After a brief warm-up, Racz, who identifies as pansexual, tells the dance students about the history of the ballroom scene
It became popular across U.S. cities in the 1970s mainly with black and Latino drag queens who sometimes faced prejudice even within the LGBT community. The vogue craze entered the mainstream after the 1990 cult documentary Paris Is Burning and Madonna’s black-and-white music video, Vogue.
“Find yourself in vogueing,” Racz tells her students as they start to improvise. “That is what’s most important: discovering yourself in these movements.”
Racz practices what she preaches, and vogue has become an important part of her identity. “In my previous relationship, we fought a lot about vogue, how it was more important for me than the relationship,” she says. “But I have a strong personality, so he didn’t get very far, the poor thing.”
