Kathy Aoki Archive

Dance Styles of the 1800’s

These lithographic and intaglio prints suggest that certain popular dances of today (such as Twerking and Gangnam Style) could have originated over 100 years ago. In Gangnam Style (at the Moulin Rouge), Jacques Renaudin is seen mastering a dance with a mysterious gentleman whose spectacles remind us of sunglasses worn by the Korean pop singer Psy. Viewers may recognize Renaudin as the tall, lanky figure from Toulouse Lautrec paintings and lithographs. In my twerking prints, I capture highly suggestive dance moves and recontextualizes them in social and private scenes from the Victorian age.