A Scouse dancer has recalled how he helped bring the art of voguing to Liverpool.
Dean Murphy, originally from Kirkby, said it was “fantastic” to still be remembered as part of the group that first brought the highly-stylised, modern house dance to the city. Now, over 30 years later, the hairdresser is still actively involved within the voguing community despite no longer dancing himself.
The 52-year-old first discovered the dance in 1989. After living in London for over a year he decided to move back to the area and his friend, Paul Lovell, followed suit a few weeks later. Within the short space of time Paul remained in London, he learned about a new dance craze which would soon be performed by Madonna.
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Bringing the dance up north, it wasn’t until the two friends spent the night in the Curzon Club that Dean noticed Paul was moving his arms in a way he had never seen before.
The former DJ told the ECHO : “Paul had watched a video on MTV when he was in London, but in those days, no one had MTV, everyone was skint at that stage and on the dole because of Margaret Thatcher. So when someone did have MTV, you would go back to theirs and sit for hours watching it.”
The video in question was the music video to Malcolm McLaren’s Deep in Vogue, which sees three dancers move to the music in such a way as to imitate the characteristic poses struck by a model on a catwalk. Dean, who dance "comes natural" too, said: “Before the dance, it was all about hip-hop, so when this dance came along it was just fabulous and allowed gay people to have their moment. Initially, it was boys who were doing it first but when girls did see it, they were made up and wanted to learn.
"Whenever we went to the likes of Garlands, they were just blown away by it because we took it dead seriously. It was something new for the community and when it was discovered it was latched onto. When we danced, everyone was watching us, learning from us, and we used to go around to people’s houses to teach each other. It was just like a family with everyone who loved doing it.”
Most accounts place the origins of voguing in the ballrooms of 1980s New York, birthed by the black and Latinx queer communities of Harlem. Over four decades later, the performance art is continuing to flourish thanks to the likes of the mainstream TV show Pose and documentaries such as Paris is Burning.
Originating in New York City, houses competed in balls for their chance of securing a grand prize. Be it voguing, drag, body and more, competitors would go head-to-head in an effort to make their mark. Ostracised from conventional society, participants of balls would get together to celebrate each other when others often wouldn’t. Judged by their sexuality, race and gender identity in the outside world, a ball acted as a safe haven for outcasts to showcase their creativity and uniqueness.
Voguing was and continues to be a tool for ball-goers to tell their stories, including a way of responding to the 80s AIDs crisis. Dean said: “Years ago, dance used to be a way for me to express myself and let my anger out. Instead of fighting, we would’ve just danced with each other, it was brilliant to forget about your worries for a night. As soon as a tune came on, you just went to the floor and vogued. It was a way to shock. Waltzing into clubs and pubs, no matter if they were gay or straight venues, 20 of us would storm in like a flash dance, vogue, not say a word, then waltz out again.”
Liverpool recently held its annual Vogue Ball which saw houses such as the House of Suarez, the deaf, disabled and neuro-divergent House of Curio, Manchester’s House of Aurora, and the East Asian House of Chan battle it out for bragging rights. The disco-themed event was hosted by Ricki Beadle-Blair who paid homage to Studio 54 by turning the Invisible Wind Factor into “a high energy fast pacing rollercoaster of fashion, dance, comedy, and a celebration of inclusivity pulled together like a corset”.
Categories this year included fantasy, solo, lip sync, sex siren and choreography and thanks to his involvement in bringing the vogue scene to life, Dean was a guest judge at the event for the fourth year in a row.
He added: “It is lovely to be remembered. I vogued for years, even once outside St George’s Hall. The doors opened and we walked down the steps with smoke coming out behind us. People who were at the Empire for the night were coming out at the same time, so you had a few hundred people watching you do this dance. It’s nice to be remembered for things like that and that fabulousness.”
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