Ballroom scene

The Ballroom scene is a social subculture of the LGBT community involving staged, competitive drag fashion performances.

US History

Even from the early 1920's and through its early stages it was all about a show. The 'US Ballroom Scene' (which seems to have had had little to do with dancing) started out as a frequent event, often called a cabaret, where white men would dress up in women's clothes (drag) in order to entertain middle-class and upper-class white audiences. This scene didn't resemble what it does in the US today until the 50's or 60's with the introduction of Houses. Purely underground and was means for members of the LGBT community to come out and participate in a competition purely for recreation. Members of this community each would represent a team, or house as they refer to it. A house is a group of LGBT that would care for each other and help one another when needed. Most of the members of these houses would come from broken homes where they would not receive support or encouragement for their sexual identity. The US ballroom scene was a means for escape from the cold reality into a fantasy world where they would find acceptance for whoever they wish to be, be it a man or woman. status, wealth and glamour are the key factors in the ballroom culture.

Different houses would coordinate special events ( balls ) where the houses would meet and compete against each other in different categories. They would present themselves before a number of judges ( usually one well known person from each house ) where they would be judged accordingly

This particular scene was made public when Madonna stumbled into one of these balls and created her song "Vogue". Over the years the ballroom culture has evolved into a more modern fast-paced experience with a horde of new categories and themes. Houses evolve into others and standings between different houses also changes. Started in New York, the US ballroom scene culture has spread to a national level.

Categories and description

*Vogue- A form of dance known best as high fashion posing mixed in with various forms of dance
*Realness- Judged on participants ability to blend in with heterosexuals
*Runway- Judged on participants ability to catwalk, usually with a requested outfit or color
*Bizarre- Judged on participants creativity to design a costume based on what the category

asks for
*Labels- Judged on how many of the year labels a participant is wearing and their authenticity

Slang

*Legend- Highest form of status in the ballroom scene short of Icon (Willie Ninja, Pepper Labeija, Paris Dupree, Kevin Ultra Omni)
*Butch queen - Refers to a gay male ranging from masculine to feminine
*Fem queen- Refers to a gay male taking female hormones, post-op to pre-op, or Transgender
*Drags - Refers to a gay male in female clothing
*Ovah - A term meaning beautiful, wonderful, awesome, a variation of over
*Crafting, Mopping - Refers to stealing merchandise (often to use for a ball)
*Seedy/Knotty - Refers to an undesirable individual
*Chopped - Refers to a participant who was eliminated from a certain category
*Miss Thing - One of the most common used slang terms, used as a reference to another individual
*Bangy- Refers to an urban looking gay male or female; ghetto
*Turn it- Meaning to give it your best

External links

* [http://www.howdoilooknyc.org/starstwo.html How do i look -documentary]
* [http://www.villagevoice.com/news/0002,trebay,11690,5.html Legends of the Ball -Article]
* [http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100332/ Paris is burning -documentary]
* [http://www.opencity.org/cunningham.html Slap of Love -Article]
* [http://www.houseofblahnik.com/ House of Blahnik]