(upbeat music)
- Well Ballroom to me,
is like a chosen family.
Like some people say blood is thicker than water,
but I feel like the people who witness your existence,
that's your true family.
- People who are of the LGBTQ community,
they don't necessarily always have a place
to always have a outlet to express themselves.
And I think that being that Ballroom
at one point, being an underground type of thing
and now being such a mainstream thing
has kind of pushed everyone to be
so much out of their comfort zones
and it's made people express themselves
in ways that they couldn't
because they're around people that they can relate to.
And they're around people that go through the same struggles
that they go through.
So that's why Ballroom's so important because
you're in the same room with a whole bunch of people
just like yourself that may not look like you
but they have experienced the same amount of things
that you've experienced in your life.
(rhythmic music)
- Okay so what I love about Ballroom
because it is a form of self expression.
So it's like, every category came
from the original category which is realness or the mothers.
Like originally the houses used to support their mothers
so it was all about getting your mother ready
almost like a pageantry system.
So it was like your family, built around the mother,
and the mother is pretty much the Ball,
like how she shuts down the stage is
what it's all about.
- So the Ballroom scene,
it embraces the sacred divine feminine
intertwined with the sacred divine masculine.
It is confidence, it is beauty,
it is everything that is divinely authentic and powerful.
It truly is spirituality because it's compassion,
it is passion energy
that brings that compassion towards each other.
And that is spirituality and it's authenticity.
- Ever since I've joined the House of Labeija
everything's kinda of been somewhat Ball related,
or Ballroom related.
And I haven't been able to escape it
and it's something that I love.
So I am not complaining about it.
But yes, like I would walk in the street
and I'll just, you know like,
play a beat on my phone
and then I'll just start vogueing in my head.
Start like...
(hip hop music)
Bam, like I would,
you know like I would just start, I would do that.
Or like, I would be in the train
I'm waiting for a train that's coming in 20 minutes
and I'm just vogueing in my head because
I'm listening to a bad beat.
Or I hear something at a club and I'm with my friends
and we just form a circle and we're vogueing.
So that's how, I don't know,
I guess that's how I would Ballroom into my life, yeah.
- It's that balance of that ferocity with that softness.
Soft and cunt as they say.
And the Ballroom scene definitely does invigorate that
all the more.
In order for you to win in the battles,
you need to be fierce.
You need to give that bitch attitude like,
"darling it is me and I am fierce, I am fabulous,
"I am divine."
That is the energy that's so important to be conjured up
and the Ballroom scene really pushes one into.
- There is a lot of conflict in Ballroom
and I hate to say that but it is.
And there's a lot of underground shade that people
don't necessarily see on the outside in.
And that's something that you have to deal with.
And Ballroom is really based on politics.
Who's the hottest girl?
Who's the newest girl?
Are we really gonna let the newest girl beat the hottest
girl?
This girl's been turning it for five years, 10 years
in her category.
This one just came in and he's
two months in, three months in.
He's cute and he's doing his thing.
But if they battle, are we gonna let this one
be picked over this one?
No.
- Ballroom has like, really expanded and you know,
it's such a honor to be here in this time
to see that.
You know, because it just shows where our talent
has went.
You know, as a whole.
- In the next 10 years I would love Ballroom to be global.
In third world countries too where it is accepted,
where everyone is free to be a more confident,
divinely intertwined masculine and feminine individuals.
That is what the Ballroom scene brings about.
Confidence, attitude, sass, and elegance, and couture,
fabulosity.
It is everything and more and it would be an honor,
a dream,
to see Ballroom really transcend.
This Obiani Labeija
and you are watching BET "Queer as Fuck!"