I really wanted to write something about the seminal documentary about drag and gay black and latino (eg: the ones who'd be ruled out statistically from EVER being succesful in anything, y'all) culture in NY from the seventies, to the eighties, and slightly rolling into the nineties, who ever hadn't fell victim to AIDS by then. I learned about this documentary through Marjorie Boston, whom I interviewed about a year ago. She is now director of MC Theater in Amsterdam, but started out studying mime, and this was a movie she loved so much, she named her first production "Made in da Shade" after one of the houses mentioned in the film. Watching the movie you can definitely see the mime-ish movements being made, meant as a dance, but more than that wording something through gestures and other body movements. A dance style known as "vogueing", a mime-ish type of dancing in which clothing takes a special part as to make "the better shape" It's a battle, basically: "Instead of fighting, you would dance it out on the dance floor"
The balls, the fashion, the dancing, the poverty, the oppression, way of life and everything goddammit. It's a great documentary, it's viewable on youtube chopped into 9 parts. Watch it!
