What is the "Ballroom scene"?

The Ballroom Scene

A Ball my dear ones is a event, an extradinaire event. You see its a gathering of talented individuals. Even from the early 1920's and through its early stages it was all about a show. The '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.

These compeititons are all based on different categoris, many of these categories have developed into sub-categories, but don't worry your resident ballroom diva has you covered.
Thing to know when going to a ball:

The Categories

Vogue- A form of dance known best as high fashion posing mixed in with various forms of dance
*Vogue Fem - Male who vogues soft also know as soft
* RWT (Realness with twist) - Masculine "looking" males who can vogue like a vogue fem (usually the longest section with a ball)
* Darmatics - Vogue fem taken to the extreme, the stunts seen before with the vogue fem are redefined and strenghten. The participant strives to bring a different approach to voguing
* Performance - This is the real dance aspect to voguing, the voguer takes different aspect of dance and mesh together with the different elements of basic voguing
Realness- Judged on participants ability to blend in with heterosexuals
*Drags realness - A boy in women's clothing
*Femqueen realness - Refers to a gay male taking female hormones, post-op to pre-op, or Transgender,
*Butchrealness - A lesbian taking male hormones, transgender
*Schoolboy Realness - A boy who looks like he is actually going to school
*Excutive Realness - Look like the business man that you passed a few minutes ago on you way to the ball
*Pretty boy realness - A pretty boy, has it all face, charm, smile, but still reminds a BOY (masculine)
Runway- Judged on participants ability to catwalk, usually with a requested outfit or color
*BQ (Butchqueen) - a gay male who walks the catwalk with that certain twitch in his hips
*BQIP (Butchqueen in Pumps) - a gay male who walks that catwalk in those fab HEELS
*BQID (Butchqueen in Drags) - a gay male who is walk that catwalk in drag, being a woman for one night
FF(Female Figure)/Womens - that woman/femqueen/dragqueen who walks the runway like a real model, no stunts or tricks
All American - the boy, giving that masculine runway
Sex Siren -Judged on the participants ability to sell sex with there look
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

As you know the real world has slang as so does the ballroom scene, here are a few words just for you knowledge:

>Bangy cunt - an individual who is seen as ghetto acting
>Trade - 1. Looks hetro, could get the girls number and then turn around and get the guys number WINK WINK ie: he is so trade (he looks real/hetro) 2. The size of an individuals penis ie: I heard he got trade ( heard he has a big penis)
>Legend- Highest form of status in the ballroom scene short of Icon
>Turn it- Meaning to give it your best
>Chopped - Refers to a participant who was eliminated from a certain category
>Ovah - A term meaning beautiful, wonderful, awesome, a variation of over
>Crafting, Mopping - Refers to stealing merchandise

More to come, what is a HOUSE???

XOXO
Grace Jones Legacy Intl

THe Start of it All

As you may know or not know there is an underworld to this fablous world of fashion that is controlled by ballroom queens who strive for excellence in a world were they are accepted. For the people who might not know (hetros) "The Ballroom" scene is where young queer individuals show off there talents in FASHION, dancing and offcourse the one thing that we all know how to do WALK. This world is dominated by fashion in all aspects, from thugwear to couture wear. In the ballroom scene you have groups known as houses, many of these houses are named after OVAH fashion houses such as Escada, Mizrahi, Chanel, and many more, some take the name of other OVAH products of life. For the newbies to the ballroom scene I advise you to watch Paris is Burning or you will be doing youself a greave injustice. Being that I myself is a newbie to the ballroom scene and was completely astonished to see some of the great fashion that was taking place I decided that what better way to show it that on a blog. So this my friends is the starting of it, a place where you can come to see what underground fashion is, see why the gay community is more stylish that any other community and why we make such great fashion designer, stylisy and just all over great people.

XOXO
Grace Jones Legacy Intl