Everybody Strike a Pose (but Be Prepared to Sweat)

NEW YORK — Born on the dance floors of Harlem, in New York City, in the 1960s and ‘70s, vogueing gave physical shape to the inner beauty, struggles and desires of generations of marginalized people. Originally part of the performance section of balls that gave drag queens, particularly African-American or Latino dancers, the opportunity to strut, the choreography was a mash-up of glamorous poses inspired by fashion magazines and any other moves that tickled the dancers’ fancy.

For a new generation looking to “stunt,” Jason Rodriguez, aka Slim Ninja, who had a supporting role in “Pose,” is teaching students of all levels on Wednesday nights at Gibney Dance Center’s downtown location, 280 Broadway, for $17 a class.

In the world of vogueing, with its angular body movements and exaggerated supermodel poses, the Ninja name is a mark of quality. The House of Ninja was founded by Willi Ninja, who was featured in “Paris Is Burning,” and continued by Benny Ninja, a runway-walk trainer for everything from “America’s Next Top Model” to fashion shows for the designer Thierry Mugler. It continues to thrive with affiliated dancers in so-called houses from Japan to Finland.

Each house serves as a sort of school, social support system and team in training. As Rodriguez, 24, explains it, Ninja’s signature style focuses on the hands, which both frame the dancer and direct viewers’ attention. The house name itself came from Willi Ninja’s love of Kung Fu movies.

All of this sounds like it would make for a simple, refined workout. But on a recent Wednesday night, such was not the case. In Rodriguez’s class, it takes the effort of one’s entire body to “give face.” For example, to strengthen and loosen up the wrists — key parts of the body for posing — he begins the class with push-ups. The muscle-burning warm-up also includes stomach crunches to strengthen the core.

At its heart, vogueing is an improvisational skill that values a dancer’s own bold delivery as much as technique, but arriving at such an effortless state takes practice, of course. Rodriguez teaches the basics in a way “where you can remind yourself where everything started and where it comes from,” said Maleek Joseph, 23, a dance student at the State University of New York at Purchase, who is as an apprentice with the House of Ninja.

Rodriguez moves students through drills that shift arms from elegant straight lines to 90-degree angles with flattened hands and deep twists from the shoulder socket. It is a performance component known as “arms control.” This is “new way” vogue, explained Rodriguez, which is all about controlling your own limbs so that they can frame the dance. The class, he said, involves “creating boxes with your lines, then creating illusions.”

It’s a skill set that takes intense concentration and coordination, but the overall training is fun, funny and warm. “It doesn’t hurt in the club,” he said after a particularly challenging sequence, reminding students that they are eventually going to want to have a cocktail and take their moves onto the dance floor.

“For me, I sort of create a structure, but I always refer to the idea that vogue is an improv base, and it’s also based off of your confidence,” Rodriguez said. Steps come from repetition, he explained, but it’s more important for the dancers to make the moves their own. “After the structure, after the exercises, after learning a bit more,” Rodriguez said, “then what do you bring to it after it’s brought something to you?”

The fearless, showy aspect of Wednesday’s class came after many, many more strengthening and flexibility exercises. Once the arms had been thoroughly stretched, students dropped into thigh-shredding duckwalks and dips, and then began to articulate their arms, down to their fingers, until a flow of dramatic postures emerged. Dancers were stalking toward the mirror, flirting and posing.

After the class, Maddie Wood, 21, a Barnard College dance major and a first-time voguer, joked that she was expecting “pain” from the experience and that it was already settling in. “I know I’m going to wake up tomorrow in a very different kind of soreness, which is really cool, because that means I’m working a different part of my body,” she said. For vogueing and its adherents, a little pain can sometimes evolve into the perfect pose.