The Doing of Vogue - Undergraduate Program in Comparative

THE DOING OF VOGUE:
LGBT BLACK & LATINA/O BALLROOM SUBCULTURE,
VOGUING’S EMBODIED FIERCENESS,
AND THE MAKING OF A QUARE WORLD ON STAGE
Cuauhtémoc Peranda
Stanford University
Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity
Undergraduate Honors Thesis
May 26, 2010
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I certify that I have read The Doing of Vogue: LGBT Black & Latino
Ballroom subculture, Voguing’s Embodied Fierceness, and The Making of
a Quare World on Stage by Cuauhtémoc Peranda, and that in my opinion
this work is fully adequate in scope and quality as an undergraduate
honors thesis.
_____________________________________________
Harry J. Elam Jr., Faculty Advisor
Olive H. Palmer Professor in the Humanities, Drama
_____________________________________________
Janice L. Ross
Professor, Drama
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Abstract:
In the 1990’s, pop-star Madonna popularized a dance style and form known as “Vogue” or
“Voguing”. This dance, originally called “Presentation”, and then “Performance”, had been a
part of the Gay, Black and Latina/o Ball scene since the 1940’s. The Ball scene itself being a
subculture centered around performance art competitions. Previous scholarship on voguing has
analyzed the dance’s rules, choreographic elements, and has emphasized the individual dancer’s
performances. This study expands the optics of analysis to the investigation of the embodied
knowledge that underlay the composition of the dance itself. Focusing analysis on seven Balls
attended Chicago, IL and San Francisco, CA, public information from the community’s websites,
YouTube documentaries, and grass-roots recorded Ball production, I attempt to look into the
aesthetics of voguing and the Ball to analyze the importance of the most endearing aspect of the
Ball: Fierceness. In addition, this study concludes its work with an artistic endeavor, to
experiment with the praxis of Fierceness, and put voguing on stage; creating a dance-theater
work titled, The Voguette.
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Table of Contents
Title Page………………………………………….…..…………………………………………1
Signature Page……………………………………………………………………………………2
Abstract………………………………………………..……….…………………………………3
Acknowledgments……………………………………………..…………………………………5
Preface……………………………………………………………………………………………9
Prelude………………………………………………..…………………………………………15
I. Introduction………………………………………..……………………….…………………16
II. Theorizing Fierceness…………………….……………………………….…………………34
III. Artistic Praxis of Voguing …………………….……………………………………………48
IV. Score of The Voguette……………………………..………………………...………………59
V. Glossary………………………………………………………………………...……………84
VI. Methods……………………………………..………………………………………………92
VII. Program information……………………………………………………………….………96
VIII. Work Cited…………………………………….…………………………………………104
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Acknowledgements
As A Native Man Must Do, as I Must Do, I Must Give Thanks, Give Back, and Acknowledge All
Those Who Have Helped Me Achieve My Greatness.
I would like to first state that this whole project could never have been a reality with out
the love and support of my friends, family, mentors, and peers. For the past year, I have only
been able to push through all the feats of this thesis project, because I had the love,
encouragement, and motivation of all those to me by those who do love an appreciate me. Many
times I doubted myself; many times I questioned what I was doing or how it was going to get
done. But, I had my people, my little community, always there to help and support me when I
was in need. Late night talks bouncing off ideas, coffee, going to the clubs, going to the Ball,
meetings in offices, and just well wishes all impacted me, and this project, in an enormous way.
To each of you who knew me for the time I was doing this project, Thank You.
I would like to especially thank Professor Harry J Elam Jr. for being my adviser and
mentor through my work at Stanford. Since I was a young CSRE student, Harry, you have
always, pushed and guided me to resources and ideas I found extremely interesting and fulfilling.
To you, a giant thank you and hugs! I would also like to thank Professor Ramon Rivera-Servera,
at Northwestern University, and the Northwestern University Summer Research Opportunities
Program, for getting me started on my research on voguing. All of the resources, guidance, and
training have really played a huge role in the creation of this thesis. And Ramon, you are one
great Professor. I very much enjoyed my time working under you, and learning everything you
threw at me. It was a lot to take in, but I am a better scholar now because of your rigor and
intensity. Also, thank you Aleta Hayes, and the Chocolate Head Dance Company. From you
Aleta, I cannot quantify or qualify all the knowledges you have transmitted to me. You are an
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amazing artist, and someone I respect most deeply. And to Professors Janice Ross, Peggy Phelan,
and Michael Ramseur, thank you all so much for the support of my honors thesis and project.
Thank you so much for allowing me to use the resources of Drama as a Dance minor and a
CSRE major, to produce the Voguette, and create the artistic part of my honors thesis. I have
learned so much from this experience, and it in major thanks to you and the Drama Department.
To Professor Janice Ross and Rand Quinn, I would like to thank you for holding the
Stanford Dance Research Group, and the CSRE honors thesis cohort meetings, respectably.
These meetings have really helped be throughout the process of this thesis, and I thank you
greatly. And, a huge thank you to my dance teachers Ralph Lemon, Diane Frank, Robert Moses,
Anna Halprin, and Tony Kramer, who have taught me so much. I have learned such profound
lessons from each of you. And, my love for the arts is only deeper and stronger because of all
your wisdoms.
Very importantly, I would like to thank my House Families in the House of Lauren, and
the House of Van Catier—otherwise known as the House of Lauren Van Catier (LVC for short).
Overall House Mother Chela Van Catier, and Overall House Father Lauren, thank you so much
for all of your support and guidance. I still remember when you first contacted me, interested in
me as a scholar and historian for the Ball, and interested in helping me with my project. All of
your love and support has been more than great, and I could not have done this project, at all,
without the support of both of you.
I would like to thank my close friends, Kayla Rae Carpenter, Logan Hehn, Arty Rivera,
Maija Cruz, Eric Barnes, Justin Solomon, and Matt McDevitt for all of their love. There were
times when I was very lost, and each of you, in your own way, has helped me get through this
thesis. To each of you, a very sincere and special thank you.
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Thank You, Vindiction Dance Company. Because of you, the Voguette was a possibility
and the performance was amazing. Each of you, all of the company members, played a huge role
in my life, and in the work I did this year. Thank You so much, for my first Dance Company, I
very much loved being the artistic director and creating with artist eager to improve and create
the best work possible. Thank you for your motivation and energy!
Thank You to the IDA + CPBA Staff and Administration: Gina and Erika, LGBTCRC, EL Centro Chicano, CCSRE, Stanford Drama Department, Northwestern University
Summer Opportunities Program, the Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship and Laura
Selznick, Native American Community Center: Winnona Simms, Denni Woodward, Greg
Greaves, the Stanford Queer Straight Alliance, GenderFük, and the Phi Kappa Psi Fraternity
California-Beta, all of your generous funding and other support made this project a complete
success! I could not have done this project without all the support you each, as institutional
bodies, have given me. Thank you dearly!
Lastly, I would like to thank my family. The Perez, the De Anda, and the Peranda. Da-ta,
Nananzin, and Grantis, you have all helped me so much with this project, and over these four
years in college, at Stanford University. Whenever I was in major trouble, I could always count
on you guys to be there for me. Especially you, Amparo De Anda, Mama, Nananzin, thank you.
You have always loved me, and have always supported me whenever I needed it. You have made
great sacrifices for me, and all your love has made me into a wonderful person, or at least you
think so! I love you so much! Thank you for everything.
And, Finally, Thank you to all those not mentioned. All those who took classes with me,
heard me rant about voguing and fierceness, took dance class with me, taught me something, saw
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the Voguette, and learned from me, read my thesis, and those who contributes to the Ball
community. Thank you, your impact on my life, undoubtedly, was significant! I promise!
Thank You!
“Walk for Me! And, May You Always Walk in Beauty!”
Cuauhtémoc Peranda, Témoc, Temo, Prince Devin Lauren
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Preface
The Artist-Academic
Over the past year, I think I learned the most about art and research from Artist Ralph
Lemon. He taught me the most interesting secret about art making, which is: it is a process of
research. In order to create anything significant, meaningful, and timeless, the artist must dive
into deep research of his or her subject matter. The artist must search within him o herself. The
artist must see and experience what already exist, and go further. And, as the artist creates, the
artist must unearth what is already there. The idea, most interesting, which parallels itself to
science, is there is no such thing as creation; rather, there is only finding what is already there.
When an artist creates a work, he or she should be looking and working for the future and goal,
the artwork, and let the art create itself and find its own path. The artist should not try too hard to
create his or her vision exactly—the artist should create with the experience and knowledge
gained through the process of creating. In science, all knowledge already exists. Chemistry will
still occur even if we do not know its properties. Physics and social behavior will still act as they
do, even without the research article describing its principles or trends. And, Art will be created,
even if we don’t know it’s exact form when we begin its making process. The process of
research, of observation, of recoding, and analyzing is the same for art, science, and other
academic fields—we just tend to look at what already exist, and explain or express our findings
in a certain way. For Ralph Lemon, he expressed his art, and findings along the way, usually in
the form of a dance, or dance installation. For many of my Professors, they expressed their
finding, questions, and results in academic, scholarly writing. And for me, it is a bit of both.
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This Thesis project, for honors from the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and
Ethnicity, is a very interdisciplinary project. It calls for a “new” way of expressing knowledge
and findings. And, it plays with art, academia, and praxis.
This study, this work, investigated voguing, its idea of Fierceness, and how to put
voguing on stage. It is a work that is only similar, to my knowledge, Ralph Lemon’s Geography
Trilogy. The study is a meditation on work, process, and ideas that came about as I learned about
what voguing is and how I would create a piece called The Voguette—which used voguing as its
primary dance material.
This study is artistic and academic; it is a fusion of both, with methodologies from both
fields. I completed ethnographic field notes on Balls, watched YouTube videos, entered a House
family, danced vogue, mixed vogue with Modern and Aztec dance, explored voguing with
choreographic ticks, created a full length dance piece, analyzed the idea of fierceness, read many
texts about performance and dance, research ethnic and queer studies, and finally created this
thesis document as a way to record my process.
This thesis is therefore very personal, and holds with it much of what I have gained over
the past year. Starting with the Northwestern Summer Research Opportunities Program, in the
Department of Performance Studies, and ending with the Voguette’s performance, I have learned
more than I can express in a Dance work or a thesis. It has been an amazing experience, and I
have loved everything about this project.
The Three Part Thesis
As a note to the reader this thesis was and organized and created in three parts. The first
Part of this thesis was the Research; both academic and choreographic. I first worked on
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Voguing in my sophomore year of college. I was a dancer in The Sweetest Hangover production,
and I had to vogue for this production. After that, I was very interested in voguing, and I looked
to YouTube to see what was out there. In the end of my junior year, I applied for a fellowship at
Northwestern University, to do research in the Performance Studies Department, under Professor
Ramon Rivera-Servera. I received the Northwestern Summer Opportunities fellowship, and it
was there that I learn ethnographic methodology to research voguing as a young performance
studies scholar. I read performance literature, and I went to two Balls in Chicago, and it was at
these events that I learned about voguing, danced with some of the Ball kids, and found my
House Father, Father Antonio Lauren. After my experience I wrote a paper about the structure of
voguing and continued onto my senior year at Stanford.
While at Stanford, the next year, I continued to read my academic literature on dance and
performance, go to Balls, and practice the dance of voguing. As I investigated further, I started to
develop the plan for the creation of The Voguette. It was planned to be a dance piece, of
experimental dance and theater, working with and against all I learn about voguing, and put it on
stage. The Voguette was also a research project with two goals: vogue dance pedagogy and
vogue choreography. As I worked on the Voguette, taught my dancers how to dance vogue, and
created the work, I learned that this creative process was itself a research. And, I was learning a
new way to create as the art was forming itself. Research was where I began, but always
continues.
The second part of the thesis is the Writing. The result of which is this thesis document. I
had take down copious notes in ‘the field’, and reviewed many books, articles, websites, and
footage of voguing. I have been writing and organizing my thoughts for a great amount of time.
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And, the result of which is this paper document. It is one way in which I am sharing the work
done for this project with the rest of the world.
The third part of this thesis is the experiment, the research, in the form of a Production:
The Voguette. I wanted to play with voguing. I wanted to create. I wanted Praxis to all the data
and theory with which I was working. And, so The Voguette was born. It is my special way of
expressing what I learned over the year. From what I was told too, after the show, it was very
effective in sharing my research. People saw and understood what I was researching, and what I
was doing through the medium of creative dance.
These three parts to the thesis have yielded tremendous knowledge and data. Most of
which cannot be put into one thesis document. However, as a learning endeavor for me, it was
highly effective. I was able to explore voguing at all angles, and really invest myself in the
subject. To the requirements in the Institute for Diversity in the Arts, I believe I have effective
explored and presented my subject matter: voguing.
My Journey with Voguing and Ballroom Culture
My relationship to the Ballroom world and scene must be addressed, because I do see this
thesis project as a part of the Ballroom world, and a main contributor to the culture. When I first
did my research in voguing, I presented myself as a young bisexual Native American male who
was researching with interested in the Ball and Voguing. Father Lauren found me one of the
Ballroom chat websites, and he invited me to talk with him about the Ball. Father Lauren loved
my passion and fire for the Ball and voguing, and loved that I wanted to use my work in
academia to benefit the Ball scene. And, after I went to the Icon Ball with him in Chicago, he
and Mother Chela Lauren invited me to their house.
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As the thesis continued, I stayed in contact with them as my Father and Mother. If ever I
need to travel to Chicago, Los Angles, Dallas, or Atlanta, I have a place to stay. I am a part of the
family.
It was later, as the Voguette continued in development, that Father Lauren invited me to
be Prince of California—since I was the only Lauren in the Bay Area of California. I accepted,
and now, I am just a bit more respected amongst the kids in the House of Lauren.
If anything, this thesis document, this Voguette, is for my House Family and the Ball
community. It was made to show how beautiful and fun the Balls truly are, and what great
people and artist practice the life of the Ball.
Though I am ‘the researcher’, I am also the subject of my research. I am in the Ball
community, and everything I write not only affects the Ball, but affects me. I am writing this
thesis documents for my people, my family; we, as the Ball Kids.
The Voguette
As it was stated before, the Voguette is the theatrical dance production part of this thesis
project. However, I have not clarified why I chose the name The Voguette with subtitle “Werk it
on the Runway!”, and I feel that knowledge is important.
I choose the name “The Voguette” for three reasons. 1) The word “vogue” is in the name
and it would be easy to identify this performance to me and my project. 2) The word “Voguette”
is a word play on duet, trio, quartet, quintet, sextet, et cetera. I thought it was cute, and catchy in
that way. 3) The word “Voguette” is actually tide to an idea of a woman who is usually has blond
hair, is white, fashion-conscious, and has a lot of money. And, with the Ball culture, I wanted to
Queer/Quare that idea of a Voguette, and present what can and can’t be a Voguette. I wanted to
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make the Voguette idea Gay, Lesbian, Brown, Black, Bisexual, Asian, transgendered, et cetera.
And, in the end, after the production, I think I was successful.
As for “Werk it on the Runway”, I knew that the stage for The Voguette was going to
have a runway of some sorts. The Runway, in the Ball, is where everything happens. And, this
adage, as a whole, is commonly heard in the Ballroom culture. It ties the Voguette, in a way,
directly to the Ball. And, Werk, in itself, is a very special word which demands the best of any
performance. It was my good luck charm and word; it made sure all performances were
absolutely fierce!
The title names the work, and summons its power. There was a good amount of thought
going into naming this piece, and I hope it is understood.
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Prelude
Chapters 1 Introduction and Background to Ball and voguing, and Chapter 2 Theorizing
Fierceness are created without mention of the Voguette and the entire thesis project. They are
written to be read as source material this thesis project, and the remainder of this document. They
do seem out of place at times, but they provide the backbone analysis and history of voguing and
the Ball.
Lastly, as a note, there is a lot of Ball vocabulary, terminology, and language in this work. Please
refer to the Glossary for definitions and clarity.
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I. Introduction
Introduction to Voguing and the Ballroom Subculture
Voguing is a dance which displays great flexibility, risk, hurdles, throws, and can be
excellently described. As a dance, it necessitates its viewers to take full notice its full
performance, and it call for participation. Voguing is a demanding and enticing spectacle. The
dance is very powerful, fast, precise, and dangerous. Vogue pushes and twists the boundaries and
limits of the body, while moving in and through poses often seen in fashion magazines. The body
bends while the performer, or voguer, dances with incredible emphatic passion for an agency
over the performance, space, the audience’s perception of what he or she is demonstrating. With
the body, the voguer directs attention to him or herself exquisitely by the use of his or her hands,
arms, use of level, and facial manipulation. When a voguer dances, he or she becomes the focus
of the space. The presence and actions of the voguer are too awesome to ignore.
