Whacking Los Angeles
Empowering individuality and collective liberation of queer, multicultural Los Angelenos of all bodies and walks of life
Accessible Dance Education
We make sure that dance can be an approachable and accessible while delivering high quality training.
Events
Our events are curated to be safe, inclusive spaces that give a rich immersive experience into Punking & Whacking.
Community Building
We hold the communal values of play, freedom of expression, and empathy as our pillars. Let’s grow together.
What is Punking? What is Whacking/ Waacking?
Punking is a Los Angeles born dance form born out the gay multicultural community in the 1970’s at the club Ginos II in West Hollywood. “Punk” a derogatory term for being gay was a word reclaimed by the originators of this dance. As an outlet to create art from oppression, these dancers took inspiration from Hollywood silent films, comic books, martial arts, gymnastics and cultural dances to create this unique dance form. The first movement form of this dance is known as “Posing”, and later came the arm strikes or the “Whack” inspired from the Batman onamonoptia’s and movement on screen. The original punkers were a group of men who consisted of Andrew Frank, Arthur Goff, Guillermo “Billy Star” Estrada, Tinker Toy, Tommy Mitchel, Kenny “China Doll”, Lonny Carbajal, and Viktor Manoel.
This dance evolved into the popular dance known today as Whacking or in further evolution Waacking. Through being highlighted on television such as on Soul Train and featured with popular artists such as Diana Ross. This dance has traveled world wide and grown to provide space especially for the LGBTQ+ community to find liberation and freedom. Many have provided notable contributors to spread and establishment of these communities. Some of these contributors are Dallace Ziegler, Ana Sanchez, Shabadoo, Billy Goodson, Tyrone Proctor, Archie Burnett and more.
For us, generations later - Punking/Whacking/Waacking serves as our form of play, self-exploration and community. Connect with us today!