Orlando shooting vigil becomes a voguing battle

LONDON, England — As people around the world remember and celebrate the lives of the 49 people killed Sunday in a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida, one vigil turned into an expression of solidarity.

The Huffington Post UK reported that the London, England, vigil became a voguing battle in Soho, a district regarded by many in London's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community as a safe space. The vigil turned into a voguing battle.

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Voguing, made popular to the masses in the 1990 documentary film "Paris Is Burning," comes from the black and Latino underground scenes in Harlem, New York, in the 1980s but extends back decades before that.

Those who vogue often belong to houses, groups named after their founders, who serve as a surrogate parent to the dancers in the house. Houses have historically been the second -- many times the only -- families of members of the LGBT community.

So when Zing Tsjeng, an editor at Broadly, covered the Soho vigil and saw three dancers start to vogue, she captured as much as she could on video and posted it to Twitter.

The dancers -- Jason A. Cameron, also known as Jay Jay Revlon of the House of Revlon; Omar Jordan Phillip,s also known as BamBam Khan and D'Relle Khan of the International House of Khan -- spoke to The Fader about what led them to vogue on.

"Vogue is a dance outlet that comes from the ballroom scene, and within the ballroom scene there's many categories, but it was for the queer people of color, black, Latino, et cetera, to come together in this world -- it was for queer people of color to create this feel of a ball," Cameron said. "A place where everyone feels comfortable, a place where there's no judgement. (Yesterday), I called everyone and was like, 'Let's vogue down,' because there's so much upset and sadness and that is happening, and voguing is uplifting. It's an outlet for pain."

Khan shared similar sentiments, saying he and Cameron "needed to do something to show our support and solidarity because although it was in Orlando, it could happen anywhere. Why vogue? Vogue -- like Pulse -- was for the black and Latino gay community, and is an expression of strength, freedom and unity."

"I think in the light of such a horrible attack to our community, we wanted to not only show solidarity to those in Orlando, but ensure we showed solidarity to our own communities," Phillips said. "We were reclaiming our space, and letting our community know they can do the same."

Cox Media Group