When Lasseindra Ninja, a French-born veteran of the New York ballroom scene, first came to vogue in European competitions, she noticed one key difference among her fellow dancers.
“I was surprised to see [cis] women,” she says. “I was surprised to see them trying to do vogue femme. My style is vogue femme. It is the dance of the transsexual.”
Voguing and the associated culture of the gay black ballroom scene – where dancers from different groups or “houses” compete in a wide variety of highly stylised dance routines – first came to prominence in the late 80s and early 90s, via Malcolm McLaren’s 1989 single Deep in Vogue, Madonna’s 1990 hit Vogue, and Jennie Livingston’s 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning.
Less astute followers of club culture might have assumed that, soon after its rise, the scene would fade into obscurity. Yet Lasseindra says a more recent cultural phenomenon has helped this 20th-century dance style – still popular in New York – flourish on the far side of the Atlantic.
“People in Europe got to know voguing via YouTube,” she says. “YouTube started in 2005, I returned to Paris in 2006, and by 2007-8 there you were seeing it in European street dance competitions.”
Voguing did not transfer from North America entirely unaltered. Events are more mixed in Europe, both racially and sexually, and some of the finer cultural delineations have been blurred. Lasseindra remembers that, during her first few competition, held in Switzerland, voguing was put in same category as waacking, another dance from US gay subculture, which may look similar to the uneducated viewer, but is, she says, entirely different.
“Waacking is west coast, it’s disco and funk and it draws from movies, from Hollywood,” she explains. “Voguing is from New York, it’s more house and fashion.”
Over the past seven years, Lasseindra and her fellow voguers have helped educate European audiences, and establish a distinctly European take on the ballroom culture.
British photographer Ewen Spencer, best known for his award-winning coverage of the UK garage and grime scene, has documented these events in his latest book, Bring, Come, Punish. Spencer travelled to Berlin, Stockholm, Tallinn and Rotterdam to photograph dancers, after seeing footage from a Swedish event on a colleague’s phone.
“I’ve been clubbing for years, with and without a camera, and these events certainly stand out as a high point for me,” explains Spencer. “The scene in Europe isn’t very black or very gay. It’s quite inclusive. You can see how the central and eastern European ballet and gymnastics traditions have fed into it.”
Although there is a small vogue scene in Britain, Spencer believes it has proved more popular on the continent, as British clubbers seem more interested in hedonism. “You barely see people drinking at these events,” he says. “A lot of them have made an outfit and have come there to compete.”
With its new-found popularity, some senior figures in the scene fear voguing – once the preserve of gay African Americans – could become co-opted and exploited. Yet Spencer thinks this multiracial, polysexual scene is exactly what Europe needs at the moment. And while Europe’s balls may not meet the exacting standards of NYC purists, “it’s interesting to see different cultures coming through”, says Spencer.
“I like progress, and the mixing of different cultures. I think it’s all quite timely,” he says.
•Bring, Come, Punish is available from ewenspencer.com