Voguing is born out of the subjugated; double minor Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual,
Transgendered, Black, and Latina/o Ballroom subcultural community (Bailey). Yet, voguing
showcases the extreme movement talents and creative, artistic skills of its peoples. Through
dance, voguing advocates for the recognition; and by dancing voguing is reenacting an old
history and oral, or physical tradition of the Ballroom/Ball communities. The voguer dances
through and with embodying movements and attitudes, whereby also creating and expressing the
Ballroom underground subculture. The movement phrases and aesthetics in voguing have been
passed down, and have developed in the Ball since the 1940’s. To dance vogue, means to reenact
this tradition, and bring forth this dance heritage. The voguer’s body holds within them the
memories and the evolution of the dance form. And within the context of the Ball, it
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communicates to the space, a history, and a physical unity in communities. The oral/kinetic
history of voguing is very strong, and is truly only understood through doing of the dance itself,
as dancer or participant-observer.
Since its beginning in the 1940, in the cultural explosion of New York Drag Balls and
Gay Cabaret performances, voguing’s central concern has been the delicate and powerful art and
focus of presentation of the dancing, and the glamorous body. With that, voguing invokes
intrapersonal and somatic resolution, causing the dancer to fully immerse him or herself in a
personal agency over performance, space, time, and force—a kind of profound presence through
presentation or performance of the self/body. The dance then becomes extremely engaging, in
more ways than just in, and on, the body. Voguing’s power, through the body, comes forth the in
the augmentation, dress of the body, by movement control of space. Voguing performance
quality is this effective on many levels, so much so, it has been called and labeled, nothing less
than: Fierce. In fact, this is a highly accurate description, because it does and is Fierceness. The
Ballroom culture calls this Fierceness a sort of recognizable persona or embodied aesthetic. It is
a way of acting, a way of being, presenting, performing, doing and gesturing—it is a presence
and personhood. Fierceness is also an aesthetic for those who embody “vicious, formidable,
scary, strong, bold, bright, flashy, proud, hostile, generous, forceful, and unpredictable” (Oxford
English Dictionary, House of Enigma) qualities.
The Ballroom community uses fierceness as its aesthetic, as its body attention, its
presence, and demeanor—it is a source of power which can surge through the body. When
voguing is done correctly, fierceness naturally comes, and is evoked and pulled out more by the
Ballroom participants watching and interacting with the voguer. The fierceness pushes the dance
to become chaotic and vicious, and in that way, spectacular and unpredictable. The improvisation
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composition of voguing forces the dance, with this fierce embodiment, to explore and go places
otherwise unconceivable. The Voguing dance seemingly containing its own consciousness and
ego. It then it is a force to be acknowledged, recognized, challenged and praised.
The Balls, where voguing lives, is a social event, party, festive competition, and is the
space created to allow voguing to perform in a heavy spirit of fun, community, and friendly
competition. Voguing is a dance built to motivate and inspire the Ball. In many ways, voguing
and its fierceness is the driving force for the Ball, while also, at times, being the fundamental
representation of the Ball.
The Ball and voguing have a dependant relationship: the Ball provides a space and a
competition forum for voguing, while voguing provides a great deal of excitement,
effervescence, and drive for the Ball. The purpose of this study is to investigate this relationship:
to look at the dancing body, the Ball, the Ballroom community, dance-material of voguing, and
the aesthetic qualities of fierceness in order to identify the power and source behind this
subculture. The study will investigate ‘Fierceness’ as an essential quality and aesthetic aspect of
voguing. It will investigate how “fierceness” is read and done through and with the body, in the
kinetic language of dance, and in the Ball.
Introduction to the Ball
Balls are parties, events, competitions, and community gatherings where voguing takes
place. These Balls are competitions where participants and community members, get to ‘strut
their stuff on the Runway—the central focus of the Ball. A Ball is usually set in a large
community hall of some-sorts (ex. Elks Lodge, HS gymnasium), and the Ball participants gather
around a long empty area, which is called the Runway. This space, Ball, and Runway, are used to
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hold competitions, of which there are various categories. Examples of such are Face, which is
judged on who has the best/smoothest/most attractive face, and Thug, which is judged on who
can perform the best ‘thug’ or ‘ghetto’ person on the runway; all of the categories are more or
less performance based (Bailey 127), with judgment based on who is best at their craft and art of
personal presentation. The Vogue category is based and judged on who is the best dancer, most
practiced, has the best moves, and is most fierce. The Balls, with these competitions, originated
in Harlem, New York, and now currently exist in almost every major city in the United States.
All of the Balls have similar organizational and operational structures, and are nationally
connected through the leaders and idols of the Ballroom community.
Organizations called “Houses” produce the Balls, and the Leaders of these Houses,
Mothers and Fathers, are in charge of the Ball community. These Houses (such as the House of
Ebony, Xtravaganza, Lauren, Omni, LaBeija, Ninja, et cetera) function as kinship networks for
those involved as participants in the Ball scene. Houses are families, with titles such as fathers
and mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles, princes, and princesses. Everyone in a House holds a role
and function—and in the Ball, their own category—of which the are expert. The Houses can also
provides a ‘home’ for those Black, Latina/o LGBT youth that may otherwise not have one. At
times, they are rescue operations for banished youth, from the biological families. But, more
often than not, they act as a ‘teams’ for Ball competition. As Marlon Bailey attests, in The Labor
of Diaspora, the name of any given House becomes the surname of its members so that they can
be identified as a part of the House, family, and team in the Ball. Marlon Escada, Willie Ninja,
Kevin Omni, and Devin Lauren are examples of these surnames with their identity function.
These Houses are always in a national system, and they keep the Balls consistent to its traditions
and organization. Though Balls take place in distant cities from one another, their organization
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and principals remain more of less consistent. The Houses are run by national leaders, fathers,
and mothers, and they are often always in conversation with each other about the next Ball and
how to better run a House.
The Ball, itself, is a contained Black, Latina/o and LGBT space, time, and world from the
“everyday”. These Balls can take place in a Community Centers, Gyms, or large Halls, in the late
night, commonly on Saturday. In the Ball, every House will hold a section of the runway, or
table. These sections are aligned to create an open space-divide in the room—and again this
divide is the ‘Runway’ where performances occur, and the audience watches. Sometimes, there
is an elevated runway in the middle of the room; and at the top of the runway, sits the table for
the judges. The audience includes members of the Houses and invited guests (non-House
members often attend). There exist in the Ball, the Commentator1 who performs the duties of
Master of Ceremonies for the duration of the show. And, during voguing, the commentator has
the responsibility of music beats and rhythm setting, and guidance of the voguer’s choreography
via verbal cues. Music provided in the Ball is used to give the basic beat structure to the
choreography of voguing. Voguing needs a straight beats—but invites counter melodies and
poly-rhythms as common additions—a trace-marker of vogue’s African Diasporic Musicology.
Music genres often played for voguing are house2, Ha, techno, trance, and hip-hop, and dance.
The DJ is often positioned to the side of the runway, and provides the music under the direction
of the Commentator.
1
The Commentator is usually a member of the House in charge of the Ball that night. The commentator is a nonbiased who is very knowledgeable of the Ball’s rituals, working, rules, traditions, history, and running.
2
House music holds it name because it comes from the Balls. It is the main Music played for the Ball and Voguing,
and has a very characteristic dramatic emphasis on the 4th beat of a 4/4 phrase. It often sounds like a hip-hop, techno
mix, and it very easy to dance to. It is a common dance music played in gay clubs. The most used house music used
is “The Ha’ (Luna Kahn)
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In these Balls, there are national stars, icons, and legendaries3 whom are recognized for
their amazing skill and grace in their certain Ball category; the Legendary Willie Ninja, for
example, is one of the most famous voguers to date. These people, their fame, and their
performances, can be found on various Ballroom websites, and especially on YouTube.com. The
Ballroom culture, though underground and very much an oral tradition, has utilized the
individual-user power of internet uploads to record its much of its history. Wolfgang Busch and
Jenny Livingston with How do I look and Paris is Burning, and remarkably now, Luna Kahn,
with The Luna Show on Youtube.com, are among the few ‘official’ recorded video records of the
Ballroom community.
Literature review
Currents material on the Ball and voguing have illuminated its most basic aspects.
Marlon Bailey has written about Balls and how they normally take place late at night, in
locations not widely disclosed. Dr. Bailey goes on to state that these Balls are competitive events
where other identities are performed, presented or posed. These identities are categories for
competition, derived from normalized notions, labels, and categories of people in the ‘real world’
as well as those created specifically for queer culture. These categories for competition include:
Face (best face), School boy (best look/performance of a school kid), Thug (most real
presentation of a straight gangster), Runway (best walk up and down a runway, given a theme),
Vogue (best dancer of vogue), Butch Queen up in Drag (best gay man in real life, dressed as a
woman in the ball), Femme Queen Woman Realness (best ability for a male to female
transgender person to pass as a woman, here and out in the real world), and the list goes on
(Bailey 2005). These categories allow the Ball participants to compete with each other over their
3
“to Become Legendary is like winning the Oscars at the Balls…It means you have made great contributions to the
Ball culture and your category”. It is the highest status in the Ball, next to parents of Houses.
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persona, their look, their presentation and perception of themselves—and often the performance
in the Ball has a direct relationship to their personal aesthetics and personhood in the ‘real
world’. A Thug man comes to the competition usually knowing what its like to be a “thug” in the
real world, while a Femme Queen walking (competing) in Woman Realness knows, and
embodies the troubles it is to “be” a woman (not a queer/freak Transgender) outside of the Ball
culture. Becoming, presenting, competing, and being praised as the best for focusing on who one
‘truly’ identifies themselves as, is the core of the Ball. The Ball is the space in which traditional
societal norms of “what one can be” disappear—the Ball is somewhat a haven. The
performances, the way of being, is thus safe and sheltered in the Ball—and the self, is free to
express and define itself as it pleases, somewhat unrestricted by gender or ethnicity.
Voguing, is characterized as a dance as the “site of intersection for the categories of race,
class, gender, and sexuality” (Becquer, Gatti). It is the embodiment of these intersections,
dealing and mixing what these terms can mean with its choreography. Voguing, through the
body, presents lived experiences, playing with and in the traditional notions of the intersection of
race, class, gender, and sexuality. For example, vogue uses effeminate and masculine gestures
from the African Diasporic dance and Western classical dance (such as Ballet) to create it’s
performance. Voguing flips and plays, camps, queers and quares4, the categories in a dance of
flamboyant expression of self (Johnson). The dance is an open platform to express movements
with freedom, not restricted by social norms of race, class, gender, and sexuality. A black male
can walk like a thug, then wave his hands very effeminately, pose like models, wear fashionable
and expensive clothing and be seen as something new and accepted, even if he is from a very
traditional hood/ghetto. In the ball, and through voguing, this black man is allowed to be
4
Quare: theoretical concept from E. Patrick Johnson’s Quare Studies proposal that queer moments do not exist
outside of racial and ethnic, and class contexts.
Peranda 22
fabulous however he sees fit. He can be, and dance, at these interceptions of sexuality, race,
gender, ethnicity.
In Social Choreography, Andrew Hewitt provides a framework for what dance, and
suggestively voguing do in relation to the generation, enactment, and reflection of social
structures. Hewitt suggests that dance is an “enactment of social order, rather than a reflection of
it” (Hewitt 2005). Voguing, can be seen as the enactment of the cross in the social orders of race,
class, gender, and sexuality. Voguing is the dance, this study argues, that enacts the social order
of the Ball. Voguing, through its dance framework, provides a lens to understand what the Ball
is—it in many ways is the choreography of the social order and structure of the Ball. It is a
material which can be investigated to understand more about how the Ball operates.
Understanding community through art practice, and especially dancing, has been a long
ethnographic tradition which this project about voguing will follow and expand. The Ball is a
subculture, and a counter culture, but within it there are many roots from the national US culture.
For while now, it has been know the National culture has taken trends from the Ball culture
(Luna Kahn). And interestingly enough, as this study focuses on the vogue dance as a way to
describe the ballroom community, it is also reflecting on the national, United States community.
Voguing explores the social/cultural body and fierceness through performance, but also
very much so from within the body. Ideas such as “the body”, “embodiment”, and “fierceness”,
will be referencing text and theoretical works in theater studies and performance studies. Peggy
Phelan’s controversial text Unmarked, Mark Johnson’s The Meaning of the Body, and Fiona
Buckland’s Impossible Dance, will give a basis into looking at how ‘hidden’ performances and
knowledge affects what is presented. These texts will support me as I theorize about
‘embodiment of fierceness’ that exists outside and in the voguing performance. This text will
Peranda 23
allow the theorizing of fierceness and how it may come from “memories of experiences”
(Buckland). In addition I will look to the voguer’s agency over its viewers, and how that allows
one to become a fierce object, witnessed and recognized. But also, how the voguer becomes the
fierce subject, coming out of a place to break boundaries, and gain agency over of the “haunting,
and power draining gaze of the observer” (Phelan). Mark Johnston states, that when the body and
mind is completely in synergy an embodiment occurs. A transformation and transcendence takes
place in the voguer to go somewhere else, take risk, and ignore certain “rules” of masculinity and
femininity, of dance, of safely, and reach a point of “divine”, true, natural performance. Voguing
is done with extreme joy and pleasure. In a lot of ways, voguing and fierceness, though
somewhat explainable though the theory and academic critical analysis, expands further than and
outside of the categories I am trying to draw in this study. These text, and others, will only assist
me in theorizing fierceness, so that later, this research will be used to the beginnings of a praxis.
Fierceness, The word
When I first started this project, I noticed that the word, and sometimes statement, of
“fierce” and “fierceness” were, for some reason, commonly used in the “secular queer culture”.
Television shows with high LGBT viewership, such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, Queer as Folk, and
Project Runway5, tended to use the word freely and gratuitously. It was a word to emphasize
someone’s fabulousness, awesomeness, coolness, gayness, scariness, queerness, tranny-ness,
and stupidity, all the while, more or less being a very big compliment. Countless times I would
watch Project Runway’s Christian Soriano state “ooo, girl, that is fierce” when talking about a
gorgeous model walk the runway well, or when he saw a more than wonderful item of clothing.
Soon, after his win on Project Runway, many of my own queer friends used “fierce” and THE
5
Most of these shows, the three shown as examples, emphasize queer themes and are exclusive shown on LGBT
focused networks, such as Logo.
Peranda 24
adjective to describe anything they thought posses a great, or awesome quality. As I saw this
cultural phenomenon unravel, I wanted to know more, and I questioned where the word came
from? I wanted to know more about its history and use in queer culture. It, as I observed, was a
word of great respect an endearment, but my intuition told me that there was more to it.
As I continued the project, and my study of voguing the words Fierce and Fierceness
came up consistently. It was then I realized that there is a great social significance to the word in
the Ball culture. It is multilayer and multifaceted. Fierceness is more than just an adjective of
great, hotness, awesomeness, et cetera; fierceness is culturally specific to a mode of
performance. I believe the most interesting find was that ‘Fierceness is a conversation’. Should a
fabulous person walk into the Ball, all haughty and self-confident, in whom he or she is, that
person was not fierce until someone called at him or her and said: “mmmm. Gurl, you look
Fierce”! The labeled would then agree, and acknowledges the kind complement, and would
beam with light and gratitude to be called fierce. In the Ball, if you were call fierce only once,
your self-esteem rose and kept rising; and as it rose, it was very likely that more and more people
would call you fierce. This would result in a circular pattern of self-confidence, of praise, of
fierceness. It would seem that the circular mode of communication, the labeling on Fierce, of
fierceness, is a very powerful tool of communitas used in the Ball. If one person is labeled fierce,
she or he will be more enjoyable in the social setting, and will most likely bring great joy to the
ball.
Fierceness has many more qualities to it within the Ball, and Chapter 2: Theorizing
Fierceness looks deeply into how fierceness can function in the Ball, and especially voguing.
Using the dance of vogue, chapter 2 attempts to disentangle the meaning and function of
fierceness, to clearly show it origins and uses.
Peranda 25
Timeline
Past research in Ball history has reveals some information as to the origins of the Ball,
and voguing. Most historical records of the Ball simply are broken and/or lost. However, over
the past year, this study has been able to collect enough data to complete a timeline which
describes the progression of the Ball and the practice of voguing. Main sources for this data and
information are from Paris Is Burning, Impossible Dance, House of Enigma house website,
Statements about the Ball by Kevin Omni, ‘How do I Look?’, and Gay New York.
