Jose Gutierez Xtravaganza (né José Gutiérrez, sometimes called Jose Xtravaganza / Extravaganza) is a dancer, choreographer, recording artist, New York City nightlife personality and the current father of the House of Xtravaganza. He is one of the most widely recognized personalities to emerge from the NYC ballroom scene of the 1980s. He is best known for his work with Madonna.
Early life
José Gutiérrez was born and raised in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, his parents having emigrated from the Dominican Republic. During his youth the neighborhood was a hotbed of raw creative energy, giving rise to the new wave music scene, the emergence of DJ culture, the development of the graffiti / street art movement, and the growing popularity of drag culture and entertainment. This creative environment would influence the way Jose perceived the world around him and the opportunities it presented for his own creative energy. As a child he was recognized for his natural dance ability and enrolled in a program of formal dance education, sponsored through the New York City Department of Education. He would continue his study of ballet and other dance styles throughout his teenage years, going on to attend the prestigious NYC Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts and studying under master choreographer Eliot Feld.
Voguing and ballroom scene
While in high school, Jose began to socialize among the Latino and African American LGBTQ community that regularly gathered along the West Side waterfront of New York City's West Village area, commonly known as "the piers". It was there that he first became aware of the gestural vocabulary and projected attitude of voguing. The dance style first emerged as part of the NYC underground ballroom scene, in which the dancers transition through a series of poses that emulate those of fashion models. Much like break dancing (which developed concurrently), there is an inherent competitive aspect to voguing in which the dancers try to outdo one another through increasingly complex poses and the fluidity of their transition between poses. The underground ball scene and voguing would later be popularized through the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, in which Jose appears voguing in competition.
As a formally trained dancer, Jose became fascinated with the expressive and gestural dance style, quickly picking up the moves and integrating them with the more formal positions of ballet. As a teenager, Jose began attending and competing in balls hosted by the New York City "houses", where the best voguers gathered to battle on the runway for prizes and recognition. It was there that he came to the attention of mother Angie Xtravaganza, matriarch of the ballroom House of Xtravaganza and was invited to become a member of the group. Consistent with the tradition of ball culture, Jose took the house name as his adopted surname in 1986. Leveraging his formal dance training, Jose developed a unique style of voguing based on clean lines, precision poses, and effortless transitions, with a projection of disciplined elegance. This combination made Jose a respected opponent in ballroom competitions, garnering him numerous trophies and awards.
Public interest in the ballroom scene began to grow in the late 1980s, providing Jose the opportunity to showcase his talents to a broader audience. In 1988 he appeared in Details magazine, photographed by Timothy Greenfield-Sanders for an essay by Chi Chi Valenti about the House of Xtravaganza. He also appeared in the December 1988 issue of American Vogue magazine alongside Naomi Campbell and other models, the May 1989 issue of Time magazine, and other local and national publications. In 1989 he participated in the Love Ball, an elaborate celebrity fundraiser organized by the Design Industry Foundation for AIDS that used the basic structure of the original balls as a template for the evening's festivities. Love Ball participants included designers Carolina Herrera and Thierry Mugler; supermodel Iman; artists Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente, and Julian Schnabel; and performance artist Leigh Bowery, among others. Jose Xtravaganza took the Voguing competition grand prize trophy created by Keith Haring, likely the most valuable ball trophy ever created. That same year, Jose and other House of Xtravaganza members toured Japan, introducing voguing to an international audience. In collaboration with GMHC, Jose appeared in a safe sex public service announcement geared toward the ballroom community. In subsequent years, Jose and the House of Xtravaganza frequently lent their talents in support of organizations related to the LGBT community.