Wuhan's vogue dance finds life after lockdown

In a former factory in Wuhan, China, 22-year-old Xiong Feng or 'Daiki' catwalks, spins, and dips.

Each of these moves are components of a style of dance called 'voguing,' popularised by a mostly queer Black community in the United States during the 1980s. It was seen most often in underground competitions called 'ballroom.'

Today, voguing has made its way to this central Chinese city, which just one year ago was in the spotlight for a very different reason. It was the original epicentre of the health pandemic, detecting the world's first cases.

In January, Wuhan went on a 76-day lockdown and was isolated from the rest of the country.

'Daiki' is the only vogue instructor in the city and says his small class has swollen in size since the lockdown was lifted.

His students say they look to live more authentic lives in the wake of a traumatic year.

23-year-old 'Crisp' is one of them:

"After this pandemic, I feel that vogue dancing has given me a lot of emotional support during this period. Because it made me realise that we need to seize every minute and every second to be who we are. We have to cherish ourselves and pursue a better quality of life."

Together, 'Daiki' and his class filmed a music video, their first in-person project together since the lockdown ended.

"The purpose of shooting this video is to let everyone know that Wuhan also has a voguing and ballroom culture. Previously, because of the pandemic, everyone was locked up at home and could not get out. So, everyone could only make video calls to practise online. But now, our situation is much better and we finally have time to come out and shoot this video."

'Voguing' is not well known in a country that strongly censors LGBT content and rejects non-traditional families and yet, Wuhan has its own thriving community because of people like 'Daiki' whose dream now is to keep growing Wuhan's first ballroom community.