•
1920—Harlem Renaissance. Gay Speakeasies flourish in New York City. Harlem is the
destination for many to experience the nightlife if New York City.
•
1930—Chicago’s Drag Balls start in basements of clubs. Often in the downtown area,
late at night, drag shows begin for small gay crowds of men.
•
1933—Prohibition is ended by Franklin Roosevelt.
•
1935—Chicago has underground “ethnic” Ball at Bathhouse @ 38th and Michigan. This
is the first record, as Aaron Enigma states, which any event similar to the current Ball
ideas and practices ever occurred. It is also noted that the bathhouse did not like so many
people of color there. The Ball was originally for entertainment, but slowly got out of
hand, as more and more Balls occurred. There were noise complaints and the Ball ceased
for a short while, but persisted.
•
1960’s—New York Scene adopts House System with LaBeija and Xtravaganza. In the
beginning there was only one House in New York, and the Balls that would take place
would be in opposition to the Drag Balls the white Gay males put entertained. This date
Peranda 26
is the official time, according to Peppa LaBeija and Kevin Omni, that the House were
made and there was competition in the Ball. Xtravaganza being the Latina/o House, and
LaBeija being the Black House.
•
1960—Presentation shown at City Jail (Riker’s Island). Seen as a Black Gay Popular
Dance to entertain the inmates during holidays. Presentation was the first name of
voguing. In this time, Hand Performance and Posing was extremely important to the
dance.
•
1961—Willi Ninja is born. His real name was William R. Leake, and he grew up in
Flushing.
•
1968—Willi Ninja beings to dance and his style is Performance. Presentation revived it
new name, and is now called Performance. Different variations of Performance existed.
Props were slowly allowed—vogue then was the dance, the performance, by movement,
of the beautiful self.
•
1965—the Imperial Court system created for Drag Balls, and is adopted into Ballroom
sub-cultural practices. It is still the system which is used today.
•
1970—Peppa LaBeija creates Paris is Burning Ball, and creates the Legendary title. This
Ball then becomes the most famous and well attended Ball. The Legendary title is now
the goal for anyone who participates in the Ball.
•
Late 1970’s –“Vogue” is created as the name to replace Performance. However, some
people still use the name performance to describe the art and dance.
•
1980’s vogue is recognized as a dance art and is pushed out onto the popular concert
stages. Willi Ninja starts to work with music artist, and starts his own modeling agency to
teach walking.
Peranda 27
•
Late 1980’s and 1990’s—Old Way and Old Skool, are terms used to describe the voguing
styles of the of the 1960’s, 70’s, and 80’s
•
New Way and New Skool are the terms to describe the voguing style and techniques of the
1990’s and onward. New Skool Vogue is created, which requires double joints, hyper
extensions, and hyper flexibility, and gymnastics control for it’s performance
•
1990—Vogue, by Madonna is released in March. The House of Xtravaganza has many
dancers in the Madonna company perform and dance for Madonna
•
Mid 1990’s Vogue Femme is created and is now the primary practiced form of voguing
other than Performance or Vogue Performance.
•
2006—Willi Ninja Dies of AIDS related death in September.
•
2009/10—America’s Best Dance Crew Hip-Hop contest television show allows on a
voguing team called Vogue Evolution. This Team is currently traveling across the nation
educating about voguing and the Ball subculture. Slowly, the Ball and voguing is being
seen, and is not thought of as dead.
Of gender and Voguing
Though the focus of this study is to illuminate the vogue dance, it is important to first
clarify the choreography and structures of voguing with relation to the gender queering context
of the Ball. The national six-part gender/sexuality identity system is important to note. There is:
1) Butch Queen: biologically born men, identify as gay or bisexual, are masculine, hyper
masculine, or effeminate. 2) Femme Queen: biologically male to female transgender people at
various stages of gender reassignment. 3) Butch Queen up in Drag: gay males who perform in
drag, not medical alterations. 4) Butches: biologically female to male transgender people at
various stages of gender reassignment. 5) Woman: biologically born females, identify as gay,
Peranda 28
straight, or queer. 6) Men/Trade: biologically born men, straight identified. These identities
create categories for voguing, and also produce movement qualities which direct how the
individual voguer will create his or her dance. From my observations in the Last Empire Ball, an
Ebony Butch Queen performed hard, stiff, and geometrical movements—a masculine
performance that went along with his ‘Thug’-ish identity: wearing baggy clothes, looking dirty,
with a “gangster look” about him. Another Butch Queen danced very soft, fluidly, with circular
pattern—a feminine performance which was consistent with his femme-gay identity: tight
clothes and make-up, with a ‘campy’6 look. While most Femme Queens observed performed
softly and fluidly, which was consistent to their identity of being very feminine women, in their
tight dresses, long hair, and acrylic nails. The structure and allowances in the gender identities
greatly influences how one tends to vogue.
This study finds that there are three main style and technique of voguing: “Old Way, New
Way, and Voguing Femme”7. These ways of voguing are consistent throughout the nation’s
Balls. ‘Old way’ emphasizes dramatic posing, simulating and performing model poses from
fashion magazines. This is seen throughout Paris is Burning, by Jenny Livingston. ‘New way’ is
orients itself about geometric spatial performance and extreme flexibility, focusing on sharpness
and shapes made with the body’s extremities—almost contortionist. Voguing Femme8 comes
from imitation of the identity category of Femme Queen, and is ‘mimicked’ after their
6
Camp: “a taste…a glorification of character…great degree of artifice and stylization…love of the unnatural and
exaggeration” (Sontag 65, 64, 54, 53) Camp is a sort of ‘over the top’, fabulous aesthetics taste that tends to be very
closely associated with homosexuality. See Sontag Notes on ‘CAMP’.
7
Voguing started in the late 1940’s in the prison system of New York. It was called “Presentation”, and in the
1960’s, it became “Performance”. Sometime in the 1980’s it became Vogue/Voguing. The split between ‘Old Way’
and ‘New Way’ occurred in 1989, with the new kids adding to the repertoire. ‘Vogue Femme’ was brought in
sometime in the later 1990’s. See How Do I Look by Wolfgang Busch.
8
There is also a Vogue Category within Vogue Femme called Butch Queen with a Twist or Butch Queen Vogue
Femme. In this category a person comes out looking/acting like a masculine Butch Queen, and then dances like a
Femme Queen—he vogues femme.
Peranda 29
movements: “emphasizing flow, effeminate gestures, and dramatic physical action” (House of
Lauren).
These vogue category structures, the three ways of voguing and the six gender-identity
structures, are the basis for how voguers will dance. These basics act as labels, category names
for understanding what to expect: such as “Butch Queen Vogue Old Way”. These structures give
the audience and commentator basic knowledge to interact with the voguer correctly. If a Femme
Queen is Voguing Femme, they know to look for certain elements of that style. A Femme
Queen, are expected to spin their head, and long hair, and look dizzy—while a Butch Queen with
a Twist9, needs to show diversity of masculinity and femininity in their performance. Trends in
performance produce specific interactions are also managed by a specific choreographic
language.
Voguing has “basic elements plus one’s own mixture, spin, or dazzle, everything
unique…express themselves…no securitization…the bodies change and morph” as explained to
me by twenty year Ballroom participant Overall Father Lauren. The dancers are encouraged to
bring in their own flare10, and styles of movement11, but must first stay loyal to the basic five
choreographic elements. These ‘Five Elements’ are the ‘trademarks’ of vogue, and are essential
to vogue femme. These elements are the familiar motifs12 in the dance. They are the specific
kinetic language, and keep the dance from becoming ‘something other than voguing’. These five
specific elements are the: “Arm Performance… Duckwalk/Catwalk… Hand Performance…
9
To twist is to vogue both your gender and the opposite: Butch with a twist must vogue Butch and Woman.
Flare or stylization is the appropriation of other movements into the performance of vogue. A dancer may do a
break dance back flip, and that would be his or her flare.
11
Darrel Jones, dance artist, college dance professor, and voguer explained that I a voguer usually dances vogue in
two main styles, “soft and cunty, which has an easy flow, with large arm gestures and movement, almost like
ballet…falling softly into the floor, allowing for interesting shapes”, or “Dramatic…hard and fast, and its about
speed, and doing as many dips as possible…on beat”. Styles are not always hard lined categories—though a Ball
may decide on that. But, no matter what style, it must stay in time and rhythm.
12
Motifs are simple movement patterns with the potential for development into various pieces of artwork. See
section 2, part2 of Dance Composition.
10
Peranda 30
Spins… and the Dip/Fall…” (Lauren). These elements are the choreographic required for a
vogue performance—failure to use all five should lead to disqualification.
This choreographic kinetic language directly interacts with the audience and the
commentator—to perform them entertains and surprises and allows the voguers to speak with
their body. The Arm performance draws attention to the arms as they move in geometric
patterns, or twist and bend, looking like they are about to break. The arms performance are large
movement in negative space13, stretched out to extremes and moved about the body, lead by the
core’s tiling and turning. This extreme ‘attention and space grabber’ often gets close to the
surrounding audience—causing both voguer and audience to try to avoid contact and a possible
strike. The Duckwalk is “walking like a duck; you get down in a squat, and you walk on it, on
the beat” (Father Lauren). An impressive and funny looking move, the Duckwalk has the voguer
bouncing, traveling, and stomping. This Duckwalk may transform into a ‘catwalk’: crossing
extended legs in a linearly, in a forward motion. The Hand performance is a quick movement
that focuses on the wrist, palms and fingers. The voguers move the hands in a geometric pattern
or with a flow/furry—depending categories. The hands tend to draw attention to the head and
face—but can also be used to taught by pointing out flaws in others: criticizing someone’s
moves, assumed size of genitalia, or choice of dress. At times the hand performance works with
the arms and the torso to make angular shapes and lines (Bailey 104). The voguers spin to add
spectacle; these are graceful or wild, with shapes made depending on the category. These spins
will lead into a ‘dip’ or ‘fall’, a decent backwards to a full flat position on the floor with one leg
tucked back. These falls can happen slowly or quickly, depending on the sub category—but
should always be completed on beat 4th or 8th of a musical phrase—only then will the audience
directly cheer and snap for them. These falls can look like accidents, a surprise, or a development
13
Negative space is all space around the body(ies) which is not currently occupied by the physical body(ies).
Peranda 31
into beautiful shapes on the floor. The dips/falls are usually the climaxes vogue performances or
battles; the more there are, on the beat, the higher the excitement and the energy of the Ball, it
keeping the audience and commentator ‘on their toes’.
It is important to note that the voguer is always in a conversation when dancing; there is
no simple improvisation with voguing. Voguing follows traditions African Diaspora, which
“places great importance upon improvisation” (Jackson 40) as a method for structure—but
“improvisation in black vernacular dancing requires a thorough knowledge of [most, to all black
dance] traditions and their interrelationships so that when one structures the dancing, one always
beings and end” (Jackson 42) with the particular dance’s characters steps. The voguer must be
intelligent and quick to make certain dance choices. Drawing from many other dance materials,
whether it be African or otherwise—the dancer must be sure to present the dance’s defining
characteristic: the ‘five elements’. This type of improvisation can be seen as a sort of, open score
(Halprin), or open work’, which Umberto Eco has described in The Poetic of the Open Work. He
states that open work is the “dialectics between the work of art and it’s performer…both an
interpretation and a performance…takes on a fresh perspective” on a piece of art that is “quite
literally, unfinished” (21-22). Voguing’s ‘five elements’ act as a base score for improvisation;
the ‘score’ are the rules and structure for voguing and the ‘openness’ is the improvisation.
Audience and Commentator respond by improvising their reactions off the voguer’s chosen score
sequence. In this way, voguing has a unique way of thinking through improvisation. For every
vogue performance, the score is set, and the best studied voguers, with vast knowledge of
movement patterns, flexibility, and body control, produce the greatest pieces of art in
performance. The ‘whole dance’ begins its creation by use of the five elements as a score—as
Peranda 32
the audience and commentator read the improvised-score: they move accordingly, and guide the
dancer in his score through their reactions.
Un-Conclusion
Vogue is a very popular art and dance, and though, artists have, and will likely continue
to take voguing out of the Ball, voguing will then transform as it evolves to adapts. Of course, art
is ever evolving. Madonna, with her music video Vogue, has shown us how “boring and
lame…basic and unexciting” (Busch Interview) this dance can become if put outside of its
provocative forum prematurely. The innovation in voguing, the ‘edge’, currently comes from the
ritualized ephemeral experience of the triangulated process—abstracted from that, voguing may
become ‘too structured’.
I am curious what voguing does and will do outside of the Ball. I wish to know vogue
ways of evolution, and how it also changes the ‘world’ as it floods our national US entertainment
media. Pop-star Beyonce is using voguers-choreographers for vogue-type movements in her
music videos: Get me Bodied, Single Ladies, Diva, Ego, and Sweet Dreams. “The Ball
community has always been a trend setting community” (Busch) pushing forms, and innovating
for the world. I wish to know more about the effect of the spread of voguing—what trend is
occurring, and how is it affecting the Balls? What new insights my rise as we look toward the
globalization of voguing? How may it unearth this beautiful culture?
Peranda 33
II. Theorizing Fierceness
The Use of Fierceness
“If [Willi Ninja] saw someone doing something on the dance floor that he
loved, he’d walk to them and say ‘Oooh, child, you are fierce’,” his friend
Mr. Burnett Recalled. “That was one of his highest Compliments.”
If Willi Ninja witnessed your dancing, and you were so honored to be called fierce, you
knew you have been given a very serious compliment. It was his enduring term of appreciation
for your skills and ability in the art form of dance and performance. However, this term was not
his alone, he shared its power and meaning with the whole Ballroom community. It is a word
that is commonly used and placed on those people who have achieved an “Ovah” (Busch),
amazing performance, in whatever he or she is doing—be it a competition, or just getting ready
and attending a Ball. If you attend a Ball, and you look fabulous, and you “strut your stuff”,
dance, and are generous with your attention giving and receiving, you are essentially “all that”,
“ovah”, and Fierce!
In the Ballroom world, and especially for voguing, there is more meaning to the word
and use of the term fierce, and fierceness, than the applicable adjective use of ‘just a very good
performance’ or ‘extra fabulous’ person. In the Ball, to be fierce is to be a part of a performative
conversation between performer and observer. The performer, in acting fierce, demonstrates a
performative act of “lively, strong, brave, bold, vigorous, forceful, and haughty” (Oxford English
Dictionary), it is then received by the observer, viewer, or audience and affirmed by them in the
labeling of the performer as fierce. The performer gives the observer fierceness in his or her
performance and it is affirmed, by compliment, labeling, or by an ‘awe-struck’ reaction. The then
affirmed performer, is then given great confidence by this affirmation, and will usually work
Peranda 34
harder, “werk it” (RuPaul), and try to present more qualities of fierceness—pushing it further and
further. And again, the observer reacts, and hopefully affirms the performer. This sort of
‘performance conversation’ continues and cycles and is the main function off fierceness in the
Balls.
In voguing, affirmation of one’s fierceness is very specific. The affirmation of one’s
fierceness is very gestural, and usually is attached to certain “Ball vocabulary” or slang. For
example, one of the most notable affirmations of one’s fierceness, and boldness, is the ‘Snap’
towards the performer’s Dip move—which is usually called ‘giving snaps’ (Vogue Evolution).
The ‘Dip’, sometimes called the “Sha-Bam!”, is a common movement occurrence in voguing,
and can be described as ‘a performer falls to the floor, with one leg tucked back, with the
cranium touching the floor softly on the 4th beat of a musical (or commentator’s) phrase’. An
example of this moment of fierceness and its affirmation is this (taken from notes at The Red
Ball in San Francisco, CA):
The voguer is in the center of the crowed, doing as the commentator states, his
statement. In red, with white socks, and is dressed accordingly to the themes of
The Red Ball. The commentator edges him on with “da di-da da-da da-da dance”
to a “1 and-a two-and three-and four” beat and rhythm. He vogue, with palms
flat out, creating circles around his body and in space and he catwalks forward.
On the first beat he spins left, and begins his descend to the floor. On the third
beat, he sits on the floor with one leg tucked back, still with the inertia from the
spin, he dips his head ever so softly to the floor—his dip in complete.
Simultaneously, the crowd (audience), prepares for his dip on the 3rd beat. They
raise their hands, preparing to snap towards him. And, when the 4th beat comes,
Peranda 35
the lower their hand quick and sharply to snap at the voguer on the fourth beat,
this Dip—giving the voguer his snaps. The dancer is affirmed for his abilities, and
as quickly as he was down on the floor, he spins to his left, rises, and begins the
next movements of his statement—his improvisational act of self, in voguing.
