Voguing dancers choreographed poses from fashion magazines such as Vogue. Voguing first emerged around 1988 in the extraordinary ‘house ball’ community of Harlem, New York. Here African-American and Latino gay and transgender men competed against one another at ‘drag balls’ for the ‘realness’ of their drag, their ability to walk on a fashion runway like a model - and for their dancing skills – out of which came ‘voguing’.

As voguing entered into the mainstream, the ‘house ball’ scene came downtown mixing with the fashion crowd of Manhattan. With this shift, Voguing was first seen outside the ball scene at legendary dance clubs such as Larry Levan’s Paradise Garage and Junior Vasquez’s Sound Factory. Here the music evolved from the pertinent classic disco tracks of the 1970s into a harder house sound as artists such as Masters at Work, Armand Van Helden and Junior Vazquez.

The album comes with extensive sleevenotes by Tim Lawrence, author of ‘Love Saves the Day: A History of American dance music culture, 1970-79’ and ‘Hold on to your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973-92’.