New York City boutique, helped vogueing flourish after she went to a ball in the winter of 1987. Says she: "Here were these kids getting prizes and trophies for things they get made fun of for in the real world." She persuaded her boss to start a vogueing group called the House of Field.

The article also noted that:

... Teens are getting glimpses of vogueing in a music video playing on MTV, singer Taylor Dayne's Tell It to My Heart. The craze has already spread to Chicago. Predicts New York City video producer David Bronstein: "I see a lot of choreographers who could be influenced. I see a big crossover there for stage, for TV, for film."

Read the complete Time magazine article.

Voguing goes to Kansas

Word about voguing reached readers of The Wichita Eagle before the end of May 1989, in an article that reported that voguing was New York's latest "in" thing.

Read a digest of The Wichita Eagle article.

In June, the St. Louis Post-Disptach published an article on the new 'voguing' trend eminating from New York

Read a digest of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.

In July, The New York Times published an article about Malcolm McLaren's dance hit

Before Madonna released "Vogue," Malcolm McLaren had created buzz for his dance hit, Deep in Vogue.

"An exercise in dramatic stylistic juxtaposition similar to Fans, Waltz Darling blends sweeping symphonic waltzes with jagged pop-funk rhythms, and was partly conceived to accompany the fad called vogueing, in which dancers parody the poses of runway-fashion models. Mr. McLaren has been touring Europe with a five-member vogueing team recruited in New York City. And Deep in Vogue, a single from Waltz Darling, is the most played 12-inch single in dance clubs around the country." **

Read the complete article in The New York Times.

** Note: If anyone knows who the five dancers were, who toured with Mr. McLaren, please leave a comment to this post.

In September, the Chicago Sun-Times reflects on the latest dance craze

In an article, the reporter Richard Roeper reflected back on the summer of 1989 as the "summer of dweebs, Batman and Vogueing."

Read the news digest of the Chicago Sun-Times article.

Vouge dancers performed in St. Louis

Vogueing was performed by the Willie Ninja Troupe.

Read a summary of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch article.

Madonna

And in late 1989, Madonna began recording the song, "Vogue."

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Poses on the Runway: Another early example of voguing: 'Deep In Vogue'

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.

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Awesome spontaneous voguing, including a brief attitudinal "Umbrella face-off"

"Clashing egos" demonstrated by dance

Supposedly, some interpretations of voguing can take the form of throwing shade. Here, you can see some of that attitude among dancers during a public gay pride event in Jersey City, NJ. (Look for the acknowledgement of the audience to the flashes of attitude in the dancing.)

Look for a brief shoulder/arm/hands dance movement that is highly reminiscent of a trademark of Willi Ninja's (at 3:13-3:16).

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Early example of voguing: Queen Latifah's music video for 'Come Into My House'

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.

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Willi Ninja: Grandfather of Vogue

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.

Madonna's music video for 'Vogue'

"Beauty's where you find it"

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

Using the commentary by Willi Ninja in the documentary How Do I Look, I have assembled the history of how voguing progressed through mainstream American pop music on the Squidoo page for the 'How Do I Look' documentary.

Where are Madonna's vogue dancers?

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