Strike a Pose
Immortalized in Alek Keshishian’s hugely successful documentary MADONNA: TRUTH OR DARE (1991), the blockbuster Blond Ambition tour catapulted seven young dancers from New York’s “vogueing” underground into the superstar limelight. With STRIKE A POSE, co-directors Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan hit upon the inspired notion to revisit these performers 25 years later, chronicling how their lives subsequently played out. There is triumph and tragedy here, notably the lethal legacy of HIV-AIDS, plus mixed feelings toward Madonna, who appears only in archive footage. But Gould and Zwaan mostly draw moving life lessons from their bittersweet study of overnight fame, survival and queer liberation.
Madonna, Luis Camacho, Jose Guitierez
- Notes From Sophie De RakoffWhen Madonna hit the road with the Blond Ambition tour in 1990, she put together a group of seven male backup dancers to travel the world with her when her fame was at its most intense. In the midst of the devastating HIV crisis, the tour became the focal point for the fight against AIDS, but as with many things Madonna things got complicated quickly. Twenty-five years later STRIKE A POSE reunited the surviving members of the troupe, allowing them to revisit an era-defining moment in time. All the feels, all the drama—it’s hard not to be moved.
