Born in the gay clubs of LA, the craze was popularised by John Travolta, Donna Summer and the TV show Soul Train. Now it’s an LGBTQ+ hit in Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and beyond

When Cheryl Song stepped on to the all-black set of Soul Train in 1976, she was met with a deathly silence that was followed by a few threats, then a woman snarling: “Who does that high yellow bitch think she is?” Two friends from school had brought Song along to Don Cornelius’s groundbreaking TV show as something of a practical joke, assuming that she wouldn’t be selected because of her Asian heritage. But Song – “the Asian girl with the long hair” – went on to dance on the show for 14 years. “No matter what colour you are,” she says, “you’re just there to dance and have fun.”

In those early days on Soul Train, waacking – an improvised dance done to the beat of disco that incorporated martial arts elements, rapid arm movements, poses and a celebrated attitude – was starting to go mainstream. As a straight Asian woman, Song had little in common with waacking’s LGBTQ+ origins, it being an unapologetic dance born from oppression. But she loved it nonetheless. “It was direct, it was a strong movement and it was dramatic,” she says.

When I dance other styles, it’s like living in people’s shadow. When I dance waacking, I am celebrating myself