A Diva Is Never in a Hurry!

For many people, any mention of "voguing" gets Madonna's hit song stuck in one's head. What relatively few outside the LGBTQ+ community realize, however, is that this song only marked the beginning of voguing's mainstream popularity. In fact, voguing, a modern style of house dance, was born in the 1980s Harlem ballroom scene. At the time, it served primarily as an artistic style of expression for queer Black people and people of color.

Nowadays, voguing constitutes a worldwide phenomenon and community. Students in the Queer Life & Activism Program got the chance to dip their toes in yesterday at our Voguing Workshop. The wonderful Amber Vineyard, American-born founder of the House of Vineyard in Amsterdam, acted as our "mother," our instructor. She began by showing us some of her work and the various ways she expresses her gender through different styles of house.

We then experimented with different posing styles: selling shoes, rings, shampoo, and more; soldier; couture...the list goes on. Having (more or less) mastered our posing chops, we proceeded to try out catwalking in groups of three.

Students applauded, cheered, and very vocally supported one another. The workshop was a much-needed, not to mention fabulous, release for the pent-up energy of the past few days of class and pandemonium. And as Amber wisely reminded us: "A Diva Is Never in a Hurry!" A worthy motto not only for voguing, but also for life. -CB