come from behind

ballroom. history. not an archivist just posting to preserve/reference/publicize (mostly performance, face, runway, fashion clips as well as interviews/history)

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

A reminder: almost all videos here are credited. If they are not, it’s either because I filmed it, got permission from the person who did, or it’s a major brand/ad.

If you are going to take these clips, you should always credit the source.

Not crediting is an epidemic here.

[Cats: The Jellicle Ball @jellicleballnyc]

Give it up for the movers, the shakers, the Best Choreography Tony nominees: Omari Wiles and Arturo Lyons!!!! 💋💋

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

The Icon Arturo Miyake Mugler is now a Tony nominated choreographer as a result of his work with CATS: The Jellicle Ball

He is joined by the Legendary Omari Oricci

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

https://t.co/rh8EaX7wZ2

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

“My mother’s name was Gigi LaBeija. My father’s name was Butch-Stephanie LaBeija. And I, therefore, became Junior LaBeija.”

Junior LaBeija discusses his start in the ballroom seen and his parents within the House of LaBeija.

From The New Yorker

[LAW ROACH @LUXURYLAW]

So excited to make my Broadway debut as a producer on ⁦@jellicleballnyc⁩ !! Performances start tomorrow. Get your tickets now 💛✨

[TENz Magazine @TenzMagazine]

“Noguing” calls out the untrained and uninitiated, those putting a mockery of vogue performance on public display without the technique, lineage, or respect the art form demands.

[TENz Magazine @TenzMagazine]

Contestants were shown “voguing” with minimal technical grounding, reducing a codified form to hair flips, a quick duckwalk, or the often misused death drop, properly called a dip. Judges and audiences applauded routines that, in a ballroom, would have been an instant chop.

[TENz Magazine @TenzMagazine]

For years, the show deployed ballroom language as camp shorthand without educating viewers on its origins. Early seasons often framed ballroom vernacular as witty drag banter, detached from a living, thriving culture beyond Paris Is Burning or the annual Reading Challenge.

[TENz Magazine @TenzMagazine]

For over a decade, tension has simmered between the ballroom community and RuPaul’s Drag Race. At the center of that friction are cultural appropriation, diluted terminology, and often poor voguing presented to mainstream audiences.

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

Pepper LaBeija explaining the evolution of balls from the 60s through the 1980s in Diane Martel’s short documentary titled “House of Tres” for the series Alive From Off Center on PBS

First aired July 19, 1990

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

Old Way Performance
RR Chanel and Hector Xtravaganza Present the 1993 Shadefest Ball
Marc Ballroom in New York City

Muhammad Ultra Omni

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

Pepper LaBeija explaining that before the house-ballroom scene, drag balls had social clubs like the Delightful Ladies, DuPrees and LaChanels. Then Crystal started the House of LaBeija

For The Joan Rivers Show Aug 8 1991, on the eve of the national release of Paris Is Burning

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

Dorian Corey explaining how race became a somewhat defining factor in the drag ball scene. She references Phil Black who organized annual balls in Harlem beginning in the early 1940s through at least 1969.

From The Joan Rivers Show Aug 8 1991

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

Pepper LaBeija discussing her friendship with Paris DuPree as well as walking balls in the 1960s

She walked her first ball in 1967 and then won her first ball in 1968 — it was put on by Barbarella and was the first large grand prize trophy.

From Paris Is Burning outtakes

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

Dorian Corey watching old footage of herself and Avis Pendavis competing at the old drag balls — years unspecified. Those balls were closer to pageants than balls of today.

She describes her relationship with Avis as friendly enemies or rivals

From Paris Is Burning outtakes

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

“As she was walking in the ballroom a man said to her ‘you are La Bella!’”

Junior LaBeija telling an origin tale of the House of LaBeija. This was in 2013 at the Black Pride Awards in New York City.

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

“Queens started making their dresses for next year as soon as they got home that night.”

Queens and historians discussing the Phil Black balls in Harlem of the 1950s and 1960s

This footage is from P.S. Burn This Letter Please

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

Willi Ninja explains early mainstreaming timeline

Says he was cast by Thierry Mugler to walk the fall 1989 show at an Xtravaganza ball; filmed Malcolm McLaren’s 1989 Deep in Vogue; did Madonna’s 1989 Don’t Bungle the Jungle benefit; Madonna did Vogue

From 2004 panel at NYU

[come from behind @GoAwfCis]

“He told me whatever I wanted to be he was behind me 100%. If this is what I wanted, be the best at it … and I was the best.”

Pepper LaBeija discussing her father coming to a ball one night and expressing his acceptance the next day. From an early cut of Paris Is Burning

[Mikelle Street @MikelleStreet]

“Natural carta! Face, cut for the gods!”

“It’s face.”

“There’s no surge and I’m 51.”

“It’s not runway; it’s face!”

“Yes, so why are you here?”

“It’s face!”

“Yes! It’s face; why are you here?!”

“It’s face.”