In 2020, the dance phenomenon Waacking took over Tik Tok, led by dancers Princess Lockerooo and Richard James. Emerging from the queer community, Waacking has its origins in Los Angeles’s gay club scene, sharing similar DNA to Punking, a ‘70s dance phenomenon that reappropriated the word “punk,” once a derogatory insult in the gay community, turning negative into positive. Characterized by forceful arm movements, Waacking became a symbol of identity in the gay community, which sought, as Waacking ambassador Kumari Suraj explains, “to turn oppression into expression.” Waacking surged from the West Coast to New York City, and exploded into more mainstream imagination when it was popularized on Don Cornelius’s Soul Train in the 1970s and ‘80s. But as the AIDS epidemic ravaged through the gay community, Waacking submerged further into subculture. By the ‘90s Waacking grew out of vogue, before legendary dancer Brian “Footwork” Green revived the wily dance style in the early aughts.

Now, Waacking is reborn with Princess Lockerooo and Richard James leading the charge. Here they are decked out in 1 Moncler JW Anderson, Moncler’s latest Spring/Summer Genius collaboration with Jonathan Anderson’s label, providing a refreshing reminder that sometimes the best dance parties need only two people and an irresistible beat.