Deep in Vogue

Deep In Vogue is a celebration of the underground vogue ballroom scene in the United Kingdom. We meet four different houses, which are essentially dance troupes in the world of voguing. There’s House of Ghetto, House of Decay, House of Suarez, and House of Cards. This is in no way an exhaustive list of all the houses that exist, of course. That would be a Ken Burns length documentary (Ken Burns, if you steal the idea of doing a voguing mini-series from this post, I want at least twenty percent of your profits). We learn a lot about what being in a vogue house means from the ones that we meet. It’s a wonderful idea for more people to know about this very important subsect of queer culture.

“…a celebration of the underground vogue ballroom scene in the United Kingdom.”

Like most white people, I learned a tiny bit about what voguing entailed from the 1990 smash hit “Vogue” by Madonna. Of course, at the time, I was seven years old and didn’t understand that Ms. Ciccone had essentially ripped off black gay culture for her own popularity with this song, whether that was her intention or not. When I was in my early twenties, I learned a lot more about what the real world of Vogue Balls consisted of by watching the fantastic 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning. Deep In Vogue carries the same torch that was lit 30 years earlier. It is nowhere near as sad, though.

People of all stripes are attracted to voguing, and modern ball culture now is comprised of black, gay, and transgender people. I also loved all the personalities of the different houses. House of Decay is more punk and is led by House Mothers Grace Oni Smith and Joshua Hubbard. House of Suarez has been around the longest, helmed by House Mother, Darren Suarez. House of Cards is known for its uber-perfectionism on behalf of House Mother, Paul S. Ferns, Darren Suarez’s ex-boyfriend. House of Ghetto is comprised entirely of black women aside from its mother, who is also the film’s “Vogue Ambassador,” Darren Pritchard.