"Untitled (New Way Study)" is the second part of comprehensive project featuring video and supportive photographic documentation. Although mainly a study of Vogueing, "Untitled" reflects the overarching theme of my body of work.

Vogueing is a highly stylized dance form spawned in the gay Ball culture of New York City in the 1960s and 70s. Introduced to the mainstream audience by Jennie Livingston's 1991 documentary Paris Is Burning, Vogueing was later popularized by the video for Madonna's hit-single, Vogue. In its original incarnation, the dance form borrowed poses from fashion models featured in Vogue magazine and deftly blended them with moves derived from ballet, martial arts and yoga.

This project arose from my interest in Vogueing and its use of body language and gestures as a means of communication. I wanted to celebrate Vogueing due to its underrepresentation as a dance form relative to its contemporaries despite the strong parallels it draws to ballet and modern dance. Vogueing continues to remain native to the gay community and I wanted the opportunity to abstract it in my own way.

"Untitled (New Way Study)" features Darrin Prada, one of New York City's top "New Way" Voguers', and serves to shape a careful and loving visual study of both performer and performance. I invited Darrin to my studio to be filmed demonstrating the "New Way" style of Vogueing. New Way is characterized by a more rigid, geometric pattern movement coupled with "clicks" (limb contortions at the joints) and "arms control" (sleight of hand and wrist illusions, which usually include "tuts" or "tutting" and locking). New Way can also be described as a modified form of mime, where imaginary geometric shapes such as a box are introduced during motion and moved progressively around the dancer's body to display the dancer's dexterity and memory.

Using the footage I filmed during that session, I connected the shots to form sequences and then connected these sequences to create a new composition. This video was then given to the performer to study and elaborate on. "Untitled (New Way Study)", a 7-minute HD-video, is the final result of Darrin's reinterpretation of this unique approach to choreography.