This example shows a very specific moment in the Ballroom culture, and is very specific to the
voguing category in the Ball. When the voguing category comes to the runway, it is always has
the highest energy and the most audience participation of any category. Moments of ‘the Dip’
very clearly show physical communication and affirmation of fierceness. The Dip is a very bold
movement, and it is sometimes hard not to give voguer recognition for this feat. However,
fierceness and its affirmation occur throughout the Ball, and in many other moments of
voguing—with many more layers and complexities attached to its labeling.
The meaning of Fierceness
Fierceness’ meaning in the Ball and voguing, may start with it definition Oxford English
Dictionary, however, there are more layers to its definition, which are very specific to the Ball’s
dynamics. The words and practices are sub-cultural and very specific to the Ball—fierceness in
the Ball does not posses the exact-same meaning as it does in the broader U.S. English
vocabulary context. It is as if a completely different space, or world, is been created through the
Ball. José Muñoz’s work on queer spaces and clubs, Impossible Spaces, draw a parallel example
to the experience and power of Ball. For Muñoz, the Chameleon Club was where “men forgot
about the blue-collar oppressive city they called home and imagined world where they could be
free from shame and embarrassment” (427). Though Muñoz writes about queer clubs, his
analysis of queer spaces is congruent with Ball spaces, because in both cases, these spaces posses
a luminality between queer and ‘normalized’ culture. Muñoz writes that Chameleon Club, during
Peranda 36
the day, is controlled by the white heterosexual majority, and is a ‘normalized’ space. However,
in the late night, homosexual men ‘make it their own’, and through a simple doorway, one can
see a completely different society of people take possession of the space. Men interact with men
in a sexual manner; and words, slang are stated that would never be seen by the space otherwise.
The Ball acts in the same fashion. Balls tend to take over commonly used ‘normalized’ spaces
such as high school gymnasiums, community centers, and private community centers (ex. Elk’s
lodges), and make these spaces queer. The languages and practices of the Ball remain kept and
stored for the Ball, and are rarely seen outside the Ball’s space. However, the participants of the
Ball are ‘everyday people’, and thus, there does exist a fluidity in languages and practices
between the Ball world, the Queer worlds, and the ‘normalized’ larger US context. Yet, there is
specificity in the sub-cultural practices—the Ball space is a world of its own because there exist
specificity.
The majority of the Ball participants identify as LGBT, but also do come from the
Latina/o and Black ethnic and racial context—and thus, many of the expressions, languages, and
practices are rooted in these ethnic and racial communities. It is because of this, it is appropriate
to describe the Ball space not only a queer space, but as a ‘Quare’ space—with Quare Language
and Quare practices. The idea of ‘Quare practices and spaces’ comes from E. Patrick Johnson
and his article “Quare” Studies, or (almost) Everything I know about Queer Studies I learned
from my Grandmother. In E. Patrick Johnson’s work, he proposes that “Quare studies grant
space for marginalized individuals to enact “racial black subjectivity” by adopting both/and
posture of disidentification14” (13), which is something queer studies, or the use of the term
14
“Disidentification is [a] mode of dealing with dominates ideology, one that neither opts to assimilate within such a
structure nor strictly oppose it; rather, disidentification is a strategy that works on and against dominate ideology…
It is a strategy that tries to transform a cultural logic from within, always laboring to enact permanent structural
change while at the same time valuing the importance of local and everyday struggles of resistance ” ( Muñoz 11)
Peranda 37
‘queer’, has no ability. For Johnson there is “a gap in queer studies between theory and practice,
performance and performativity… [and] quare studies can narrow that gap to the extent it
pursues an epistemology rooted in the body15” (9). Queer studies, and the term queer, therefore is
not strong enough of a term for use on people and practices that are rooted in ethnic or racial
communities. Nikki Sullivan, in A Critical Introduction to Queer Theory, agrees with this
statement with her support of Gloria Anzaldúa’s viewpoint that “Queer is used as a false
unifying umbrella which all ‘queers’ of all races, ethnicities and classes are shoved under…it
homogenizes, erases, our differences” (44). Thus, the term Quare is more than appropriate for as
a description of the space in which the Ball exists.
In using the term Quare to describe the Ball space as a Quare space, this study is
careful to identify that its reasoning for this labeling is the fact that the Ball’s practices come
from Queer, and Black and/or Latina/o People—also called ‘Queer People of Color’16. The
practices of these people are simultaneously specific to their racial, ethnic, and sexual-orientation
communities. A space, for a Ball, is therefore not only queered, but quared. Thus, the term and
use of Fierceness in the Ball, is not only queered, but quared. It is this that lends this study to call
all fierceness in the Ball, not any type of ‘fierceness’, but a Quare-Fierceness. Fierceness in the
Ball therefore lends itself to posses more meaning and significance than the Oxford English
Dictionary would allow. The meaning of fierceness can be, and is, special to the Ball world. In
the Ball, as E. Patrick Johnson proposes of quare studies, there is a specific praxis to the use of
the term fierceness in the quare Ball space. When fierceness is used in the Ball, it indicates a
15
Body here is use as phenotypical knowledge, as flesh, as memory, as history to one’s race, ethnicity, sexuality,
and as cultural practices and community.
16
The use of the term ‘Queer People of Color’ currently has many political discrepancies, and will not be a term
used throughout this paper. It is used here as a reminder, that though the Ball culture is heavily practice by Black
and Latina/o peoples, there exist other races and ethnicities in the Ball as well. Practices, however, remain specific
to one’s own culture and background. And, all those who are not Black or Latina/o are very much in the minority at
Balls.
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specific queering of the “lively, strong, brave, bold, vigorous, forceful, and haughty” (Oxford
English Dictionary) qualities of fierceness, to specific ethnic and racial peoples. In this way, the
practice of the ‘fierceness discussion’ instantly quares the subject and the viewer.
The question remains, how and when the ‘discussion/labeling of fierceness’ is used, and
how specifically does it quare. From the data collected in this study, it is recognized that the
labeling of fierceness tends to be placed upon those who exhibit expert fluidity in performativity,
performance qualities, and gestures of masculinity and femininity. However, the fierceness
recognize and labeled is not simply the queering of one’s performativity, performance quality,
and gesture—it is not simply given to a man with feminine attributes—it is given to the man who
is specific with his ‘gender performativity queering’ to race and ethnicity. In other words, a
black man is not queering himself to be fierce, but he is quareing himself—he is not acting like a
woman, but he is acting like a black woman. A Latina woman who possesses great fierceness, is
not acting like a man, she is performing and taking from the performativity repertoire of a Latino
male. Quare fierceness, and in the Ball, simply fierceness, cannot be generalized; it is specific to
a person’s history, ethnicity, sexuality, race, flesh and body. Quare fierceness is playing with
gender and sexuality on the individual level, from within, and fully understanding one’s agency
over the queering of his or her body. Attaching the label of fierceness to someone, within the
Ball context, then, has very deep and strong significance and meaning. It is thus only attached to
a person when he or she displays strong agency over his or her quare fierceness.
Now that the use and meaning of fierceness in the Ball is defined, voguing’s ‘Dip’
indicates many more meanings an attributes than just a bold and athletic feat—as it was
described earlier in this chapter. In fact, anytime a voguing display is called fierce, there is an
indication to multilayered quare fierceness in the choreographic development of one’s voguing.
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Wili Ninja’s labeling and recognition of one’s fierceness was reserved for the best—because for
him, the best had control, and fluidity in one’s voguing and or dancing. For Wili Ninja,
recognizing fierceness in one’s voguing meant that the voguer knew how to manipulate his or
her body, in a way that made sense to his or herself. To be fierce in voguing, one has to have a
great sense of identity and control of one’s self and body. Interestingly enough, this is what
voguing is rooted in: knowledge and control of one’s identity, body, and self, thereby effectively
expressing one’s personhood through movement—this is fierceness. Voguing’s fierceness comes
from within, and is recognized and labeled from without. The cycle works and continues to
produce the dance of voguing. However, we mustn’t forget that voguing is quare, and rooted in
the Ball. Voguing fierceness is a quare fierceness and thus ones “knowledge and control of one’s
identity, body, and self, thereby effectively expressing one’s personhood through movement”
must be quare. The practitioners of voguing are primarily Black and Latina/o LGBT people, and
thus, their bodies, their identities, and their personhoods have a very specific commonality,
which has produced the specificity in technique of voguing. The choreographic language has
thereby been developed by a quare fierceness. Thus, the ‘Dip’ indicates a quare history, identity,
and idea; and that is fierce.
In order to investigate these ideas of fierceness further, one must investigate the
choreographic language of voguing. The ‘Dip’, though a popular movement choice in voguing, is
not the only movement recognized with voguing, and it is not the only fierce movement in the
technique. Voguing is built off many sources of information which makes its dance, while also
containing three fundamental aspects. First of all, as it has been stated before, voguing is an
improvisational dance form, thus, its movement ‘vocabulary’ and ‘structure’ is variable. Its
composition if ‘moment based’ and is very free. Second, though voguing is improvisational, it is
Peranda 40
also rooted in the African Diasporic dance—of which, many are also improvisational (Drewal).
This study goes further to include the Latin dances as a part of vogue’s roots. Voguing carries
with it many of echoes form these dance forms—which restricts, to a degree, what is allowably
called voguing, to these two cannons. It is not simply improvisation, but an improvisational
dance based in certain traditions. Third, voguing is a quare dance, which is build off the
fierceness of the individual voguer’s identity. Thus, the queering of the Black and Latin dance
cannons, with respect to one’s individual identity, is the fundamental make up of the movement
vocabulary and structure of voguing. These three aspects of voguing, lends this study to call
voguing to be, and contain, an embodied fierceness. An exhibit of voguing’s embodied fierceness
can be shown through notes taken from the Where Is The Love Ball, in Oakland CA:
Mother Revlon was fabulous, but more that that, Ovah and Amazing! She was
Fierce, and embodied everything a Femme Queen should. In her voguing, she
Vogued Femme, and her movements were clear and flawless. Her hands and nails
moved like sparkles in the sky, with wrist twisting all which ways, so dainty and
lovely. Around her head and body, she displayed herself with her hands. In boots,
with high heels, she walked, danced, and flew across the runway. Her brown and
cherry hair whipped in space. In her black, tight jean pants, she was ready to take
on anything. Her arms flew out in spins, and her duckwalks were light and fluffy.
She showed her teeth, both in glare, and in a smile to a kiss. She would spin with
legs out at attitudes, and Dip to the floor; I thought she would break herself.
However, in the end of the competition, for the goal, for the win, Mother Revlon
ran to the judges table, and with all fierceness and might, she spun and dipped on
the table, and broke it in half. As easily as she dipped, she got up and vogued
Peranda 41
away down the runway, catwalking and vogue-beating. The crowed cheered, and
the energy rose to tremendous heights! People were snapping and calling her
fierce left and right. “High fives” were given to her every which way, as gratitude
for her fierceness. And she, so proud, just skipped and catwalked around the
runway, beaming in her victory and display of voguing skills. She was fierce,
deadly, and strong. She was a voguer, not to be messed with by the
inexperienced.17
Here we see Mother Revlon, of the House of Revlon, in Oakland, California, and how
she displayed her might in voguing. She was a Femme Queen, but a mature one at that—
a Mother. Thus, she was a full woman when these notes were taken—though at one time,
she was a little boy. She was a quare body, black and beautiful, dancing the dance that
was meant for her quare body: Vogue Femme. The movements lent themselves to be
feminine, but with a force that was fully masculine. In Vogue Femme, she could use all
histories, all parts, all memories, and her embodiment to create her dance—and this was
fierce. She was an expert, expressing who she was, by the comfortable and familiar art of
voguing. Her dance vocabulary was clear, she was bold, wild, proud, and in control of
what she was doing—a perfect improvisation. There was almost no competition, she was
fierce, and her performance of her quare fierceness was the focus of the runway. And, it
is this, her quare fierceness, which is most important to the study of voguing and
embodied fierceness. Mother Revlon brought with her, in her dancing, a fierceness in
voguing that has been described in other dancers as a “hypermasculine take on
femininity” (Jones). She was a warrior, but delicate and precise with her soft touch. She
was, in her dancing, invoking herself—the Femme Queen. She was creating, through her
17
The Glossary is suggested for the reading of this except. Much ‘Ball Language’ is used in this example.
Peranda 42
voguing, the combination of the movement histories, memories, and repertoires of Black
male dancing which can be “hard, forceful, and energetic”, and Black female dancing
which can be “cool, fluid, contained, and delicate” (Drewal 123). She was a warrior, she
was a mother; she was powerful, and she was soft and giving. She was a quare body,
embodying, through voguing, a quare fierceness.
Voguing’s Embodied Fierceness
Embodiment is essential to voguing, because it is the way in which quare fierceness is
transformed into the dance of vogue. Susan Leigh Foster describes improvisation, in Taken By
Surprise: a Dance Improvisation Reader, to be when a dancer “tacks back and forth between the
known and unknown, between the familiar/reliable, and the unanticipated/unpredictable” (3) to
create his or her dance. When improvisation occurs, the dancer knows more or less what he or
she is going to do in the beginning, there does exist a vague idea. However, as the dance is
performed, and created, the dancer learns what the body wishes to do, what it can do, and what is
unable to do. Post-Modern dance artist Ralph Lemon calls this “movement research”—learning
about the body, and of course oneself, as he or she improvises. To start an improvisation is to
start with a movement, and go to the next, without a set plan or pathway—only discovery awaits
in this process. However, Foster, goes on to state that “all body articulation is mindful, [and]
improvisation pivots both mind and body into a new apprehension of rationalities” (Foster 6-7).
And, it is this point that is most significant to voguing, because it address the fact that
improvisation is not all ‘new discovery’, but that the movements comes form a mindfulness
rooted in the body. In other words, improvisation is a way to ‘unearth’ the dance that the body
already posses. And, it is the idea of embodiment, which allows improvisation to take place, by
use of the “conscious mind” and “conscious body” (Johnson).
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Embodiment, as this study uses it, is taken from philosopher Mark Johnson and his book:
The Meaning of the Body. In this work he rejects the mind/body separation, the exclusion and
hierarchy of knowledge of the mind over the body, and calls for all knowledge to be embodied.
He argues that all meanings, experiences, and knowledge should be seen as embodied. He goes
on to say that with the “body-mind [embodiment], meaning grows out of our organic transactions
with our environment” (Johnson 15) and with what is already there within us. As we grow, from
childhood infancy, to adulthood, we experience the world, not through out conscious mind alone,
but with our body simultaneously. We do not only learn to move our bodies by the autonomic
responses of the body, but also by the mind and the knowledge of ‘feeling’ an ‘intuition’. As we
grow, he argues, our learning is an embodied experience. And, it is this embodied experience,
this pool of knowledge left in the flesh and stored in the memory of the mind, improvisation
accesses. “All body articulation [and movement] is mindful” (Foster 6) because it comes from a
mind and unity in the body: embodiment. Johnson goes on to explain that there is a “continuity
that exist between out mostly non-conscious experience of embodiment meaning and out
seemingly disembodied acts of thinking and reasoning” (Johnson 31) to emphasize the idea that
the “mind” and the “body” are always in conversation. As we think a thought, our body
remembers, recalls and reacts. As we dance a movement, our mind recognizes, analyzes, and
labels. Continuity exists between the mind and body, and this is the idea of behind embodiment
thinking, process, and creation.
When a voguer dances, and creates the dance of voguing, through improvisation, he or
she is tapping into his or her embodied knowledge of quare fierceness. To create the dance of
vogue, ‘on spot’ and ‘in the moment’ means to gather movement material quickly and with great
fluidity and control. To dance vogue, as in some other African dance forms, such as early
Peranda 44
American Jazz dance, the dancer must be well versed and practiced in the form. The dancer’s
mind and body must have sufficient embodied knowledge of the form required to be able to
recall movements, recall the knowledge, recall and create the dance with clarity and coherency.
Thus the voguer must have an experience with voguing, in order to create the dance. And, the
voguer must have experience with quare fierceness in order to create the dance. However, this
study find that to innovate within the dance, to find more material and create ‘new’ movements
and phrases, the voguer must recall upon his or her quare fierceness, located in his or her
embodied knowledge/experiences. The “theory of the flesh” (E. Patrick Johnson 9), which is the
theory that a person has knowledge within one’s skin, bone, blood, body and self is useful here—
and parallels itself with Mark Johnson’s idea of embodiment. When a voguer is creating the
dance of vogue, he or she is not only pulling from the knowledge of seeing voguing, but pulling
from within. A black boy voguing is going to pull not only from his voguing peers, but from
movement gestures, performativity, and repertoire his black mother, sisters, brothers, and father.
