In this month’s Dance Historian Is In, choreographer and cultural archivist Alyssa Chloe explores the history, legacy, and evolution of Punking—the expressive BIPOC gay dance movement born from Los Angeles’s underground clubs of 1970s. Inspired by the embodiment of cinematic imagery and storytelling, escapism, self-liberation, and survival, Punking emerged as a radical self-expression through movement and sound.

Through rare archival footage, personal narratives from the last original punker, Viktor Manoel, and embodied research, this presentation traces Punking’s authentic lineage through its primary force and originator, Andrew Frank, alongside original key innovators such as Tinker Toy, Billy Starr, Michael Angelo, and more—people who creatively transformed their lived experiences into physical artistry before the form was reinterpreted and extracted by outsiders. The presentation also examines the cultural and historical consequences of this extraction, as elements of Punking were later absorbed into commercial dance under the name “Waacking.”