I had the pleasure to talk with dancer/actor Jason A. Rodriguez at the 2024 National LGBTQ Task Force Creating Change Conference that took place in New Orleans, LA. Creating Change is the foremost political, leadership & skills-building conference for our LGBTQ social justice movement. There are also fun events especially when Jason A. Rodriguez the talented dancer/actor from the hit FX series “Pose” presented a workshop on the history, importance & elements of Vogue. This year’s conference theme was “Queer Power, Action & Joy” & Jason brought the joy conducting workshops on New Way Vogue. Jason who played Lamar on “Pose” also served as the movement coach for all three seasons. Currently Rodriguez conducts New Way Vogue classes at the Ailey Studios in NYC. The workshops Jason led at the Creating Change Conference gave the attendees an opportunity to learn the 3 styles of Voguing. Stretch & precision are key to New Way Vogue allowing the voguers to show off contorted & flexible poses with precision & grace. It’s all accomplished by learning arm controls to show off your control of creating lines, shapes, illusions & face framing movements to the beat of the music in addition to poses, floor work, cat walks, duck walks & dips. Jason also served as one of the judges at the Conference’s “Agents of Change –A Night of a Thousand Stars Mini-Ball” which showcased professional & novice Voguers on the runway. I talked to Jason about his inspiration to carry on the Voguing tradition & his spin on our LGBTQ issues.
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