Creating a Safe Space: The History of Vogue & Ballroom

Two performers voguing (Source: Vogue Australia)

 

Throughout various blog posts the histories and cultures associated with LGBTQIA+ communities have been addressed, demonstrating a long and rich record spanning throughout time and space.  It is important to showcase these aspects of LGBTQIA+ history, identity, and culture to educate people about the length of time and cross-cultural range that has existed for these groups.  These groups have been celebrated and demeaned at various times and spaces, but through it all they continue to exist as they have always done. Today’s blog post focuses on the cultural phenomena known as vogue and ballroom, an important aspect of Black and Latinx LGBTQIA+ identity and culture, and how it was created to foster a safe space.

 

Vogue is a term that refers to a dance style that originated as early as the 1960s among Black and Latinx LGBTQIA+ groups in Harlem, New York.  This dance style took its name from the popular fashion magazine, in part because the style invokes high fashion and ancient Egyptian poses as part of the stylized dance moves used by performers.  Vogue (noun) or voguing (verb) utilizes a variety of additional techniques, including stylized hand movements, acrobatics, facial expressions, and more.  Vogue performers would use this dance style during competitions hosted at “balls” (short for ballroom), wherein they would compete as both individuals and within teams known as “houses”, a group of performers who would act as a surrogate family and friends.  Competitors would seek to earn trophies and bragging rights for themselves but more importantly their houses through competitions hosted at balls.

 

Balls or ballrooms predate vogue by a little over a century.  Ballrooms began in the mid-1800s.  Men and women would perform during ballrooms, but it was mostly “female impersonators” who dominated such events.  These individuals would be judged on their dress, behaviors, and ability to mimic the female form through their bodies.  Ballrooms acted as locations wherein LGBTQIA+ individuals could exist freely and safely, celebrating and maintaining their identity and culture. 

 

Balls were hosted across the United States, but they exploded in Harlem in the 1920s, coinciding with the rise of the Harlem Renaissance.  The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual, cultural, and artistic movement that promoted Black life, arts, creative works, and more.  The rise of the Harlem Renaissance also empowered LGBTQIA People of Color to resurrect and further explore their art and culture through balls, particularly as traditional ballroom events shunned or discouraged People of Color from participating.  Harlem became the location where all individuals, regardless of race, could perform.  Various prominent members of the Harlem Renaissance were either attendees or leaders in the Harlem ballroom scene.  Langston Hughes, writer and poet, publicly disclosed his attendance at Harlem balls.

 

In the 1960s a series of changes came about as a direct reaction to the continued discrimination against People of Color contestants at ballroom events.  One of those changes was the creation of vogue.  It is unclear where and when vogue first originated.  Some believe Paris Dupree created vogue.  Others credit Black gay and trans individuals who were incarcerated at Rikers Island as establishing this dance style.  There are still others who claim it was Willi Ninja, the “Godfather of Voguing,” who was the first to vogue.  Ultimately, vogue came about as a form of expression that enabled Black and Latinx performers to express themselves.

 

Vogue became popular at events that were exclusive to Black and Latinx performers.  The first of these events was hosted in the 1970s by Crystal and Lottie LaBeija.  Houses would use vogue in a variety of ways: 1) to demonstrate one’s femininity and 2) to “shade” or engage in nonviolent conflict with fellow performers and houses.  The individuals and houses that performed the best by demonstrating the best feminine moves and those “threw the best shade” would go home with the prize. 

 

Over the decades vogue underwent a series of transformations.  The original vogue moves, known as the “old ways”, focused on sharp lines and angles. This eventually gave way to the “new ways,” wherein runway walks, acrobatics, twirls, and exaggerated hand movements were emphasized.  In the mid-1990s vogue underwent a third transformation, known as “vogue fem”.  This style focuses on feminization related to styles of make up, dress, and body movements.

 

Ultimately, vogue and ballroom continue to exist for the very reasons they started: to act as a safe space for LGBTQIA+ People of Color performers to not only exist safely but thrive in who they are and what they want to be.  As Tsione Wolde-Michael put it: “voguing shows the courage of black and Latino LGBTQ communities to make an art form that goes beyond creative expression. Vogue offers a sense of identity, belonging and dignity in a world that does not fully value their lives.”

 

 

Works Cited

Gender & Sexuality Center. "Voguing and Ballroom." 5 February 2026. Carleton College. Electronic. 28 April 2026.

Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. "The Art of Voguing." 21 February 2023. Imperial Society of Teachers of Dancing. Electronic. 28 April 2026.

Morgan, Thaddeus. "How 19th-Century Drag Balls Evolved into House Balls, Birthplace of Voguing." 28 June 2021. History.com. Electronic. 28 April 2026.

Wolde-Michael, Tsione. "A Brief History of Voguing." n.d. National Museum of African American History and Culture. Electronic. 28 April 2026.