The black boy voguing with pull and play with African American dances he was taught, and play
with female and male roles, gestures, and movements—he will quare his dance. And, with the
self knowledge of who he is, and what he is, he will create a vogue dance out of this quare
fierceness. This embodied fierceness is the knowledge and control of one’s identity, body, and
self. And, with quare manipulation of the ethnic and racial dance material, this embodied
fierceness, of the Ball, thereby effectively expressing one’s personhood through movement. And,
it is this that can be seen as and labeled voguing. It is then this study’s finding, that voguing is
the improvisational embodiment of the quare fierceness of the Ball subculture/scene. In other
words, Voguing is the result, the by product, of expressing one’s quare fierceness through
movement.
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There are however, problems with the statement that “Voguing is the result, of expressing
one’s quare fierceness through movement”, because there exist a specific quare vocabulary and
technique. This understanding of voguing, and its embodied quare fierceness, is shown by this
study, as the root of the dance of vogue. That is to say, that is not all voguing is. One cannot
walk the runway, and access his or her quare fierceness, move and dance, and expect what he or
she is doing is voguing. Certain movements are emphasizing in voguing. This study simply finds
that the movements emphasized and created in voguing are rooted in a certain embodiment of
quare fierceness. The question now remains, what is the technique, and what is noticeably
voguing.
The Technique behind Vogue’s Fierceness
The dance of vogue has very specific techniques, which themselves are very quare. It has
a lot of movements have to do with dainty hand, presentation of one’s face and body, catwalking,
spinning, ‘Dipping’, bending and shaping the arms, moving the hands in a furry, hitting the space
and floor hard, running quickly, holding a strong line in the torso, and enticing the viewer.
Effectively, a voguer is dancing a dance which combines the movement, gestures, and
performativity of Black and Latina/o women and men, runway models, superstar, and mundane
community members. Voguing is a mash up of all of this, but always adhering to it quare roots
and embodied fierceness. In voguing, every movement is a quareing of dance cannon or
movement gesture. And, the voguer’s fierceness is created by the performer self-identity in
voguing.
Essentially, fierceness is a body attitude or aesthetic, which acts as source or seed in
voguing, for the improvisation of voguing. With all the quare movement vocabulary of voguing,
one must only look to his or her quare embodiment knowledge, his or her fierceness, to do
Peranda 46
voguing effectively. One can snap, pop, Duckwalk, Dip, Catwalk, spin, stretch arms, use hand
performance, flourish the hands, and give face as much as he or she wants, but if there is no
quare fierceness, if there is no quare attitude, or playing with the “vigorous, forceful, and
haughty” (Oxford English Dictionary) gestures of Black and Latina/o men and women, it is not
voguing. The dance of vogue, as an African and Latina/o dance, requires the dance attitude
(Royce 55), the embodiment of fierceness to be present in order to be authentic voguing.
Willi Ninja, with his labeling of fierceness on voguer was not done lightly, and it is not
does so now in the Ball world. Though there is a technique of voguing, there is the Duckwalk
and Dip, it is not good voguing until it is fierce, until something is invoked, summoned, and
given to the audience. Mother Revlon gave expertise and surprise. The voguer at the Red Ball
gave clarity and precision of beat. Both were expressing themselves and the dance of vogue with
practice, self identity, and love. They were having fun, and going who they are as quare people
in a quare space. They were fierce, and deserved that label. Their dance was undoubtedly
voguing, because they embodied the quare fierceness with their performance. Fierceness is the
root and the goal of all vogue dancing. Fierceness is the ultimate embodiment for the Ball. It is
self knowledge and expression, and in that, self worth and pride—for oneself, and the Ball
community.
Peranda 47
III. Artistic Praxis of Voguing
“Praxis: Brit. / praks s/, U.S. / præks s/
1. a. Action or practice; spec. the practice or exercise of a technical subject or art, as distinct from the
theory of it; (also) accepted or habitual practice or custom.
b. Conscious, willed action, esp. (in Marxist and neo-Marxist thought) that through which theory or
philosophy is transformed into practical social activity; the synthesis of theory and practice seen as a basis
for or condition of political and economic change. Also: an instance of this; the application of a theory or
philosophy to a practical political, social, etc., activity or program.
d. Action entailed, required, or produced by a theory, or by particular circumstances.
e. The performance of voluntary or skilful actions; purposive movement.
2. b. A means or instrument of practice or exercise in a subject; a working model.”
(Oxford English Dictionary)
The Artist-Scholar-Researcher
One of the main goals of this project was to investigate a method with which to work
with the material of voguing that wasn’t in a traditional sense academic, and yet could still be
called research; still be a way to find knowledge, and report on it. For dance, the easiest solution
is to dance. Working and experiencing the material of the dance itself, brings to the researcher a
whole new set of knowledge and understanding with which to work and report. However, simply
dancing vogue was not enough for this project—simply performing the act voguing, making
movement art with my body was insufficient. The project needed more, a deeper investigation
into the dance. And thus, The Voguette was created as choreographic venture to delve deep into
the working of voguing, by artistic creation.
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I wished to find out more about voguing, and what it felt like inside different bodies. I
needed the opinions and experience of others, as they vogued. I needed to use my theory and
work from investigating voguing as an academic, and I needed to experiment with its praxis. As
an artist, as a person needing to work with the creative process to gain insight, I needed to work
in voguing. Using my body, my individuality, the bodies of others, and their individuality—
while in our unity of collaboration for the piece. The Voguette then is somewhat an experiment
while also being a show. Both investigating for new knowledge and showing and pushing the
bounders of voguing.
“The artist as researcher” is a quotation I have often heard from my dance teachers, most
notably Ralph Lemon. I think it speaks deeply to ‘The Voguette’ part of this study. It states to me
that, as an artist, I do a type of research in order to make my work. The craft of art-making then
is not about creation, but investigation, “digging up your story” (Moraga), and finding the work,
and what the work is about and focuses upon. And so for this piece, I asked myself: “what else
can I learn from embodying voguing and fierceness, what did I miss in my research, how else
can I learn to describe voguing, how else does individuality and improvisation work, what is
necessary to work with voguing, and how can voguing be pushed more?”. These questions
guided the creation of The Voguette and its investigation of fierceness.
Like some experimental theater, I wanted to see what happened if I did something new on
stage. I wanted to use the theater’s space as an experimental playground, and play with
everything I learned, putting theory into praxis. I was a need of mine, and thankfully it has
yielded great benefits for this project. Art Study and Praxis really do go ‘hand in hand’.
This chapter is called Praxis, and is defined above to show what has orientated my mind.
In a way, I followed the definition closely. The chapter itself is not like the previous parts of this
Peranda 49
document. Rather, this section is a mash up, a description, a retelling of my journey through the
creation of The Voguette. The chapter is sometimes a description, sometimes a story, sometimes
a critique, and sometimes a random score. It is best described as evidence, residue, or raw data.
However, I feel it is important to include in this complete document, for it tells some very
personal information that is pertinent to my understanding and telling of fierceness, voguing, and
ballroom culture.
The Organic Voice
I want an organic voice in my work. I do not want to pre-plan my work, pre-choreograph,
and then present it on my dancers. I do not want to have a defined vision. I want to find the
Voguette. I want to search inside myself and find the dance piece I have always been looking for.
Also, I hate speaking and writing with prepositions at the end of my sentences. Please
excuse them. But sometimes, they seem right in a situation. Sometimes, the oddest things for a
certain genre are what make a piece of work so special. Or at least I have learned that here at
Stanford.
I have been here at Stanford for about four years, and I have learned a great deal about
dance and its creation. Though, I have been a dancer ever since I was a young boy, I was always
a scientist at heart. I liked hard facts, I liked patterns, and I liked solid ideas and things. For the
most part, I am a chemist—patterns, math, physics, and chaos are the subject I love best.
And with chemistry, comes the lab, comes the experiment. And, with these aspects of
chemistry and its scientific methodology, comes the ‘exploration through research’.
When I worked in a chemistry lab, as a freshman at Stanford, I worked to explore, and
exploit, the biosynthetic machinery behind the creation of the carbohydrates which surround
cells. I worked hard, experiment after experiment, digging deeper, and investigating further to
Peranda 50
find all the knowledge the cells and the chemicals could tell me. I dug to find the knowledge
which was always there, just not necessarily ‘known’ to us. I researched, found ‘new’
knowledge, and presented it in a paper, and a presentation.
Making art can be like this research too. Looking deep, and finding the piece that was
always there. As I dance, and work with my material, I create. I learn more about me and my
subject.
The Voguette is a dance, is also a research project. Its aim is to look at FIERCENESS
through the dance technique of voguing, and through the art of choreography. With the help of
my dancers, I hope to find out what ‘fierceness’ means. It is a word used by the Ballroom
community, and very much in use by the gay community—it is sough after as a compliment and
a goal. This word, this quality, this adjective and sometimes noun is something that transforms
the body. When I ask my dancers to be fierce, their spines change, their smiles turn to smirks,
and they become please in, and about, themselves.
How do I capture fierceness? How can I understand it? I believe the answer is through the
organic voice; through the “research”, or rather the investigation, or rather the creation of art, my
dance.
The Voguette, as a dance piece, is unlike any other. It will be based in my organic tissue,
my organic movements, and at the same time, be in complete conversation with my dancers. I
will be working with my queer club dance, my quare ideas, my Aztec dance, my ballet, my
modern dance, my post-modern dance, my Indian classical dance, my ‘performance and
performativity’ (Butler), and my voguing to create the work. Movement will be my langue and
my tool to investigate fierceness—my dancers will be my subjects—and the work will be the
result.
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But, how do I make a piece organically?
For this work, I need a structure. I need something to spark the work. I know my focus
will be fierceness, and from that idea, I will create movement and the work. But, there needs to
be a greater complexity. Sixty minutes of fierceness induced movement maybe too much. There
needs to be more, more structure.
For the structure of the work, I have chosen memories, consciousness, and wonder. In
talking to my dancers, in conversation with them about the ballroom world and fierceness, we
brainstormed words and ideas. These ideas and words sprout out scenarios and memories for
each of us, and with this ‘inspiration’ we began to create scenes. I was the leader in all of this.
And, as the choreographer, I worked all of this raw-organic-brainstorm material into pools, into
scenes, into a flow, and into a score for the Voguette. This is what had to be done. Each scene
with its own purpose, and own idea. Each one attached to a memory, linked to the Ball.
The second act was determined to be improvisation. There is a loose score, but it is
mostly improvisation. For, what is more organic than improvisation? We will re-create a Ball in
this act, in this second part, and through the dancing, through the ontology of fierceness, a
performance; a final result of all of our work and research will be presented.
The organic voice will speak in new ways. It will tell stories. And we, as artist, our
mission is to help that voice through our research; help the voice and find work, the information,
the art, the Voguette.
Dance Laboratory—Halprin and Lemon
Investigation. Dance is an investigation, of the flesh and the body.
Dance is a way to experiment. The studio is a laboratory, where we as artists work to find
the work and create the best and most beautiful things we can.
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The studio is a sacred place.
It is out home and where we work.
Anything can be a studio. Anyone can be a dance. They need only breathe and listen. Be
alive and learn what is being taught.
As we make mistakes, we learn form them. As we make successful feats, we watch and
repeat.
Dance is an investigation of the body and what is already there. There need not be more.
You dance is already inside you, and inside your flesh and bones. There is history in you DNA.
There is history in who you are. You just need to access it.
Use dance and improvisation to investigate, to find, to research, and you will discover
great things. Dance will be your lab, in the space of the studio, and you will be the subject.
Have a goal in mind, write a score, and go.
RSVP: Resources, Score, Valuation, Performance. This is a score that will help guide all
experiments and research in any creative process. For dance, our resource is space, time and the
body. For voguing, our score are the movement, fierceness, and house or Ha music. Record and
score again what you learned in your dancing. Continue the process. Create the performance and
go!
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Then, after all that is done, relook at what you have created. Consider its value. Score its
power and effects. Recount your resource. Then as cycles do, go on to the next project.
**This is the methodology used to create the dance. It is praxis and theory together. It is how the
Voguette’s choreography began.
The Breath and the Body18
The body is breathing.
That is life.
Movement shows breath.
Dance is the breathe made visible.
As long as you breathe, you can dance.
All my dance starts with the breath…
The Audition
I posted an add for dancers to come to my audition, and I had no idea what to expect…..
What is Fierceness?
I asked my dancers what this mean to them, and they were not to quick to respond…
Male and Female dynamics with embodiment of fierceness
I saw it one day. Fierceness as I had seen it in the Ball. It was true what Darrell Jones
said, it is hypermasculine with femininity—but something else too…
Internal exploration (PVP)
The dancers need to investigate themselves, and see themselves. It was today that I was
going to make them into artists for themselves…
18
From here on and after, I have only provided small parts of these sections. These moments of praxis, I was not
ready to share them in my thesis. However, I think it is important to display some of the work. I did. And some of
what I was thinking and doing.
Peranda 54
Character Formation and the performer’s psyche
The dancers knew where they were. And they understood their fierceness. Now, they
needed to create their avatars, their characters for the Voguette...
Learning to dance, the dance, and the great physical commands
Logan told me this would happen. The dancers were not strong enough. And so, simple
solution: increase the intensity. It is true, voguing takes a lot of power to make it happen, it is a
highly physically demanding dance. I guess when you boarder so many tradition, and the dance
is so amazing and spectacular, there needs to be a lot of energy given to the work…
Questioning learning methods of the internet
I started with my investigation of voguing via the internet. But, I am not sure that is the
best way. Yes there is a lot of voguing material on the internet, but the true joy, the true stuff for
me, comes form its liveliness…
The Creation of a dance Company
It was time to name ourselves. And we came up with many ideas…. Language was not a
problem, and then sometimes it was…. We called ourselves the House of Vindiction Dance
Company.
Father Lauren’s claim
Father Lauren did not like me creating a pseudo house. He said it still needed to be under
the House of Lauren. And so, I changed our title to be The House of Lauren Vindiction Dance
Company…
Performativity
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Okay.
More.
I need more face.
Fierce.
Perform for me.
I said werk it.
What are you trying to be?
Embody yourself.
What are you quareing?
Quare it more!!!
Competition
It was time to battle each other…I was scared….were my dancers read?
The Runway
The runway is the center. It is everything. Walking—now there is power.
Dance as a gift, and the anthropologist’s concern
The Voguette is my gift to the ball community…or is it the appropriation of a culture for
the use of my own work?
But wait. I am a dancer in the House of Lauren. I am in the community.
Art form the Heart
I finally understand what art form the Hear means. It is about diversity and love of
oneself, it is fierceness.
Going to the Ball
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I decided to take the company to a Ball. They were more than excited….they behaved
well and had a great time. I think it was really beneficial for them.
Production time schedule
Logan had a countdown for me...and it was getting scary. But, as long as we kept to the
score, I was fine.
Realization of the native queer self in the work, voguing and rationalization
So as it turns out, I am native. I am bisexual. And, the Voguette is going to looking like a
quare native made the work. I wonder who will catch all the troupes…
The gift of the dance to each other
Walk for me
Dance for me
This is for us
This is for us
Choreographic process, collaboration, and organic process
I have to say, this was interesting….I made so much of the work, and I can dance any
part, yet, at the same time, I was making the work as we were together. I had a vision, but
making that vision into a reality took everyone’s help.
Conclusion
The journey into culture, myself, and peoples.
Writing a history and a pedagogy.
This Voguette was more than I thought it would be. It was amazing. The research was
amazing. There is so much to still be done. Post-performance now, I am still not off the high of
the work everyone calls amazing.
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What did I create?
How do I begin my Valuation?
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IV. Score of The Voguette
The Voguette: “Werk It on the Runway!”
Pre Show—The Palace
The dancers/performers should be getting ready in the dressing room. The House manager
should be securing the area and keeping time. There should be two large people acting as
security Guards; scaring the attendees while making them feel safe. A random Drag queen is
desired, for affect/atmosphere, but is not required
Once the house is open, and people enter the theater space, there should be Baroque Music
playing. The stage should be open, and chandelles should be well lit. The runway, the only item
on the ground for the whole production, should be very viable. “The Curtain” should never
shroud the stage.
This should be a new world for the Audience. It is a Quare world. The theater should be blessed
by a dance beforehand, and the atmosphere should be calming.
The stage is stark and ready for movement.
