Archie Burnett

Archie Burnett, Club Dancer, a self-taught freestyler started dancing when he was 3 years old, “on the sly,” in his mother’s living room in front of the TV. Raised in a strict Seventh Day Adventist family in Brooklyn, N.Y., he more than often found that the call of the dance would cause major conflict in his up bringing, yet the call was destiny.

Now 54, Burnett is a well-known master of varied styles of club dancing for well over 40yrs, which he teaches and performs worldwide. When he first went to The Loft in 1981 (a famous underground House dance club hosted by DJ David Mancuso), he gained instant admiration for his unique Waacking (A Strictly West Coast Dance created and popularized in the Gay Clubs in L.A. in the early 70′s) and step styles(A New York thing), made up from “my weird interpretation of Soul Train.” On a chance encounter in Washington Square Park coming from the Loft he saw “Vogue” for the very first time in 1981 and was hooked!

Burnett works for the New York Transit Authority to support his art habit; he is a graphic artist and avid weightlifter, splits his time between work, family, clubs, teaching Vogue, Waacking and Hustle at NYC PERIDANCE Capezio Dance Center and around the world. International teaching: Germany, Austria, Poland, Belgium, France, Finland, Sweden, Russia, Netherlands, Czech Republic, Italy, Japan, Brazil and many more to come. He is the first Father (Grandfather now)of the HOUSE OF NINJA, the house created by beloved ICON and friend Willi NINJA. He has done lecture/demonstrations and panels at Yale, Duke, Harvard, Princeton, New York University and Florida State University. He has appeared in several music videos, independent films, and concert dance performances New York City at Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, DanceSpace, and Dixon Place.

He has appeared in several music videos and independent films, and besides dancing at the clubs, he also performs for concert-dance choreographers Doug Elkins, David Neumann, Cori Colinghouse, or, he has shown his own work at Dance Theater Workshop, PS122, DanceSpace, DixonPlace, 92nd Street Y and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Théâtre Suresnes JeanVilar in Paris.