STEVEN CANALS: The category is--
the category is-- the category is--
[MUSIC PLAYING]
--the category is runway.
We done changed the culture, y'all!
Everybody in the world is trying to learn to vogue.
ANGELICA ROSS: Season 2 of "Pose"
tells a story of the underdog.
We see the ballroom community certainly
be thrust into the spotlight.
LEIOMY MALDONADO: It's beautiful,
the fact that we came from underground to now
being spotlighted.
I'm here today to teach you guys some vogueing tips 101.
So you're going to tap one shoulder over to the other.
You're going to roll down, drop.
Opposite, over, roll, drop.
STEVEN CANALS: This is the community
where your "slay mamas" and your "yass" and all that comes from.
One, over, and hit up.
BILLY PORTER: You know, so many things
that have become mainstream have started with us.
And so this season is a bit of a study session,
you know, the Crib notes as to why you're saying what you're
saying, what does vernaculars and what
those colloquialisms come from.
STEVEN CANALS: All right.
Y'all bringing it.
Ah, ah, y'all bringing it to the floor, to the floor.
ANGELICA ROSS: This space was created for people of color,
for folks who were not being seen in these very
white spaces, white gay spaces.
LEIOMY MALDONADO: It Started from Struggles.
It started from a place where we weren't being accepted.
We created these things to have something
that we can call our own.
DYLLON BURNSIDE: When the outside world tells you
you're not supposed to be this, you're not supposed to look
this way, you're not supposed to have these things,
you're not supposed to move this way,
they say, you know what, this is my floor,
and I can do whatever I want to do on this floor
and be whoever I want to be.
And you can't take that away from me.
STEVEN CANALS: 10, 10 10, 10, 10 across the board!
The houses within the ballroom community
have always served as a safety net
to the members of the community, which is obviously critically
important in the '80s and the '90s
in the midst of these really horrific epidemics.
Balls were a means of survival.
Balls were also a way of protecting
people and educating people.
The community of activists that were in the ball scene trying
to bring awareness to the kids who didn't want to look
at the reality of HIV/AIDS, that's
a story we haven't seen before.
[HIP HOP MUSIC PLAYING]
When you turn, tap a little again.
RYAN JAMAL SWAIN: The ballroom and dance gives you
that liberation to just be free, I mean, just be free, you know?
LEIOMY MALDONADO: Just take your time.
Don't rush.
The beginning was so beautiful.
Like, you look like cotton was-- it was like--
(SINGING) Ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho, ho-o.
I grew up in the South.
(SINGING) --ho, ho, ho--
TWIGGY PUCCI GARCON: --and runway
has always been a way that I can feel affirmed in my expression.
DYLLON BURNSIDE: Just for me because I was born
a cis gendered male, it was hard to wrap
my mind around what that sort of movement was like in my body.
Hey, what's going on, Frank?
As I was dancing, there was a breakthrough
on the other side for me.
There was something there for me that I needed to take away
from this that says I'm allowed to move in any way
that I see fit.
For me, I wasn't able to access
my best self until I vogued.
Absolute introvert, then being a voguer where you have
to be you're 100% best self exposes you
to be an extrovert and a good old thing
we like to call a click, ow.
But that was fierce.
There's always joy in the room,
so, so, so, so, so much joy.
And at the bases of dance is that it came from the people.
It's a way of communicating.
We're working hard, y'all.
We're working hard, working hard.
Your hair!
STEVEN CANALS: The ballroom community
continues to play a role in young queer and trans people's
lives today.
If you feel you can connect to that, come find us.
If you're looking for positivity and confidence, vogue.
[MUSIC PLAYING]