Act I
Do You Remember a Memory of Dance and Voguing? What of Life in the Ball?
Opening Statement for the Voguette, said to audience by Devin Lauren
“Hello and Welcome. I am Cuauhtémoc Peranda, and I do hope you have a great time at this
event.
This is my senior Project for CSRE and IDA. It is my experiment with Voguing, Identity, and
Fieriness on stage. It is Art, it is Academic, it is a part of me, and my way, a way, of sharing my
research with all of you. It has been a tough process and project, but I think I have produced for
you all, something wonderful.
Please note that this project is a part of the Ball Scene. I am Prince Devin Lauren, and thus, this
project is a part of the Legendary House of Lauren.
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Now, Please feel free to interact with the performance with positive comments, when you feel
they are appropriate. There are some parts that need your support and laughter, and some parts
where it is important to listen and watch closely. You be the judge of what is appropriate.
Please note there are strobe lights, Strobe lights, so please plan accordingly.
There is profanity in this production, so please review the glossary and plan accordingly.
There is no filming or photography of this production, without the consent of me!
Please turn off all Cell Phone and Beepers
No food or drink!
Thank you and enjoy the show!”
Scene: Madonna Vogue
Group piece—all dancers
This serves as introduction to the whole work. It is a reference point in time and space.
As whole group piece, the performers enter and set themselves on the floor in constellations.
As the music starts, they rise, and then pose.
They turn as if on a dial, to be looked at, and admired.
For the majority of the piece the do runway walks in different “realness” categories.
When Madonna calls upon the celebrities in the song, the dancers form a circle around a FemmeQueen, as if to bless her.
The dance ends in current day Voguing, Face, and Luscious Body work, ending complete in a
pose.
The scene follows directly into the next, seamlessly.
Song: Vogue, by Madonna
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Text:
Vogue, vogue
Vogue, vogue
Go with the flow
Go with the flow
Come on, vogue
Let your body move to the music, hey, hey, hey
Come on, vogue
Let your body go with the flow, you know, you can do it
Look around everywhere you turn is heartache
It's everywhere that you go
You try everything you can to escape
The pain of life that you know
When all else fails and you long to be
Something better than you are today
I know a place where you can get away
It's called a dance floor, and here's what it's for, so
Come on, vogue
Let your body move to the music, hey, hey, hey
Come on, vogue
Let your body go with the flow, you know you can do it
All you need is your own imagination
So use it that's what it's for
Go inside, for your finest inspiration
Your dreams will open the door
It makes no difference if you're black or white
If you're a boy or a girl
If the music's pumping, it will give you new life
You're a superstar, yes, that's what you are, you know it
Come on, vogue
Let your body groove to the music, hey, hey, hey
Come on, vogue
Let your body go with the flow, you know you can do it
Come on, vogue
Let your body go with the flow, you know you can do it
Beauty's where you find it
Not just where you bump and grind it
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Soul is in the musical
That's where I feel so beautiful
Magical, life's a ball
So get up on the dance floor
Come on, vogue
Let your body groove to the music, hey, hey, hey
Come on, vogue
Let your body go with the flow, you know you can do it
Vogue, vogue
Vogue, vogue
A pose
A pose
Vogue, vogue
Vogue, vogue
Beauty's where you find it
Move to the music
Vogue, vogue
Beauty's where you find it
Go with the flow
Greta Garbo and Monroe
Deitrich and DiMaggio
Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean
On the cover of a magazine
Grace Kelly, Harlow, Jean
Picture of a beauty queen
Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire
Ginger Rogers, dance on air
They had style, they had grace
Rita Hayworth gave good face
Lauren, Katherine, Lana too
Bette Davis, we love you
Ladies with an attitude
Fellows that were in the mood
Don't just stand there, let's get to it
Strike a pose, there's nothing to it
Vogue, vogue
Vogue, vogue
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Let your body move to the music
Ooh, you've got to just
Let your body go with the flow
Ooh, you've got to
Let your body move to the music
Ooh, you've got to just
Let your body go with the flow
Ooh, you've got to
Let your body move to the music
Ooh, you've got to just
Let your body go with the flow
Ooh, you've got to just
Let your body move to the music
Ooh, you've got to just
Let your body go with the flow
Scene: Bitch I Don’t Like You
This is a “Battle” piece between Xav and Heavenly Cunt. It begins with everyone on stage with
them. Heavenly-Cunt is the first one to move, with “I don’t like that Bitch, I don’t see her”. Xav
moves with the liner “bitch” talking in the music, on every other beat. At this time all leave the
stage except Xav and Heavenly Cunt. Once the “Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch” sequence
beings, they are in battle. Every other stanza is moved by Heavenly-Cunt and then Xav. They are
in battle to be Miss J. Xav does more Ballet-cannon movements, while Heavenly-Cunt is strict to
voguing. Xav is more of a Latin Style of voguing, and Heavenly-Cunty is more of a grounded
Black style of voguing. They both do Vogue Femme. In the end, at the Xav cuts Heavenly-Cunt
at “performance show it”, and then they battle on either side of the runway. The go through,
together, the 5 ELEMENTS of voguing until the line of dancers enter on the runway, dead
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center, and continue with hand, arm, and some Native-troupe dancing. In the absolute end, they
all vogue in the space, and Dip at a blackout.
This section is primarily to display what a vogue battle may look like in the current time, San
Francisco, 2010. They dance to the music, and there is a structural pattern to placement on stage.
They should look like they are in constant battle, however, not necessarily paying attention to
each other. At times, Xav and Heavenly-Cunt stare into the audience as if staring into an abyss.
The voguing should be fierce and bold, and should be perfectly embodying a Femme Queen.
Song: Bitch I Don’t Like You, by Vjaun Allure
Text:
(Transcription by Logan Hehn)
I don’t like that bitch,
I don’t see her,
I don’t like that bitch.
I don’t see her.
Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch Bitch
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Now I shall destroy.
Bring her to me.
I will demolish her, Instantly.
Knick to the knick na knick knack,
Knick to the knick nack po.
Knick to the knick to knick knack.
Hack hack hack sche-wush
If you’re feeling fierce, Bitch,
Then let it the fuck on out.
And if your feeling the beat
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Then let it move thru your feet
In and out then shake it all about.
Bubble gum Bubble gum Bubble gum, ow!
Bubble gum Bubble Bubble gum, yup.
Bubble gum Bubble gum Bubble gum, mmm.
Chew it up. Pop. Slam!
Who’s in charge of the girls?
Yes I’m in charge of the girls.
Who’s in charge of the girls?
Yes, Bitch, I’m in charge of the girls!
Formally known as “Miss Jay”
Come dog this.
This is, Miss Jay. Come on.
I’m that up and comin’ bitch,
I’m that new bitch.
I’m the bitch you just can’t take,
Miss Jay.
Bitch you got some nerve,
To give me all that fever.
I hear you’re calling yourself,
“one of the voguing divas”
Yes I’m feelin fierce,
And I’m gonna let you know it.
Bitch, you’re late.
Your performance shows it.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Peranda 65
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you Bitch.
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you bitch (slide and siren enter)
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you bitch
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you bitch
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you bitch
Bitch, Bitch, I don’t like you bitch (out and siren to top)
26 beat measures before pulse out
Scene: Dance of Kevin Aviance
Kevin Aviance is a known club promoter, and expert voguer, and this dance is in honor of him.
The dance uses an extreme amount of HAND PERFORMACE work, and is supposed to be like a
dream-state dance. The dancers first rise slowly, and enter posing, very slowly. As soon as words
come into the song, the dancers are in an accompany front towards the audience, and they move
their hands in figure 8’s. The dancers begin to walk backwards, and as the song recalls “I
remember” new choreographic phrases are produced. The dancers are always dancing together,
often in a circle or clump formation. And they are in complete unity. They travel across the
stage, with some modernist dance technique shown. However, primary emphasis are the hands,
in relation to other body parts and other movements.
Song: I Remember, by Deadmau5
Text:
I remember
Peranda 66
feeling the past moving in
Letting a new day begin
Hold to the time that you know
You don't have to move on to let go
Remember turning on the the night
And moving through the morning light
Remember how it was with you
Remember how you pulled me through
I remember (repeat)
Add to the memory you keep
Remember when you fall asleep
Hold to the love that you know
You don't have to give up to let go
Remember turning on the the night
And moving through the morning light
Remember how it was with you
Remember how you pulled me through
I remember, i remember
Feeling the past moving in
letting a new day begin
hold to the time that you know
you don't have to move on to let go
Add to the memory you keep
Remember when you fall asleep
Hold to the love that you know
You don't have to give up to let go
I remember
Scene: Ritual Song-Club Dance
This is a Dance text and gesture piece. There is no music to this section of Act 1. All the words
are said by the dancers, and there is a specific movement attached to each phrase. This piece
Peranda 67
demonstrates another aspect of voguing, which is: all movements are attached to sentiments, and
can be translated into words. Phrasing, sound, tonality, body language, and “face” all play a role
together in voguing to communicate clearly to the receiver, what is being transmitted. (If I say
“kiss this”, I indicate a kiss with my lips, and display to you my buttocks with my hands.)
The whole company, excluding Zack Escada, does this dance.
Text:
Is that what you want?
Honey No.
Honey Yes.
That’s my girl. } X3
Honey No.
Give and Take. X3
That’s my boy.
Kiss This.
Femme Queen.
Cunty-Cunty Butch Queen. } X2
Luscious Body.
Cunty Cunty.
Butch Queen.
Hot Mess.
Werk It.
You’ve Been Cut.
Bizzar… Gag… M’ Miss Thang. } X3
Por Twat. } X4
Is that a word? } X2
Por Twat. } X2
Pinche Chingada.
Fierce.
Vogue.
Face.
You’ve Been Cut.
Peranda 68
Next Please.
A {I will Cut Her!
B {Kiss this!
A {I will cut Her!
B {Kiss This!
A {I will Cut Her!
B {You nee to Go!
A {I will cut Her!
B {You need to Go! }}}}}}}} X2 (2 groups A &B, back and forth, 2nd time switch).
GURL get OVAh Here!
DIP
OVAH
Is that what Choo Wearing?
AND THE CATEGORIES Are!!!
Zack Escada enters and states: REALNESS!
Scene: Zack & Masculinity Vogue
Zack Escada enters and yells “realness”. Everyone hears him, and in a curious manner, walk off
the stage. The stage turns green and his solo begins. It is supposed to be danced seriously, so
seriously so, that it is funny. Zack goes through very masculine vogue movements, such as
shoulder isolations, fist bumps, slides and jumps across the floor, and some very serious
catwalking. He is dressed in a military jacket, and in a way, is performing Military realness.
What really separates this scene from others is the fact that Zack should do some rifle spinning,
showing off some skill he has with the rifle. At the end of his solo, we walks off, rifle in hand,
very manly, very powerful, very hilarious and lovely!
Song: What is love, by Haddaway
Text:
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
Oh, baby don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
Peranda 69
What is love
Yeah
Oh, I don't know why you're not there
I give you my love, but you don't care
So what is right and what is wrong
Gimme a sign
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
Whoa whoa whoa, oooh oooh
Whoa whoa whoa, oooh oooh
Oh, I don't know, what can I do
What else can I say, it's up to you
I know we're one, just me and you
I can't go on
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
Whoa whoa whoa, oooh oooh
Whoa whoa whoa, oooh oooh
What is love, oooh, oooh, oooh
What is love, oooh, oooh, oooh
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
Don't hurt me
Don't hurt me
I want no other, no other lover
This is your life, our time
Peranda 70
When we are together, I need you forever
Is it love
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more (oooh, oooh)
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more
What is love
Oh baby, don't hurt me
Don't hurt me no more (oooh, oooh)
What is love?
Scene: Hook-up in the Park
The stage is stark, and the lighting suggests dusk. Slowly dancers walk out onto the floor and
place themselves in “star clusters” in various locations on the floor. The dancers are in a dream
like state, and move very slowly to a basic human movement score, that should have a sensual
and sexual feel to it as well. The last to enter is Zack Escada, who then sits downstage to read the
monologue to the audience. The piece should be memorized. All the while this is happening,
softly in the background, Meredith Monk’s Memory song is playing. Confusion and
reminiscence is all that should be experienced and seen. In the end Zack leaves the stage, and all
follow him like drones.
Music is: Memory Song, by Meredith Monk
Text: Collaborative Monologue Created by the Company
You know, I was walking to the clubs that one night, but I sometimes step through the park. And
my whole house family was there, just chillin’.
There are nights I’ll change my whole plan because I find them like this, with a park bench and
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an aluminum slide from the children’s playground—a makeshift catwalk, welcoming whispers
and a flurry of high-pitched cackles.
I’d been feeling restless for a while now. That burning ache in the pit of my belly was growing,
all the way down.
I have no shame in admitting my own cruising. Regardless of my shifting genders and personas
and all sorts of sensual performativity, the visceral desire and the eventual carnal conquest stays.
The language of cruising remains simple- the eye contact, the slightest gestures, the
accumulating anxiety and the frantic and determined charge to the seminal explosion.
As I was walking out of the park he walked in. He gave me the slightest smile and nod, turned on
his heel and walked behind me without a word.
The trick I’d met for the night was not attractive by any objective means his torso reflected a
sedentary nature but glistened and was soft under the moonlight that broke through the window
vents of the bathroom stall. I was more charged by the wayward lust that crawled across his skin
and the trance inside his eyes, a ship without a captain.
We never said a word, everything had already been said—the recognition, desire, fear of loss, of
missed opportunity, relief, joy, desire, desire, exhaustion.
He desired me and when he held my growing mound he formed it into a shape and in slipping
and putting his firm lips around it. He supplicated how much he needed the warmth and the
thrust.
At the corner of Dolores and 15th he turned off, still, not a word.
I was certain he lived a life where he could not be open, free, and have a house family like my
own. I felt alone and empty after.
Hot, dripping with sweat, I needed to dance.
Scene: Femme Queen Walks-a-Runway
After the blackout form the last scene, all that should be seen is a pink dress upstage runway, and
pink light. As the music increases in volume, the dress should grow to reveal that there exists
someone in that dress, a dancer, a Femme Queen, in a royal Victorian gown. She should dance
up and down the runway, four times, four passes, and with each pass she brings a new quality to
her solo’s movements. On the second pass, Gessi Ninja should come to front and center, down
stage by the runway, and speak her monologue in the opposite direction that Zack spoke his. This
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monologue is soft, and should have movement gestures attached to it. On the third Pass of the
Femme Queen, another should enter—and she will begin her four passes on the runway,
alongside the first Femme Queen. The Second Femme Queen should have only a skirt on, and no
top, and should very much look like a man. All three characters on stage, do their own thing, and
do not interact with each other. After the first Femme Queen finishes her pass, she exits
downstage. Gessi finishes her solo and exits downstage. All that is left in the end if the last
Femme Queen, and with her dancing and the music now loud and playing to a fade, she stands
dead center of the stage, and blows one last kiss to the audience. She then walk off, ever so not
gracefully.
Songs: Baby Breeze by L. Pierre
Text: Gessi Ninja’s confession, by Gaby Gulo
I do not profess to be perfect
I do not profess to be perfect.
My thighs are too dance-defined to have that skinny-leg space between them,
But my calves muscle firmly and arch into pointed toes.
My face has remnants of stressful adolescence,
But my eyebrows arch darkly over lashful eyes.
My arms span longer than the height of my body,
But my hands hold hands and steadily knead tension away.
My belly is not flat,
But my breasts are full and glorious in their femininity.
My hips are too high to figure into an ideal hourglass,
But they swing and entice with surety and confidence.
My smiles show teeth and eye-crinkles.
My lips are plump without pouting.
My body moves like water and fire.
Peranda 73
Yes, I am sensual and bold.
No, I'm not easy.
Yes, I am forceful and strong.
No, I'm not without weaknesses.
Yes, I do-speak what I want.
No, I don't always know what I want.
Yes, I have baggage.
No, I don't put up with bullshit.
Yes, I am human.
No, you cannot handle me.
I do not apologize.
Angel & Avant-Garde
This is my favorite piece as a choreographer, and was my favorite piece to create. It is a trio,
until the last 16 counts, when everyone rushes the stage. For the most part of the dance, Missy
simply dances as if talking to the words. Her movements are not vogue, but more lyrical and
modern—with many movements taken from the Cunningham technique. As she calls forth and
dances, she has a male follow dancer on each side which she controls, and on very loud sections,
she does not dance, but has them dance for her instead. In the middle of the dance, all three of
them dance, which then degrades into a Cunningham-esk solo for Missy, and then a ‘pas de
deux’ between Missy and Xav. They dance was a contact improve dance, however, Xav is
always supporting Missy. Heavenly-Cunt, the other male, does slow movement while the pas de
deux is occurring, and once the last 16 counts come in, everyone dance crazily. The stage ends in
blackout, and Act 1 finishes.
