Last night, the fourth season of America’s Best Dance Crew premiered, featuring a wide variety of dance groups who were nothing short of amazing. Host Mario Lopez and the three judges (N’Sync’s JC Chasez, hip hop star Lil’ Mama, and choreographer Shane Sparks) boasted about the diversity of crews this season. One crew, Vouge Evolution, brought a lot to the table dance-wise, offering a glimpse into voguing and ‘ballroom’ culture in New York’s queer scene, which has been around long before Madonna adapted/appropriated/featured/celebrated the style in the 90s. Vogue Evolution is a crew made up of gay men of colour and one trans woman of colour. The video montage prior to their first performance provided them a candid opportunity to speak about identity. Leiomy Maldonado self identifies as a trans woman and volunteered to explain her identity - the result was a beautiful snapshot of her reality, expressing that although society wanted her to be one way, transitioning has ultimately been a very positive experience in her life. Vogue Evolution goes on to say that they are on the show to compete and break down barriers. They went on to serve the audience a high energy performance that was authentic to their style and was unapologetic, to say the least.
Like other dance shows, the judges, at times, have proclaimed their desire to see ‘guys dance like guys’ with Shane Sparks often leading the charge. Last night was different. Other than one audience pan, which featured a man standing up waving his hand and gesturing Vogue Evolution off the stage, the crew was cheered as hard as all the other crews, and their performance was hailed by the judges. Even host Mario Lopez stated, ‘I love me some Vogue Evolution’. Shane Sparks even remarked that he had been told for years that voguing needed the spotlight and went on to give his praises. All I could think afterward was, ‘Hell ya!’.
I am mindful that an MTV dance show is a platform that may let us down at some point, potentially pigeon holing queer performers as fit entertainers but not equal persons, but for now I optimistically withhold my cynicism. Vogue Evolution won their chance to move on to the next episode by placing in the top two-thirds of the nine crews. One of the running themes of the show is the mutual respect the crews have for one another, often citing common class, race, and gender struggles. When Vogue Evolution won over another crew, the theme carried through; members of both crews were seen hugging, shaking hands, and congratulating one another. No one skipped a beat.
Dance shows are sweeping the airwaves. In Canada, we are about to have a season of So You Think You Can Dance Canada, the American version of the same show, and America’s Best Dance Crew all airing at the same time. Youth and many adults will be glued to these programs. In the past we’ve seen strict gender roles enforced in dance pairings and style expectations, and this is very likely to continue. I believe we are moving forward - never quickly enough - but tonight I felt vindicated. I saw a program including gender identity and sexuality, especially those of people of colour, as a legitimate form of oppression that is on par with the struggles of other groups. I saw a group of queer people of colour serve it, serve it hard, and be celebrated. Moreover, millions of young people saw the same thing. So the one man who chose to stand up and wave Vogue Evolution off the stage got one huge hand waving him back into his seat, and for that, I can only celebrate.
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I watched a marathon of ABDC this weekend and I have to say the judges are actually really good about being as even-handed as possible. They have all sorts of people on in crews -- they've had steppers, cloggers, hip hop and all sorts of stuff in the middle. They judge also tend to judge on performance itself and not the performers.
Another thing to take into consideration is that ABDC's target audience is largely accepting of gay people. Middle and High Schoolers tend to call things gay for stupid, but have an attitude of ambivalence towards gay people (again, generally. not true everywhere and for everyone, but it's much more tolerant than when I was in high school in the early 2000s).
Ambivalence is a bit of a weak expectation don't ya think? Moreover, where same-sex attracted individuals can sing and dance for the public but they aren't taxed as equal persons the in the United States, let alone harassment and violence. Furthermore, I don’t think the ‘that’s gay’ as a depowered term discussion is an idea worth entertaining regardless of your personal experience, as I can assure you homophobia/transphobia is still a colossal issue, hell my spell check doesn’t even recognizes transphobia as a word…
I think your comment is indicative of what I feared most about the MTV presentation of queer individuals. This should be the beginning of the discussion not the end. Barack Obama doesn’t hail the end of racism in US nor does Vogue Evolution mark the end of discrimination based on gender and sexuality. I appreciate your comment but tolerance is not what I am going for, I am advocating for respect, understanding, and equality.
I am happy last night happened but I am excited to see how this pans out.
I think your comment is indicative of what I feared most about the MTV presentation of queer individuals. This should be the beginning of the discussion not the end. Barack Obama doesn’t hail the end of racism in US nor does Vogue Evolution mark the end of discrimination based on gender and sexuality. I appreciate your comment but tolerance is not what I am going for, I am advocating for respect, understanding, and equality.
I don't believe this ever said it was the end of anything. I also don't believe I had suggested that there isn't progress to be done.
MTV is more edgy than you might think. They've been cutting edge at representations of people on the fringes of society for 2 decades now (Pedro comes to mind, since we're talking about gay people). They're reality programming doesn't shy away from the issues which may not be the subject but are brought up. True Life often times has the same caliber of reporting as things you'd seen on CNN. It's easy to hate on the youth-centric network, but their work on people and their struggles have been very progressive and real.
MTV also shows anti-homophobia commercials humanizing gay people. They encourage people to get politically involved and care about government. And this was before it was popular for major networks to care about homosexuality.
I think MTV will carry this out well because the show is, and always has been, about the skill of the dancers and not, say, their personal lives or preferences aside from dance. There's small vignettes, but it's not like the show is "Look at this train wreck, good thing s/he can dance!" like many other reality shows.