In the late ’80s, an underground dance movement was raging in New York City gay clubs. Called voguing, it caught the eye of a boundary-pushing pop star who was searching for fresh inspiration.

Madonna was urged by Debi Mazar (then her hairdresser, later an actress in shows like “Entourage”) to go to the Sound Factory, where two of the city’s best voguers — Jose Gutierez and Luis Camacho — held court.

“She invited me to dance right there,” says Gutierez, who remembers being scantily clad at the time. “She ordered her bodyguard to give me his pants, and [I put them on and] she sat there and watched me strip. She was blown away. After that, we hung out the whole night.”

It was a wild evening that would thrust Gutierez into Madonna’s inner circle and change the Lower East Side native’s life forever. At the singer’s invitation, the 18-year-old went from attending La Guardia High School on the Upper West Side to co-starring with six other young male dancers in the “Vogue” video, dancing alongside Madonna on her 1990 Blond Ambition tour and even appearing in her notorious “Truth or Dare” documentary.

The musician took Gutierez and the others under her wing, acting as both mother and mentor — opening them up to a glamorous, and loving, life. But when the tour was over, Madonna abandoned most of this “family” and moved on to the next craze, leaving the young men rudderless.

Says Gutierez, “Things come to an end abruptly. And you don’t prepare for it.”

Sources tell The Post that this is the Madonna way. When it comes to hiring her support staff, an insider says, “She seems to make a beeline for a certain ‘type’ — young, naive and with emotional baggage. It’s as though she can spot a troubled background a mile off.

“She will give these dancers, stage crew, nannies and assistants what she considers to be a great life — but it’s always all on her terms,” the source adds. “If there is a difference of opinion or if she feels that they are no longer appreciating her, she can turn nasty. If she doesn’t fire them, she’s been known to freeze them out: the glacial stares can be very hard to tolerate.”

‘She seems to make a beeline for a certain “type” — young, naive and with emotional baggage. It’s as though she can spot a troubled background a mile off.’ - a source on Madonna

The rise and fall of Madonna’s relationship with Gutierez, Camacho and the other young dancers from the Blond Ambition tour — Kevin Stea, Salim Gauwloos, Oliver Crumes, Carlton Wilborn and Gabriel Trupin — is captured in “Strike a Pose,” a documentary premiering at the Tribeca Film Festival in April. The film examines how, thanks to their writhing, high-energy performances on stage and in “Truth or Dare,” the men became gay icons. It also looks in on their lives and careers in the post-Madonna whirlwind.

“Besides my blood relatives, they are my first family I bonded with,” says Stea in the film. “It’s a very formative part of my life. My mom was kind of absent at that point, so having Madonna around did fill that space.”

Most of the dancers haven’t seen their fearless leader in 25 years.

“She has a real eye for raw talent, and she wants to help people and give them a leg up in the industry,” says the Madonna insider. “She often befriends the newcomers and goes out of her way to make them feel welcome.”

But there’s always a motive, says Gutierez, now 44: “She got a lot of empowerment through us, honestly.”

He recalls how he, along with Wilborn, continued to work with Madonna after the tour, though no longer on an everyday basis. And he felt compelled to do whatever it took to stay in her good graces. Gutierez says his devotion was so deep that when Michael Jackson asked him to work on his Dangerous world tour and Madonna told him to turn it down, he obeyed.

“Even though I love this man, I am going to turn this down to show loyalty to [Madonna],” Gutierez remembers thinking. “I wish I would have [gone] with him.”

In the end, Madonna got bored with Gutierez and moved on to the next hot thing.

“[Camacho and I] put out a record under her label . . . and she didn’t promote it enough,” Gutierez claims. “She wanted to be an actress and be in ‘A League of Their Own,’ and paid [my] project no mind. [She] half-assed it.”

For other dancers, the “familial” bonds had begun to unravel almost as soon as “Truth or Dare” hit theaters.

