For the exhibition An Atlas of the Difficult World, the gallery displaying Wu Tsang’s video work We Hold Where Study has been transformed into a dance studio on the first floor of Macalline Center of Art. Images harmonize side by side across two video channels, while the bodies of several dancers intertwine and overlap with each other, catalyzing a dance of contact improvisation. In the underground ballroom scene reimagined by the voguing dancers, expressions of proactive engagement through the body become increasingly prominent.

Inspired by Wu Tsang’s video work, MACA is pleased to design and initiate the voguing dance workshop series “MACA IS BURNING” during the An Atlas of the Difficult World exhibition period. The inaugural workshop, “Evolution of the Ballroom and Voguing: A Tale of Yesterday and Today” will take the cultural origin and stylistic evolution of the ballroom scene as the entry point, providing an opportunity for participants to experience the bodily glamour of voguing as well as the spirit of resistance embodied in the dance.

A distinctive dance born from underground culture, voguing can trace its roots back to the ballroom, an alternative social environment emerged in the 1960s. Initially, it served as a sanctuary for mutual support, self-expression, and a means to escape societal pressures for African American and Latino individuals within the transgender, gay, and lesbian communities. At the core of the ballroom scene lies resistance and defiance against societal norms. It creates a space where LGBTQ+ communities can freely express themselves, find common identity, and celebrate collectively.

In the first workshop, we have invited two voguing dancers who have long been active in the ballroom communities of Beijing and Los Angeles, California, to share and immerse participants in the unique stories of the ballroom scene.