Dashaun Wesley Talks Ballroom Culture, Legendary, and Performing With Celebrities
Before you started voguing, I can safely assume you first fell in love with dancing. Which artist or songs inspired you to start dancing?
It's weird because I'm from a family that loved to listen to music no matter what it was. If anything got me dancing first, the most if I can remember, it's doing The Bus Stop with my family when I was about three years old. The energy of a kid learning that from there on, I knew I loved movement. So I can't say it's a specific song. But, if I dated back to anything moving I enjoyed, It's doing The Bus Stop.
How did you get introduced to ballroom culture and voguing?
Oh, I'll go back to this moment. Fourteen years old, trying to find myself. I don't know how I ended up outside on Christopher St & West 4th Street. I was finding myself, but I found this man with this boombox. We're just walking down the block with a bunch of people dancing. I was like, 'what the hell is this?' I followed them until they got to the piers where they created this circle and started voguing, and I sat there and watched. After that, I went back to the village every day after school to get the vibe and feeling of what voguing was. That's how I learned, and I immersed myself in it.
Blazer (similar styles), Shirt (similar styles) and Pants (similar styles) BRIONI, Super-Soft Dress Socks ($24) by POLO RALPH LAUREN, Postino Plain Toe Balmoral Oxford ($120) FLORSHEIM.
In ballroom, you're known for dramatics. How do you like to express yourself within the ballroom scene?
I used to be 'ballroom sweetheart'! What I mean about that, like, I'm always nice and cool. I never gets any drama. I never really get into any situations or problems. Everybody knows me for being a genuine but still a competitive person. I can still go on the floor, go ham and battle someone. But, I've changed. I'm not nice anymore. I'm going to change it to 'nisty', because if you do something crazy, I will address it. I'm not going make it a big thing, but I will address it how it needs to be. I have this 'nisty' personality. With dramatics, I'm a happy dramatic person. So as I'm voguing, I like to keep a smile or the excitement on my face. And I'm all about movement, so it makes sense for me.
What were the key differences between working on a set for Pose versus working on set for Legendary?
You are the first person to ask me that! It's different because Pose was a period piece that told the story of ballroom culture during a specific time. Legendary is what's happening now. You're getting people involved in the mix of ballroom compared to this show that has to timestamp you somewhere.
Shirt (similar styles), Pants (similar styles) HOMME PLISSÉ ISSEY MIYAKE, Chuck 70 Vintage Canvas ($85.00) CONVERSE
Do you feel like you've faced any challenges being one of the face of mainstream vogue right now?
Of course! I'm always going to get approached about my community from people within and outside of my community. If I do something good or bad, I'll be asked about it. I have a lot of responsibility resting on my shoulders that belongs to me and doesn't. Those who were doing this before me, I always say I stand on their shoulders because if you watch Paris Is Burning, a lot of them said I wanted to be household names. Now I have this opportunity to live my dream of what my fellow ballroom participants wanted in life. To this day, we have our own celebrityhood within our own community. You know the ballroom scene, we see something wrong, and somebody's out there 'noguing' or doing some vogue that don't belong, we'll address it. We know how to speak up and freely about what we do, so that becomes difficult.
You've performed with Teyana Taylor Taylor, Rihanna, FKA Twigs, --Lil Nas X as of 09/08/222. How has your experienced been working with different talent?
It's fun! With time, I've had the opportunity to see from when nobody was paying attention to voguing, and now, everybody is into voguing. It was fun to work with these artists. I had the opportunity to sit and chat and communicate with them, and they enjoyed me, and now, we're all cool people!
With Pose and Legendary, there's now an active mainstream portrayal of the ballroom scene. Overall, do you think it's helping or hurting this niche culture?
It's doing both. It's going to help, and it's going to hurt. Yes, you want to focus so much on making things work or happen, but we're always going to run into problems and situations. Some people probably don't even realize their kind of expression feels like appreciation and appreciating it rather than learning this stuff. The majority of the time, we run into people who swear they know everything about what's happening, or we're gatekeeping in our community because we are so hard and so stern. But again, we've had many moments throughout our culture where we're being taken from or not acknowledged. It's happening throughout the year, so what I love about my community, baby if somebody tries to do something outside that doesn't belong here, we're going to call it out. You're going to find people who try to throw balls and have never been in the ballroom scene, don't even know the lingo, don't know anything. So you know, that's some of the problems we're going to run into. What's beautiful is now I and others who are part of my community have the opportunity. We can step into places, be respected for what we do, and now teach others what we do.
Shirt Black Tie ($1250.00), Trousers ($1,125.00) PHILIPP PLEIN, Jacket (similar styles) ICEBERG, Devin Boots ($1495.00) JIMMY CHOO
For those who support Dashaun Wesley, where can they find you next? Where can they keep up with you? What should they expect from you next?
It's Dashaun Wesley on every platform,Tik Tok, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, even on my gaming platforms. I'm a Fortnight and Call of Duty player. I'm a gamer like crazy. I also started playing Fall Guys. And look out because I'm about to start my podcast real soon, and I'm looking forward to that because child, people of want to hear his voice.
Photographer: Marq Newman @marqnewman
Styling & Editor: Nigel Isaiah @nigel_isaiah
Grooming: Crystal R. Smith @locdinstyle
Art & Production Director: Ammar Thomas @iam.ammarjamal
Location: The 9 Studios
