To get us in the mood for Pride, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art has released its calendar of celebrations, which include a voguing competition judged by Anna Wintour.
Anna Wintour will judge the Met’s voguing competition for Pride. Image by Gilbert Carrasquillo/GC
The Met’s plaza is set to be transformed into an open-air dance hall for an all-out voguing “Battle of the Legends” competition on 11 June. For the uninitiated, voguing is a form of dancing, sport, resistance and self-expression rooted in the underground ballroom or drag ball culture scene of New York City in the late 1960s. It first sashayed into the mainstream in the early ’90s with Jennie Livingston’s film Paris Is Burning and Madonna’s Vogue music video and is still burning up the dance floors today.
Willi Ninja (left) and dancer voguing at nightclub Mars in 1988 in New York City. Image by Catherine McGann/Getty
Some of today’s top voguing stars will battle it out at the Met, including Asia Balenciaga, Bootz Prodigy, Dashaun Lanvin, Omari Mizrahi, TyEbony and Tamiyah Mugler. A star-studded judging panel led by Vogue magazine’s editor-in-chief, Anna Wintour, will decide who is crowned the title of “Legend Slayer” before being presented with a cash prize. The audience will also get to award a crowd favourite performer.
Joining Ms Wintour on the panel is Jose Xtravaganza, dancer, actor, choreographer, and original member of the 1980s ballroom group House of Xtravaganza who has worked with Madonna and appeared in Paris Is Burning; and Pose star and ballroom historian Jack Mizrahi.
Judge Dashaun Lanvin emcees the FX ‘Pose’ Ball in Harlem. Image by Andrew Toth/Getty Images for FX Networks
Battle of the Legends is part of the Met’s month-long Pride celebrations to honour the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall uprising. Other highlights include a camp conversation between performer Billy Porter and scholar Madison Moore on 23 June, as well as gallery talks, panel discussions, performances and more.
While you’re there you can check out the Camp: Notes on Fashion exhibition which is on display until 8 September.
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