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... 

Under the hot, sticky sun of 1980s New York City, there was something particularly fierce brewing. While Wall Street bigwigs and uptown girls stomped the streets of the Upper East Side, an entire world was just a train ride away. It was a world created by and for outcasted queer people. The glitz and glamour above ground was no match for what was being cultivated in tucked away corners and underground bars. This wonderland was the New York City drag ball scene, the proverbial playground of the queer community.

Though the drag ball scene hit its peak in the 1980s, it has a long, rich history. Emerging out of the Harlem Renaissance was a new generation of young black creatives. The balls became a safe place for black people to escape their segregated communities. Many of these creatives were transgender or gender non conforming. Rejected by the world, these artists would use the balls as a way to defy gender conformity laws.

As white drag balls developed into the 20th century, black queer people were continuously excluded. In response, a primarily black ball circuit was created in the 1960s to provide a safe space within a community that was divided by race. This is the ballroom scene that would later inspire Madonna’s “Vouge,” Paris is Burning, and Pose.

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…

  In modern ballroom culture, there is a system of ‘houses,” essentially families made up of a house mother or father and house children. The house mother provides food and housing for her children who are most often poor people of color who have been rejected by their families for being queer.

House mothers and children compete or ‘walk’ the balls in various categories. Most often, the categories were based on the performer’s identity. For example, “Butch Queen” is a category for only men who present as men. “Butch Queen in Drag” is a category for men dressing in women’s clothing. Whereas “Femme Queen” is a category for women who present as women.

The ball scene was based on the idea of ‘passing’, or being ‘real,’ being able to walk into a place of work, department store, or restaurant without being identified as queer. While walking realness categories, performers would conform in clothing and behavior to what it meant to be a ‘real’ man or a ‘real’ woman in the late 20th century. The glamorous upper class of NYC became the inspiration for the ‘realness’ of the ball circuit. The luxury of this lifestyle also became the inspiration for voguing.

Voguing began as a hyper exaggerated form of smack talk, according to DJ David DePino Xtravaganza. One could intimidate another performer by posing like the glamorous models in Vogue magazine. These models, ‘passable’ by main stream standards, were the inspiration for voguing. Vogue dancers use movement and posing to display glamour, opulence, and class. Many say that ballroom legend Paris Dupree pulled out her copy of Vogue, opened the pages, and started mimicking the poses in the magazine.

The dancer who ‘out-vogued’ their opponent won grand prize and a trophy for their house. The ballroom scene runs on house prestige.

Greta Garbo, and Monroe, Dietrich and DiMaggio. Marlon Brando, Jimmy Dean, on the cover of a magazine… 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…

While the ball scene raged on below ground, people all around the world bopped their heads and tapped their feet to the world’s new it girl. By 1990, Madonna had proven herself as a jack of all trades with four albums: Madonna, Like A Virgin, True Blue, and Like A Prayer. She dominated the charts, hitting the number one spot 22 times in ten different countries.

In 1990, Madonna stumbled upon voguing at the Sound Factory in Chelsea, NY. She was fascinated by not only the movement, but the dancers themselves. Madonna recorded and released “Vogue” in 1990 with a video featuring drag ball dancers Jose Xtravaganza and Luis Camacho who were also hired as dancers on her Blond Ambition tour.

Rather than whitewash the vogue phenomenon, making it palatable for a mainstream audience, Madonna empowered members of the community who were then able to benefit from her platform as a performer and icon. Madonna gave these queer people of color visibility within the mainstream music world, embracing the movement rather than appropriating it. 

“Vogue” remained number one on the charts for three weeks and with national attention on vogue, director Jennie Livingston created Paris is Burning, a documentary that brought increased attention to the drag ball scene, its culture, and its history. The documentary explores the lifestyle and culture of New York’s most legendary performers. “Vogue” and Paris is Burning shined a light on some of America’s most underserved communities. At the height of the AIDS epidemic, both the song and the documentary allowed Americans to get a glimpse into a queer world to understands the struggles of LGBT+ people. “Vogue” and Paris is Burning gave recognition and further opportunities to LGBT+ people who would not have otherwise received them.

While short-lived at the time, the voguing phenomenon paved the way for mainstream drag shows on stage and television to gain popularity today. The success of these shows were built off of the struggles of the dynamic queer community in 1990s NYC who gained visibility through Madonna’s music and subsequent media.

The next time you ‘strike a pose’ take a moment to remember the legacy in which you act within. Remember the world created under the streets of NYC. Remember the people who built it.

Vogue, vogue. Vogue, vogue. You've got to let your body move to the music. You've got to just let your body go with the flow. You've got to Vogue.