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As for why Cunningham, I wanted something very formal in the body against voguing in the
same piece. I wanted to mix and match and it worked out wonderfully!
Song: When Love Takes Over, by David Guetta
Text:
It's complicated
It always is
That’s just the way it goes
Feels like I waited so long for this
I wonder if it shows
Head under water
Now I can't breath
And never felt so good
‘Cause I can feel it coming over me
I wouldn’t stop it if I could
When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
You know you can’t deny
When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
‘Cause something’s here tonight
Give me a reason
I gotta know
Do you feel it too?
Cant you see me here on overload
And this time I blame you
Looking out for you to hold my hand
It feels like I could fall
Now love me right, like I know you can
We could lose it all
When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
You know you can’t deny
When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
‘Cause something’s here tonight
When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
You know you can’t deny
When love takes over (yeah-ee-eah)
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‘Cause something’s here tonight
Tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight, tonight
Dance Break and Short Intermission
After Act 1, Devin Lauren makes the following announcement:
“Thank you all. I hope you enjoyed Act 1. Imma give you all about 5 to 10 minutes for a dance
break, to stand stretch and refresh yourselves. Because, the next act is going to need to have a bit
of participation from all of you. I have a special treat in store, in this next act. See you soon.”
Devin Lauren Exits.
Music played during the intermission is Miss Independent by Ne-Yo, and Ne Me Quitte Pas by
Nina Simone.
Act II
Let’s Have Ourselves a Ball!
Music by Chris Vega
Act 2 is a bit weird, because it is a scored improvisation. Everything that occurs that night in act
2 is not planned, but is played off by the dancers. Devin Lauren speaks guides and commentates,
but the majority of his script is improvised. This act should seem like a ball, and per audience,
there should be different turn around of events.
Grand Entry/Statements
Peranda 76
The first part of the Ball is the statements, physical vogue statements. The commentator leads the
company out and asks for their dance statements on the runway. Each of them dances their
statements and performs. Once everyone is done, the Ball can begin.
Face Competition
The first competition for the Vindiction Dance Company Ball is FACE.
Devin Lauren States: “Give me some Face!!!! I want to see some face!! Is it shiny, is it kept up
well. Does she sell it? Well let’s give hell. They must have the good smooth face, but most
importantly, they need to sell it. They have the make-up, but how well can they sell?”
Competitors:
Heavenly-Cunt Zion, Radiant Infinity, Xav Xtravaganza, Calufa LaBeija, Gessi Ninja
***Face off
Devin Lauren States: “Face off, face off!!!! Go Gurl Go!!! Do be checking their teeth. They can’t
be doing that methamphetamine! They have to have the good lips, and the long neck. Check
them; see if they can be the Icon of the Face! Give us some Face honeys!”
Competitors:
Heavenly-Cunt Zion, Xav Xtravaganza, Calufa LaBeija? (changes per night)
Vogue Battle—Old Skool Performance
The 2nd competition for the Vindiction Dance Company Ball is VOGUE PERFORMANCE.
Peranda 77
Devin Lauren States: “This is for those Old Skool Kids. Some Ninja style, in the old school way.
This is how it was done, and yah know what, how it is still done today. Make your parents proud
people, and vogue for me like it is 1970!!! Werk it out, make it femme but vogue and make it
fierce for me baby!!”
Competitors:
Missy Avant-Garde vs. Zack Escada
Runway Competition
The 3rd competition for the Vindiction Dance Company Ball is RUNWAY.
Devin Lauren States: “The Ball has many competitions, let’s see you work that walk!!
Walk it up and down, cut and slide. Make sure you pose for me and dance for me. This is not
voguing, so be careful with what you do, or I will CUT you from the competition honey. Walk
well, walk for me, and walk fierce!!!”
Competitors:
Xav Extravaganza
Bizarre Competition
The 4th competition for the Vindiction Dance Company Ball is BIZARRE!
Devin Lauren States: “Let us be artistic and weird, scare me baby, and show your freaky self!!
This is one of my favorite categories. It let’s yourself be free with what you wear. Yes, I can be
costume, but it is more than that, it is the fashion of the future darling, and sometimes of the past.
Those three times and trends do not exit here, only the love, only the passion, for the Bizarre.”
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Competitors:
CoCo Lauren
*note* Special Song: Combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell by Das’ Racist
Vogue Battle Vogue Femme
The 5th competition for the Vindiction Dance Company Ball is VOGUE FEMME!
Devin Lauren States: “There are other versions of Vogue; this one is based off the six-genders,
Vogue like a Queen baby. Vogue like a Femme Queen!!! Make sure it is Cunty, not to bitch,
read with your dance honey, make it dramatic, and make it passionate. This is the newest vogue
form, but it does not mean it is any less scary or badass! Werk for me, Werk it on this runway,
and fight for your glory!!!”
Competitors:
Heavenly-Cunt Zion vs. Calufa LaBeija
End-Da-Runway Skit/Finally
The 6th competition for the Vindiction Dance Company Ball is DANCE SKIT.
Devin Lauren states: “I hear the House Lauren Vindiction Dance Company has a skit for this
ball; to end the runway as well. The choreographer, Devin Lauren, said the piece was about
fierceness and taking the night away. Let’s seem the dance company does that. Take the runway,
take it away. DJ please gives them their beats!!”
Competitors:
The Vindiction Dance Company
This is a last group piece, and is a fun string of vogue movements to music; it is high energy and
fun! It is the finally and thus it is very powerful and strong, and goes through all the movement
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done, more or less, it the other acts and scenes of the Ball. It goes through every basic vogue
movement, and just keeps going. In the end the dancers go crazy and break the 4th wall
completely. Devin Lauren may even dance on stage. It all ends in a Dip. And all that awaits are
bows.
Song: I took the night, by Chelly
Text:
Oh boy
Who does she think she is?
Yeah who is she?
I don’t know what she’s doing?
I think its dancing.
She thinks she’s fly with that…
Uh what is that…a Gucci bag?
Oh boy I really don’t either.
What ever.
Hate hate hate hate hate
I don’t care what bitches say
I don’t even look their way
Look their way look their way
Hate hate hate hate hate
I don’t care what bitches say
I don’t even look their way
Look their way look their way
Every time I walk in the club
They hating on me cuz they know I look good
My hair done right and my dress real tite
All eyes on me I took the night.
Every time I walk in the club
They hating on me cuz they know I look good
My hair done right and my dress real tite
All eyes on me I took the night.
I took the night
I took the night
I took the night
All eyes on me I took the night
I took the night
I took the night
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I took the night
All eyes on me I took the night
Hate hate hate hate hate
I don’t care what bitches say
I don’t even look their way
Look their way look their way
Hate hate hate hate hate
I don’t care what bitches say
I don’t even look their way
Look their way look their way
Every time I walk in the club
They hating on me cuz they know I look good
My hair done right and my dress real tite
All eyes on me I took the night.
Every time I walk in the club
They hating on me cuz they know I look good
My hair done right and my dress real tite
All eyes on me I took the night.
I took the night
I took the night
I took the night
All eyes on me I took the night
I took the night
I took the night
I took the night
All eyes on me I took the night
One two four three
None of these bitches look better than me
Better then me better than me
None of these bitches look better than me
One two four three
None of these bitches look better than me
Better then me better than me
None of these bitches look better than me
One two four three
None of these bitches look better than me
Better then me better than me
None of these bitches look better than me
One two four three
None of these bitches look better than me
Better then me better than me
None of these bitches look better than me
Peranda 81
Hate hate hate hate hate
I don’t care what bitches say
I don’t even look their way
Look their way look their way
Hate hate hate hate hate
I don’t care what bitches say
I don’t even look their way
Look their way look their way
Hate hate hate hate hate
I don’t care what bitches say
I don’t even look their way
Look their way look their way
Hate hate hate hate hate
I don’t care what bitches say
I don’t even look their way
Look their way look their way
Every time I walk in the club
They hating on me cuz they know I look good
My hair done right and my dress real tite
All eyes on me I took the night.
Every time I walk in the club
They hating on me cuz they know I look good
My hair done right and my dress real tite
All eyes on me I took the night.
I took the night
I took the night
I took the night
All eyes on me I took the night
I took the night
I took the night
I took the night
All eyes on me I took the night
One two four three
None of these bitches look better than me
Better then me better than me
None of these bitches look better than me
One two four three
None of these bitches look better than me
Better then me better than me
None of these bitches look better than me
One two four three
None of these bitches look better than me
Better then me better than me
None of these bitches look better than me
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Every time I walk in the club
They hating on me cuz they know I look good
My hair done right and my dress real tite
All eyes on me I took the night.
In the End of show there are Bows.
Reflections:
There were no talk backs. Just informal meet and greet. The show received nothing but
praise. It was seen and nothing less than amazing by virtually everyone who came to see the
work. Never did I hear a negative comment. Everyone who saw it loved it. It was beautiful,
sensual, tasteful, educational, and fierce. It was everything I meant it to be and then some.
It was a giant success. The experiment produced a great show. The messages of each
scene came across clearly. People understood the fierceness and the individual beauty of the
dancers—indeed they say that. Voguing was on stage, and a queer world was created—it was
successful, and it gave hope for people for the diversity of the world of dance. It took audiences
away, and it was wonderful! Yes. The Voguette made sense, and yes, it was a great way to share
my research.
Overall, the Voguette served it purposes and then some. Every night was sold out, and I
learned more about voguing and fierceness than I ever thought possible. Yes, praxis is a very
important part to theory. And Yes, Thank You Stanford and CSRE for giving me this
opportunity to explore work, art, academics, and life in this way.
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V. Glossary
THE VOGUETTE: Glossary of Terms
A note to all viewers and Readers:
This production thesis has been made with the languages and expressions from the Ballroom
Scene. Please note that there is profanity and that the words/expressions are rooted in queer
communities of color, where meanings are often very multifaceted, while at the same time being
very specific. The Oxford English Dictionary, at times is almost useless in this production, and
so, the Devin Lauren Company has provided you with this glossary.
The Ball—this is an event, a competition, and community gathering for the Black and Latino
LGBT community. Originally, officially started in New York City in 1960’s, Balls now take
place in most major cities in the United States. Runway, Face, Femme Queen Realness, Butch
Realness, Vogue, Bizarre, Performance, and Luscious Body are all examples of categories for
competition in the Ball.
Vogue/Voguing—Refers to a type of improvisational dance technique and style, based in
“model-like” posing, with extremely athletic and gymnastic movement. Started in the 1960’s, its
ontology follows the work of the Legendary Willie Ninja, Legendary Peppa LaBeija, and
Legendary Jose Xtravaganza. Now it follows, more generally, work done by Vogue Evolution, a
Hip-Hop-Vogue dance group based in New York City. This dance form became popular, and
retained its name after the work of Madonna and Jenny Livingston (Paris Is Burning).
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Performance— the original name for Vogue was performance. Its idea is ‘dancing the body
through posing’. Before the dance was called performance, it was called presentation.
Old Skool—this term refers to any Vogue dance repertoire or technique done before the 1990’s.
Most Performance, Presentation, and Ninja Styles are considered a part of this Skool of work.
New Skool Vogue—this term refers to any Vogue dance repertoire or technique done after the
1990’s. This term is also a category for competition, and refers to movement which includes
amazing stretches and double joints. “Rubber-Band-Man” is the common idea for this kind of
dance.
Vogue Femme—the newest style of voguing. Since the mid 1990’s this has been the most
popular version of vogue to dance. It is characterized by 5 main choreographic movement
modes: Hand Performance/Arm Performance, Duckwalk, Catwalk/Vogue beats, Spins, and Dips.
All five of these ‘elements’ must be seen, otherwise the voguer is disqualified.
Ovah!—Refers to someone or something that is “off the hook” amazing! An adjective meaning
Perfection, Fierceness, and “out of this world”!
Vogue Beats—a term coined by Devin Lauren, refers to the basic hand, feet, and head
movement required for any vogue dance. Done in a parallel or catwalk manner, hands and arms
create a box around the head and shoulders. The whole body flaps, bounces, and drive forward;
voguer is fierce.
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Dip—Refers to the commonly called “Sha-Bam!” move done by a voguer. It looks like someone
falling backwards onto the floor, with one leg tucked back.
Duckwalk—a dance move done in a squat position. The voguer does vogue beats in this
positions and he or she looks like a duck.
Catwalk—refers to the crossing of the legs while moving forward. Often this is the runway walk
for models and is used in runway competition.
Hand Performance— refers to the extreme hand technique used by a voguer to create shapes in
space with their hands. Often the hands move very quickly and look ‘crazy’; however, the best
hand performers achieve a hyper-dainty femininity in their furry. Legendary Kevin Aviance was
great with hands.
Fabulous—this is a quality a person can have, either embodied in the self, or augmented by
clothing. In order to be Fabulous, one must “self Fashion” him or herself in a way they believe I
to be sensible and beautiful. The “self fashioning” must also be sensitive to the personality and
personhood of the individual’s identity (Buckland 36). A Fabulous veneer is often the starting
point in the presentation of oneself before he or she is labeled Fierce.
Face—Competition which is judged on how well one keeps up a smooth and beautiful face.
Teeth and neck are very important. But, a pretty face is must be ‘werk’ed’ to win.
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Werk—also Wurk, Werq: to have done great practice, to perform greatly, to push forward and
achieve the best one can in performing.
Bizarre—refers to a category of competition which is absolutely crazy! A huge and amazing
costume is usually made and worn for this competition.
Runway—refers to the center of place, competition, and attention.
Runway Competition—refers to the competition category based on walks. Poses, spins, poise
and grace are huge points in this category.
Cunt— a highly debatable word in the world. In the past, an at times now, it’s a word
demeaning and dehumanizing to woman. In the Ballroom world, it is a word of self-promotion
and praise. ‘Cunt’ with all its meaning and sting, in the Ball, is a ‘power word’ of vindication. It
can mean ‘cunty: possessing an irresistible muse-like presence that only a woman can have’ or I
can mean ‘cunt: hard, fast, of woman and desire, ready to eat & destroy anyone who messes with
her”.
Soft and Cunty—refers to a voguing style that is very dainty and feminine, and flowing like
water.
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She/He/Her/Him/Girl/Boy/Gurl/Boi— ‘normal’ gender pronouns are often used in the ball.
However, they are queered, and rarely used to correctly refer to one’s gender. More often than
not, they refer to the person’s performative manner/presentation of femininity or masculinity.
Dramatics—refers to a voguing style that is ‘scary fast’, yet done very cleanly. Often there is a
lot of play and acting attached to this style of voguing; so much so, a character ‘comes out’ of the
improvisational dance.
Bitch— a highly debatable word in the world. In the past, an at times now, it’s a word
demeaning and dehumanizing to woman. In the Ball scene, it can mean two different things, by
how it is said, and in what context. ‘Bitch’ can be positive and mean ‘someone who has her stuff
together, tight, and is competent and confident”. Or ‘Bitch’ can be negative and mean ‘this
“ugly-ass-whore” who has done bad things to me, and is completely unrespectable”. The word
can mean both because the word describes a woman who is confident in whom she is, whether
she receives praise of negativity for that.
Realness—is a category in the Ball about the performance and performativity of passing. If a
Femme queen competes in Woman Realness, she has to be able to pass, in her presentation of
herself as a woman.
Diva— “A Diva Is a Female version of a hustler” (Beyonce), a person who can sell herself or
himself as, and in, ART. A person in charge. A Diva is an expert in her or his art form.
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Mess—refers to someone who looks or acts ‘like a mess’. This person often needs help to even
be coherent or understood.
Hot-mess—refers to a Mess that is more than ‘out of wack’. He or she, however, is usually very
interesting, sexy, fabulous, and maintains some aesthetics of ‘Hot’. However, he or she is still a
complete mess.
Hot-Tranny-Mess—refers to a person who is a Hot Mess, but is also playing with gender
performativity.
House— a house is a collection of Ball participants under one name. They are a team, a family,
and a fraternity of people devoted to the love, fun, and art of the Ball. They take names such as
Ninja, Omni, Lauren, Xtravaganza, and LaBeija to express who they are and what they are like.
The Ball is supported by the Houses.
Fierceness— refers to the highest level of performance a person can achieve. To be fierce is to
collect oneself and put it out there; be seen, and see back. It is a conversation. It is unwavering
truth to oneself, and it is the embodied aesthetic of self-confidence. Fierceness, when danced and
allowed to play and disidentify with gendered movements, it become the dance: voguing.
