5 elements of Vogue

JAMAL GROOTBOOM

WHEN it comes to dance as an art form, voguing has had a long history within popular culture. Originating from the New York City ballroom scene in the ’80s, it gained popularity when Madonna released her hit single Vogue in 1990. And with the aid of several members from the ballroom community, not only did the song blow up but “old way” vogue became a hot dance trend.

Based on poses from Vogue Magazine, Willi Ninja – known as the godfather of Vogue – was one of the pioneers of the dance.

However, as time went on so did the dance style and this gave birth to Vogue Femme – the ballroom category now most associated with voguing.

While “old way” Vogue was more focused on using poses as the starting point for a vogue battle at a slower tempo, Vogue Femme is more intense with a distinct musical style that compliments it with more dramatic flair.

This is how we get to the five elements of Vogue. These include spins and dips, catwalk, duckwalks, hand and floor performance.

Spin and dips

Spins are as the name suggests, doing a 360-degree spin either with one foot or both feet on the ground – the person voguing will spin either while standing up or during floor performance. Some voguers have also introduced ballet techniques such as pirouettes and fouettés.

There are two main ways to do a dip. One is slower, where you slightly bend on the leg with your back on the floor and the other leg up in the air.

The flashier version is where it’s a quick action with a dancer seemingly jumping into a dip and hitting the floor in one movement. This is commonly done after several spins to make it more spectacular. Legendary judge Leiomy Maldonado is also known for creating the 360 dip, where you spin at a 45-degree angle before landing the dip.

Catwalk

Not to be confused with the runway category, it’s often used as a precursor to duckwalks. The voguer will walk knees bent crossing strides while moving their hips side to side; along with arms moving from your shoulder to the front with your arms going the opposite sides of your hips. While doing a catwalk you can also improvise with hand and arm movements.

Duckwalks

Probably the most difficult part of Vogue Femme is the duckwalk. While in a squatting position with both knees next to each other, on your tippytoes, you rhythmically walk like a duck with your feet kicking with a hopping motion but not a bounce. This is accompanied by your hands doing a flicking movement over the opposite shoulder of the leg kicking out. The duckwalk is one of the most diverse voguing dance moves since it has a lot of variants including slides, directional switches, ninja walk and jumps.

Hand performance

When it comes to hand and arm movements, they play an integral part in most of the other elements of voguing. Hand performance puts the focus squarely on moving your hands rhythmically. Sharing a lot of similarities with whacking, hand performances are done standing or sitting down – when it’s a separate category – and find the voguer using a combination of sharp and quick movements creating shapes and lines while showcasing good musicality as to determine the type of movement. One of the best-known parts of hand performance is when a voguer uses figure eights in a circular motion.

Floor performance

One of the more flexible elements of vogue, floor performance involves a voguer doing a bunch of different movements on the floor. While it’s one of the few elements that allow for more individuality, the movements that are often seen are fan kicks, knee slides, the pointing of toes and arching of the back, and allow for more acrobatics. These include splits and movements that are often employed by those who are more flexible. However, like all the other elements, musicality plays an important role in whatever you decide to do while on the floor.