Join Danyela June Brown for this month's Community on 14th! This Vogue Femme class is open to beginner/intermediate dancers, with a minimum of 1-2 years of experience; accelerated for beginner to advance.
Class Description
Performance Research is an open-level vogue-session for freestyle research and development. The sessions begins with a ten-minute warmup, followed by a ten-minute crash course intro to vogue femme (i.e. the five elements: hand performance, catwalk, duckwalk, spins&dips, floor performance), and concluding in one hour of open-floor. Horizontal pedagogy (students as teachers) is the essence of the open-floor format, and is the primary mode of vocabulary and vernacular acquisition for most voguers. Substituting a ‘traditional’ syllabus for organic skill-sharing encourages community and originality, both of which are imperative for the development of advanced beginners and seasoned practitioners alike.
About Danyela
Danyela June Brown is a set-maker, researcher and voguing girl from South Arlington interested in trans-utilitarian, pro-Black solutions. She works for DC DHS as a Supportive Housing Intake Specialist and has served as Artistic Director of DMV Kiki Nights 2022-2024. She has presented sets at Performance Space New York, the Hirshhorn Sculpture Garden, Rhizome DC, Touchstone Gallery and Tephra ICA. She has completed EMERGENYC (2020), the Learning and Public Engagement Fellowship at Dia Art Foundation (2019-2021), and the DHS Peer Case Management Institute at Howard University School of Social Work (2024). She holds a BA in African & African American Studies from Stanford University, and was expelled from the MFA in New Genres at UCLA during bottom surgery. Danyela has taught workshops at Performance Space New York, Dance Place, MakerspaceNYC and the Kennedy Center REACH and has performed with Kiyan Williams, Rashad Pridgen, Aleta Hayes, and Olaiya Olayemi. She has curated exhibitions at Performance Space New York (FRiENDZ0NE, 2024), serves as Performance Curator for the Queer Art Salon (June 2024, June 2025) and presented Right Over Left: DMV Runway Review at Brentwood Arts Exchange in February 2025. Currently Danyela hosts Stamina Nights an emergent kiki lounge at Dance Place on Friday Nights.
IMPROVING LIFELONG OUTCOMES FOR DC YOUTH AND COMMUNITIES. ADVANCING EQUITY IN THE DANCE INDUSTRY WORLDWIDE.
The unique model at Dance Institute of Washington (DIW) combines world class dance experiences with comprehensive subsidized services to improve academic, career, and community opportunities. The foremost minority-led dance equity organization in Washington, D.C., Dance Institute of Washington (DIW) impacts racial and economic equity in dance locally, nationally, and around the world.
Learn more on how DIW educators and experts in equity are changing the lives of students, the local arts economy, community-based organizations, and the concert dance industry through its three core areas: Educate, Create, and Advance.
Find more The Dance Institute of Washington Events and Performing & Visual Arts events in Washington