If you’ve ever dreamed of dancing like the queen of pop, you can do it. The idea is to practice Voguing, a new way of dancing Madonna style to get in shape and dance as if you were posing for a magazine cover.
Vogue, or Voguing, emerges as a more modern and stylized form of house dance. It emerged in the 80’s, but became popular with the song and video of Madonna’s song “Vogue” in 1990.
In Barcelona the number of practitioners and places to dance is increasing every day. In short, you first bring your hands up, then to the side and then down to the floor as when you do squats. The main thing is to move your hands very quickly. Then a few steps forward, you join in and follow Madonna’s choreography which you can review in her “Vogue” video.
The artist’s dancers move their hands from side to side and up and down as if they were posing for a magazine cover (Vogue magazine, in fact), hence the name of the dance. In its beginnings this genre was very “underground”, almost typical of the LGTBI community.
Voguing classes, a new way of dancing
One of the leaders of this style in Spain, Anna Yang, says that “Voguing” began as a form of activism. He gives his classes at the Centre Cívic Barceloneta (Conreria, 1-9) and at Street Dance Area (Pau Casals, 147, in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat), which are characterized by that social and combative component that empowers.
Initially its promoters were LGTBI people, or blacks and Latinas who danced to it as a way of empowering themselves as a community. That is a great motivation for her students, says Anna, as it encourages them to dance with pride and around a social cause.
At Street Dance Area, classes begin with a good basic warm-up of participants moving their hands from side to side, walking as if modeling on a runway, and doing squats, a kind of squat.
Each movement is simulating that they are going to have their picture taken. Voguing” is danced as if you were in the lens of a camera and they capture your image from one pose to another, while you dance to Madonna’s music. To impress and if you get to participate in competitions, you can wear heels. An element that adds complexity to the dance.
There is a “league” where dancers practicing this style usually compete. Voguing, a new way of dancing, imitates the “underground” spaces where communities compete through the parade of their models who practice the most complex steps.
If you practice it with discipline and dedication the posing steps for magazine photography will really make you feel like a cover model.
