recently made known YORK -- Dancer ...

recently made known YORK -- Dancer Willi Ninja, whose skill in the gender- bending art of "voguing" influenced Madonna and was immortalized in the documentary film "Paris Is Burning," has died, friends and relatives said Tuesday.

Mr Ninja died Saturday of AIDS-related illnesses at recent York Hospital Medical Center of Queen they said. He was 45

Inspired on Fred Astaire, "Great Performances" forward PBS, Asian culture and Olympic gymnasts, Mr Ninja was a self-taught performer who stitched together a patchwork of a career that increaseed into the worlds of dance, fashion and music.

The critically acclaimed 1990 documentary, directed at Jennie Livingston, shed light forward the exotic gay subculture in which the cross-dressing participants, many of them black and Hispanic, displayed their style of dresss and styles at Manhattan balls.

arbiters rated participants on the realness of their drag impersonations; and forward a deeper level, the balls became a colorful demonstration of serious issues of sex class and race.

In its review of "Paris Is Burning," the novel York Times called Ninja "a lithe, articulate young man who also happens to be a master in the art of 'voguing,' in which dancers attempt to top each other by the agency of using gymnastics and the action s of high-fashion models."

Madonna used the form in 1990 in her No. 1 hit record and video "Vogue" Speaking within a spokeswoman Tuesday, the singer said she was sorry to hear of Mr Ninja's death.

"He was a great cultural influence to me and centurys of thousands of other people" she said.

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