VOGUEING

noun Also written voguing (Lifestyle and Leisure) A type of dance or mime performed to popular music (usually house) and designed to imitate the characteristic postures of a fashion model on a catwalk; a form of club entertainment based on this. Etymology: Named after the fashion magazine Vogue: the idea is to pose and posture as if having one's picture taken for Vogue magazine. History and Usage: Vogueing originated in the Black and Puerto Rican gay community of New York, and started to be enjoyed as a more widespread form of club entertainment in 1988, spreading outside the US to Europe and the UK. It involves very little actual movement--the feet remain more or less on the same spot while different poses of the body, arms, legs, and face are taken up every few beats--and is often competitive, with 'judges' assessing the effect. Willie Leake...directed the Voguing segment of 'An Evening Devoted to House Music and Voguing' at El Museo del Barrio...'Voguing,' the program notes explained, 'is an underground club form of entertainment which appropriates and subverts the images, fashion and music prevalent in mainstream culture.' New Yorker 16 Jan. 1989, p. 26