In 1992, Crumes, Trupin and Stea sued Madonna, saying she had lied about the intended use of filmed footage and invaded their privacy. At the center of the dispute was a steamy scene showing Gauwloos and Trupin French kissing. Trupin, who died of AIDS in 1995, was upset that the film publicly outed him as gay. His mother makes an emotional appearance in “Strike a Pose,” saying that she believes Madonna used her son as her pawn.

“He was ashamed of being caught off guard like that. He wasn’t there yet. He wasn’t ready,” Sue Trupin says. “He begged her not to use [the footage] and she wouldn’t relent.”

Stea tells The Post that his grievance was over the contract the dancers had signed for appearing on camera and how they were to be paid. The trio eventually reached an out-of-court settlement in 1994 and the lawsuit was dismissed.

Some believe the movie was just another example of Madonna taking what she thought was hers. As Crumes says in “Strike a Pose”: “If it wasn’t for us, there would be no [‘Truth or Dare’].”

“We sat in a room and we created. We were doing the styling and not expecting anything in return, and now knowing we’re basically creative directing this s - - t. We were doing it for fun,” Gutierez says. “At the time, I didn’t know the business.”

According to the Madonna insider, employees had good reason not to cross her.

“She’ll be BFFs with a dancer until she feels there is a conflict of interest . . . There have been occasions where they have wanted to hang out with other people, take more vacations than she thought were necessary, or questioned her way of doing things — at that point the friendship will often come to an abrupt halt.”

And she can behave in such a vengeful way as to burn bridges forever.

Around 2009, Madonna fired trainer Tracy Anderson — because, a source says, Anderson started sending her employees to sessions when she was too busy to attend herself. Perhaps to get back at the trainer, Madonna enlisted one of Anderson’s protégées, Nicole Winhoffer, as a replacement. Winhoffer was also named the face of the singer’s Hard Candy Fitness studios (there are nine locations around the world, albeit none in the United States). Though the promotion sounds generous on the surface, it ended up giving Madonna more control.

“If you are with her, she owns you,” says a Winhoffer pal. “As soon as Nicole started to get recognition, whether it was in the press or brands or agencies wanting to work with her, Madonna started cracking down and not letting her do anything.”

After five years with Her Madgesty, Winhoffer left to pursue ventures that had been off-limits. (She is now the global ambassador for Adidas by Stella McCartney.)

Madonna was not happy about one of her own leaving the nest. At a February concert in the Philippines, she publicly threw dirt on Winhoffer, whose mother is from the conservative Asian country.

“You know, once I had this Filipino trainer, this beautiful girl. She was gorgeous, and very talented as a trainer,” Madonna told the crowd. “But, she f - - ked my boyfriend, so I fired her.”

But, as Page Six reported, Winhoffer had a fling with Madonna’s now-ex-boyfriend, dancer Brahim Zaibet — only it was before the singer ever dated him. (Madonna’s spokesperson did not return requests for comment.)

Madonna’s “bad mommy” behavior — bringing people close, then stifling them until they can’t take it — even seems to extend to her ongoing custody battle with ex-husband Guy Ritchie over their 15-year-old son, Rocco. A source told The Post in January that Rocco refused to return to his mother’s New York home because of her “controlling” ways.

“She has the best of intentions with both her children and her employees, but she doesn’t get why either the kids or the staff would want to deviate from her way of doing things,” says the Madonna insider. “She feels as though she has curated the perfect life and, with her, loyalty means toeing the line. You’re either on Team Madonna or you’re not.”

As for Gutierez, who appears in and consults on Baz Luhrmann’s upcoming Netflix series, “The Get Down,” he hasn’t spoken to his former mentor in well over a decade. Five years ago, he saw her at Macy’s for the launch of her “Truth or Dare” fragrance.

“She saw me and just smiled. That was it,” he says, still confused and heartbroken. After all, “We were family.”