Chapter two explores this concept in great detail. “It is Fierce! It is Ovah and Ovah!”
Icon— refers to a very well known person in the Ball Scene.
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Legendary— to be called and known as Legendary is the highest honor in the Ball scene. The
Legendary people of the Ball scene are those who have helped change and/or promote the Ball,
and were ‘The Best’ in there category for competition at one time. It is a title reserved for the
best.
House Mother/Father— The Mothers and Fathers of a House, are the leaders of the House.
They are the ones who organize and approve Balls to take place. They are the caretakers of the
children.
Children— refer to anyone who is a member of a house.
Prince/Princess—refers to a leader in a House and high contributor to the Ball scene.
Shade—a wry, hilarious, clever, and smart remark, done at one person by another, with deep
negativity and insult. A special lampoon. (Livingston)
Reading— a more in-depth and complex shade. Often, reading is considered “a deconstruction
of one’s character, performativity, and personhood, to expose all weakness, and horribly insult
the victim” (Livingston). This is less of a lampoon, more of a hateful, bitter, and hilarious scorn.
***The Six genders of the Ballroom world
Peranda 90
--These genders are more based off performativity and personhood, self-identity, rather than
what one is biologically considered to be. In the Ball world, everything is performative, made up,
queered and quared, but these six standards remain constant.
Femme Queen— A male to female transgendered woman in any stage of the transformation.
“She was once a little boy”. She is the most powerful gender in the ball. She is sometimes
referred to as a “3rd-gender”.
Butch Queen— A Gay or Bisexual masculine man. He was born biologically a male, and he
usually only performs masculine roles.
Butch Queen up in Drag— A Gay or Bisexual man who dresses in Drag as a woman, but live
the majority of his life as man. He just likes dressing in Drag, and is often very feminine.
Man or Trade— A Straight or Str8 masculine man. This is a guy who is “Not Gay…but maybe
is…but probably not…then again, who knows”. Essential, the gender for the “regular guy”.
Butch— A female to male transgendered man in any stage of the transformation. “He was once
a little girl”. He is an important person in the ball, and is also considered a 3rd gender. Butch may
also refer to masculine lesbians who are just transgender, but just perform a butch persona.
Woman— A Lesbian, Bisexual, or Straight woman. She is feminine, and is not butch. She is the
born possessor of the “female figure”, and feminine qualities.
Peranda 91
VI. Methods
Academic Methodology
Currently, there are a limited number of articles and scholarly writing written exclusively
on voguing. However, there are many texts written on subject that mentions or includes some
aspects in conversation with voguing. There are also multiple dance and cultural texts with
information that was explored for my analysis of voguing. The first steps of the study included
archival research for acquisition and assimilation of the relevant scholarly material on Social
Choreography, Queer and Quare Studies, Performance Studies, African Diasporic contemporary
vernacular dance, and voguing film. This archival research was be used to complete the first
section of the honors thesis. This work will not only create a historical perspective on voguing,
but also show a framework for the analysis of my “live” ethnographical data. This project thus
necessitates ethnographic research of the Ball subculture.
In order to understand how voguing is functioning as a dance in the Ball subculture now,
the researcher had to conduct live observation of the dancing in the Ball events, and notate for
later analysis. The data comes from close observations made in attending The Last Empires Ball,
in Chicago, IL, 2009, The Icon, Stars and Status Ball, in Chicago, IL, 2009, The Bewitched Ball,
in Los Angels, CA, 2009, The Red Ball, in San Francisco, CA 2009, the “Where is The Love”
mini deluxe Ball in Oakland, CA 2010. Unfortunately, such a limited number of observations
will not yield adequate data to call this study an ‘ethnographic study’—rather, the study is
ethnographic by its use of the methodology from ethnographic research and dance criticism to
collect data. This data, the dance descriptive notes, were analyzed through movement-based
analysis and choreographic descriptions—current work in dance criticism deconstructed the
Peranda 92
dance in terms of Time, Space, and Force. And, in the end, new descriptive noted were created
for use in the thesis document.
Lastly, the study complete video analysis of six Balls recorded by BallDvd.com, a grass
roots Ball recording company. Open internet resources, such as Balldvd.com, and House
websites, and notes taken at the ball, should provided enough data to understand ‘fierceness’.
And, analysis of data comes with my personal experience as a dancer and knowledge of using
the body for art. I have longed watched how dancing and the body is shaped, along with the
effectiveness of it communication. In addition, I analyzed data using theories of performance,
dance, improvisation, black vernacular dancing, embodiment, and quare studies to further
understanding the how vogue dancing operates within fierceness. The analyzed data, field note
experience, and personal involvement as a dancer and choreographer of vogue, in the Ball
community show me that including voguing root is an embodied fierceness.
Artistic Methodology
Post-Modern Dance composition based in Indeterminacy and Improvisation was used to
create the work. There were foundational script and narratives which guided the dance piece and
its creation, but the work may not have had any recognizable narrative. The work was an
experimentation and exploration of the Ballroom scene’s people’s, voguers’, and participant’s
stories. The work was not a representation of Vogue and Ballroom culture, but a response to my
learning and understanding of what it contains and means. The work was a piece of dance fusion,
a devised Dance-Theater piece for stage, mixing and playing with modern dance and hip-hop, in
with the voguing. The piece did utilized many types of movement, but also various music,
scenery, and speech.
Peranda 93
My main focuses for the work were: the Body, Fierceness, Space, Community, Fashion,
and pure Performance. My main concerns were the focus of the community. I was not sure that it
will be possible to create a supportive community of viewers to watch my piece and interact with
it. However, the company of dancers and performers, through the work, was able to achieve
great response and interaction. My goal to evoke fierceness in the work was accomplished.
The artwork was in collaboration with the dancers and performers. I taught dance classes
on voguing and fierceness weekly, and then hold Dance Labs for choreography work-shopping
and rehearsal. In the Dance Labs I gave prompts for improvisation for movement research
material production. These improvisation workshops created phrases with the material to be used
in the final piece. The dancers were also be expected to create phrases on their own, using their
dance styles, in addition to voguing and my dance phrases.
The work had a vague narrative, and was based out of various scenarios in relation to the
Ball. However, the piece really did come to life by involving the performer’s own lives in the
piece. Each dancer had a character-avatar to invoke and perform. This made the work easy for
performance and effective. The collaborators did research on voguing and the Ballroom scene,
by YouTube.com, my essays, documentaries, and attending one Ball, the What is Love mini Ball.
They wrote stories/essays about themselves in the Ball, and were able to summon their own
presence of vogue and fierceness. From this we created movement material for the different
sections of the dance. Some written texts were also used in the piece to expand the dance’s
potential. The piece itself gave me an expanded insight into the experience and practice of
vogue.
Peranda 94
The material generated produced a score for the composition of the dance, and a
performance will be made off this score. The dance-theater piece was recorded and will be put
onto a DVD for archival in CCSRE and Dance.
Peranda 95
VII. Program Information
THE VOGUETTE: Program Information
A note to the reader:
The following is all the information which was submitted for the program for the Voguette. The
program itself was beautifully done, and was put together by Drama Administrator Stefanie
Okuda. I have provided you with this information to see what a viewer would first read when
they entered the theater space. The Glossary of terms was also given out at the performance.
Submitted Information:
The Legendary House of Lauren’s Vindiction Dance Company, Under Prince Devin Lauren of
California, presents Cuauhtemoc Peranda’s Senior CSRE-IDA Honors Thesis Project
The Voguette
“Werk it on the Runway!”
May 20th-22nd, 2010
Prosser Theater, Stanford University
This project is made possible through the generous support of the Stanford Institute for Diversity
in the Arts + Committee on Black Performing Arts, Stanford Drama Department, Stanford Dance
Division, The Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity, The Lesbian, Gay,
Bisexual, and Transgender Community Resource Center, and El Centro Chicano
Peranda 96
(Voguette Banner)
The Voguette
“Werk it on the Runway!”
Performed by The Vindiction Dance Company
Direction and Dramaturgy by Cuauhtémoc Peranda
Choreography by Cuauhtémoc Peranda, in collaboration with the Company
Project Mentors: Dr. Harry J. Elam Jr., Aleta Hayes, Dr. Janice Ross, and Dr. Michael Ramseur
Music Arrangement by Chris Vega, in collaboration with Cuauhtémoc Peranda
Text produced by The Vindiction Dance Company
Costumes by Ben Casement Stoll
Lighting Design by A-Lan Holt
Publicity and Graphic Design by Rebecca Stellato
Description:
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Cuauhtémoc Peranda, also known as Temoc and Devin Lauren, is a graduating senior at
Stanford, majoring in Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity with the Institute for Diversity
in the Arts. For the past year, he has done deep research, both choreographically and
academically, into the LGBT Latino/Black Ballroom Subculture’s dance, commonly known as
Voguing or Performance. Since the early 1960’s, this dance style has been an essential part to the
Ballroom subculture; and today, it continues to diversify, spread, and evolve with its devoted
practitioners and artist. The culmination of Temoc’s work has produced both a “traditional”
written Thesis, and this Performance: The Voguette. This performance project examines, and
experiments with, what happens when Voguing and its Fierceness are put onstage—“what great,
and fabulous explosions can occur?” Temoc’s primary focus for the dance-theater work is to
explore themes of “fierceness through our self-constructed identities”, built from our sexual,
gendered, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds.
A Note from the Director:
The Voguette has been a very special adventure for me as a growing artist. Since the
project’s infancy, I have explored and discovered more about myself, and the world, than I ever
thought possible. I have truly grown as an artist and an academic, and I would like to thank all of
my support: my friends, family, mentors, teachers, dancers, performers, designers, and managers.
The Voguette has taught me a great deal about the Ballroom subculture, voguing, and especially
Fierceness. Through my teachings and choreography of voguing I have gained great insight into
how to contextualize my written work, my honors thesis. I have learned that voguing is
Peranda 98
essentially the dance of fierceness, by use of its “queer” hyper-masculine-femininity. I have
discovered that the dance, for its performance, takes an extreme amount of strength and
endurance, and awareness of space, shape, body, and direction. Voguing also loves and audience,
and loves to battle and participate with its surrounding. And, as an improvisational dance, it
requires the dancer to have a deep understanding of who he or she is, take that identity, and form
it into dance. Also, I have learned that voguing is simply, a lot of fun!
I have learned all of this and more, and The Voguette as a dance-theater piece is a perfect
way for me to express my understanding of the dance. I have very much enjoyed my experience
with the company, and I am very happy with the art we have created!
---Cuauhtémoc Peranda, Prince Devin Lauren
The Voguette
“Werk It on the Runway!”
Character and Cast
Heavenly Cunt Zion, performed by Kiyan Williams
Xav Extravaganza, performed by Javier Stell-Fresquez
Missy Avant-Garde, performed by Molly Pam
Gessi Ninja, performed by Gabriella “Gabby” Gulo
Coco Lauren, performed by Rebecca Stellato
Zack Escada, performed by Sean Tannehill
Radiant Infinity, performed by Melanie Yelton
Calufa Labeija, performed by Guillermo Vargas
The Commentator, performed by Devin Lauren
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The Diva Califia, performed in avatar
THE VOGUETTE
Act 1
Do You Remember a Memory of Dance and Voguing? What of Life in the Ball?
~Short Intermission/Dance Break~
Act 2
Let’s Have Ourselves a Ball!
Music adapted from: Chris Vega, Madonna, Vjaun Allure, DeadMau5, Haddaway, L. Pierre,
Meredith Monk, Nina Simone, David Guetta, and Chelley.
Artist’s and Designer’s Profiles
Cuauhtemoc Peranda (director, choreographer, dramaturge, and producer) is dancerchoreographer from Santa Cruz, California. He is a senior at Stanford, majoring in Comparative
Studies in Race and Ethnicity, with a minor in dance. He is originally trained in Traditional
Danza Azteca, and has worked through various classical, modern, and post-modern dance
techniques. The Voguette is his senior project, and is his first major choreographic work. He has
performed in Stanford productions MadeaMadeaMadea, The Sweetest Hangover, The Waste
Land: Or Pay no Attention to the Man Behind the Curtain, and has choreographed for the
Stanford Chocolate Heads Dance Company. He will be attending Mills College next fall for the
MFA program in Dance.
Logan Hehn (Stage Manager, Production Assistant, Light Board Operator) comes to Stanford
from the prairies of North Dakota and is studying theatre and creative writing. Even as an avid
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member of Stanford's Equestrian Team, Logan still manages to find time to participate in theatre
productions, on and offstage, at Stanford.
Ben Casement Stoll (costume designer) is a senior majoring in History. Previous productions
include WAsted, Titus Andronicus and A Midsummer Night's Dream.
Chris Vega (Sound and Mixing Consultant, and DJ) is a senior at Stanford University.
A-lan Holt (Lighting designer) is from Los Angeles and is a Junior majoring in
Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity (IDA track). She is the Artistic
Director of Blackstage Theater Company and the Community Outreach Director
for the Stanford Spoken Word Collective. A-lan would like to thank Temoc
envisioning such a wonderful production.
Greg Valdespino (house manager) is a freshman at Stanford University.
Molly Pam (dancer) is a Senior majoring in Science, Technology, and Society. She is from
Menlo Park, California. She is a member of Los Salseros de Stanford and the Stanford Theater
Activist Mobilization Project. In addition to performing with those groups, she has appeared in
the Cinderella Theory (Robert Moses) and The Wild Party (Ram's Head).
Kiyan Williams (dancer) is a freshman at Stanford University.
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Javier Frèsquez (dancer) - Hometown: El Paso, Texas. Stanford Class of 2012. Earth SystemsBiosphere Major. Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity-IDA Track Minor. Xavier's
experience in dance began at age five, when he was dragged kicking and screaming to his first
Baile Folklòrico class. After dancing Mexican and International Folklòrico for 9 years he began
studying ballet, Spanish classical dance, and Flamenco. He has performed professionally with
Danzas Españolas Spanish Dance Company in El Paso, and is a co-founder of Flamenco
Cardenal, and La Familia (Stanford’s queer&Latina/o group). Voguette is Xavier's first Stanford
Dance/Theater production, and the best thing to happen to him this year.
Gaby Gulo (dancer) is a dancer-lover from Jersey City, New Jersey. As a 19-year-old
sophomore, she intends to major in Sociology and minor in Creative Writing and maybe Dance.
She is great lover of friends and family, and thanks them for their support. A musical theatre
wild child, this is Gaby's first Stanford production but she looks forward to exploring other forms
of self-expression. The past few months have taught her a lot about sex and sexuality, love and
loveliness, and what it means to be a “fierce-ass bitch”. She is very thankful to be part of this
beautiful project!
Sean Tannehill (dancer) was raised up in Santa Clarita, CA and is a sophomore majoring in
symbolic systems. He loves music and is very involved with his fraternity, Phi Kappa Psi. This
will be his first dance production.
Melanie Yelton (dancer) is administrative faculty at Stanford University.
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Rebecca Stellato (dancer and publicist) is a senior Public Policy major from Tampa, Florida.
This is her first performance since the age of five, after she was kicked out of ballet class for
telling the teacher, "this sucks, I'm switching to karate." Rebecca also enjoys swing dancing. She
learned (almost) everything she knows about being sexy from the members of this production
and thanks them from the depths of her ovah-ries.
Guillermo Vargas (dancer) hails from Anaheim, California even though he now makes Palo
Alto his home. An informal dabbler in various dance forms, he attended Stanford majoring in
Economics and History and has performed as the matronly dragtastic Natasha in Stanford
Drama's production of The Sweetest Hangover and various roles in the perenially over-the-top
production of Ram's Head's Gaieties. Guillermo always serves and gives extra.
A VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO…
The IDA-CPBA Staff and Administration, LGBT-CRC, EL Centro Chicano, CCSRE, The CSRE
Honor Thesis 2010 Cohort, the Stanford Dance Research Group, the Chocolate Heads Dance
Company, Stanford Drama Department, Northwestern University Summer Opportunities
Program, the Mellon-Mays Undergraduate Fellowship, Native American Community Center,
Harry J. Elam Jr., Ramon Rivera-Servera, Aleta Hayes, Janice Ross, Ralph Lemon, Michael
Ramseur, Diane Frank, Tony Kramer, Logan Hehn, Maija Cruz, Eric Barnes, Justin Solomon,
Stanford Queer Straight Alliance and GenderFük, Phi Kappa Psi California-Beta, and The
Vindiction Dance Company.
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