From choir robe to ballroom: Why one Toronto dancer gave up church for the love of voguing
Eric Van | Posted: April 19, 2019 6:07 PM | Last Updated: April 19, 2019
Voguing is a danceform rooted in a 1960s Harlem underground subculture for queer people of colour
Before Twysted Miyake-Mugler broke onto the dance scene as one of Canada's most prominent figures in ballroom culture, he was dead set on becoming a pastor at his local church.
"My uncle's a pastor. My grandmother is a missionary. I was in church a lot. That was my focus, period," Miyake-Mugler said.
The Jamaican-Angolan man born and raised in north Toronto fell in love with singing and dancing at an early age. He joined the choir, and eventually became the choreographer of a dance group there.
But Miyake-Mugler, who is gay, knew that his community wouldn't accept his sexuality. He hid it from everyone at the church, including his own family.
Over time, he became accustomed to hiding who he really was, even though it left him feeling like he was living two separate lives — until he discovered the art of voguing.
Voguing is a dance form rooted in the 1960s Harlem ballroom scene, an underground subculture for queer people of colour at the time.
Its routines are often comprised of model-like poses, catwalks, rolls, spins, and dips.
'I've never seen guys dancing feminine'
Miyake-Mugler, who started out as a hip-hop dancer, discovered voguing as a 16 year-old in a nightclub. That night, he jokingly started mocking a voguer on the dance floor by mimicking his moves.
"I've never seen guys dancing feminine, and being so bold about it. It was something to mock," he thought at the time.
But the more he mocked it, the more he realized how much fun he was having, and began genuinely enjoying it. To his surprise, it gave him a sense of freedom that he wasn't used to.
"Everything about it just felt right. And I've never gotten to feel limitless in my dancing," he recalled.
After that night, he was hooked. He started secretly searching up voguing videos online while his brothers and his mom were out of the house. He would listen carefully in case someone were to come home and catch him practicing.
"You were always looking out the window, making sure you're not hearing the gate open. So I had some kind of time to run towards the computer and press pause," he said.
'Voguing is an expression'
Things came to a head in a confrontation with the choir director, who had seen videos of Miyake-Mugler voguing.
Miyake-Mugler was immediately given an ultimatum and asked to choose between voguing or the choir.
"I couldn't believe that he would come at me ー one of the most dedicated members of the choir. I was so disappointed and hurt at that moment," he said.
Miyake-Mugler chose voguing. He's never looked back.
Watch Twysted show off his finest dance battle moves in this video.
Now, he's the founder Toronto Kiki Ballroom Alliance, a group aimed at giving queer youth a space to learn and embrace ballroom culture. He's on a mission to pass on the art of voguing to the next generation.
"Voguing is an expression. Voguing is individual. It's unique," Miyake-Mugler explained.
"You're really releasing all these labels that were put on you. It's like therapy, it's confidence. It's all these things that I really, really hold onto right now."
With files from CBC Arts.