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Before they quickly dissolve into rhythmic rippling torsos with flying arms and angling hands, we meet the ensemble of Les Ballet Afrik in a frozen pose. Adorned with rainbow colored fans, each dancer has an entire body stance oozing with attitude. It’s a group vogue, the fashion model inspired moves set to music, famously by Madonna and more relevantly, in the queer communities of color reeling from HIV, racism, homophobia and the struggle to survive.
A ribboning thread in the New York is Burning performance, vogue is but one element in the compelling choreography by Omari Wiles. The American Dance Festival and the Guggenheim Works & Process organization that first commissioned this work reference Wiles as an innovator in the Ballroom dance scene. Wiles has African roots that figure in his unique style also. You see breakouts of break dancing too. Mainly, you see dancers who seem to project their unique personality from every inch of their body, even when they are doing tightly delivered ensemble moves as one— always fast except for the vogue pose freezes. The beats of house music are all pervasive throughout the performance.
American Dance Festival and Les Ballet Afrik Educate
Akin to a queer vaudeville act, two commentators, as they are called in the gay ballroom scene, intersperse the dance here and there with welcome-to-our-world breakdowns of the queer scene and the who’s who of types we can meet there. Sometimes in drag, sometimes shiny and spangly, and always in good cheer, these commentators make it their business to educate us to the community’s inside speak and meanings. More, they want us to understand the insular ballroom culture as a response to the oppression their community experiences outside the ballroom safe space. Ballrooms are where you find good Kiki— a time and way to relax with your queer-in-all-its-permutations peers.
The beat went on. The American Dance Festival enlisted Les Ballet Afrik to host a ballroom style party in the hours following the performance.
Kudos to the American Dance Festival for expanding dance lovers’ reference points for the most modern of modern dance today.
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Photos: Ben McKeown, courtesy of The American Dance Festival
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About the Author: Amy Munice
Amy Munice is Editor-in-Chief and Co-Publisher of Picture This Post. She covers books, dance, film, theater, music, museums and travel. Prior to founding Picture This Post, Amy was a freelance writer and global PR specialist for decades—writing and ghostwriting thousands of articles and promotional communications on a wide range of technical and not-so-technical topics.
