Cesar Valentino discovered vogue in 1982 and became infatuated with the self-celebratory dance genre while frequenting balls and gay clubs throughout New York’s West Village and Lower East Side. Valentino joined the ranks of the craft’s most celebrated originators soon thereafter, developing namesake moves such as the Valentino Dip. Courtesy of Chantal Regnault from her book "Voguing and the House Ballroom Scene of New York 1989-1992" Cesar Valentino helped take voguing from underground drag balls to the pages of Vanity Fair. In a world where we were kind of judged for these things, we’re given the opportunity to express them all through dance. This, for us, was a dance of survival, but it was also a social dance.

Source: Huffington Post June 04, 2018 15:56 UTC