The History of Ballroom

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By Jake Tickle, Third Year English Literature

In celebration of LGBTQ+ History Month, and in light of the University’s LGBTQ+ society’s ball this month, Jake considers a foundational sub-culture of queerness: ballroom

While many long-associate 1960s Harlem with the birth of ballroom culture, its roots are far earlier and more expansive.

William Dorsey Swann, born into slavery in 1860, was not only the first person to self-identify as a “Queen of Drag”, but also to lead a queer resistance group. The Washington Post in 1888 details the arrests following a raid on Swann’s 30th birthday celebrations, where the post notes one of the attendees named Dorsey as wearing ‘a gorgeous dress of cream-coloured satin.’ Swann’s arrest and the following report from the Washington Post highlighted to the public the existence of the crossing of boundaries between race, gender and class; Swann contested these charges, confronting those who accused them.

From around the post-Civil War era in the 1870s, at Hamilton Lodge No. 710, regular drag balls were held. Attendees were of different races, sexualities and genders, including women dressing in men’s suits, whilst ‘female impersonators’, who were the main attraction, showed off their gowns and bodies to panels of judges. After brief popular enjoyment, these balls were sent underground, being made illegal due to their taboo nature.

Whilst some twentieth-century balls were able to freely evade police raids, the 1930s was a period of repression. With the Great Depression causing adverse effects on the American population and the global economy, far-right parties gained significant influence, thus leading to a suppression of liberal gender, race and class crossing. The violence with which ballroom culture was suppressed during this period is depicted in the New York Age headline: “Fifteen Arrested By Police as ‘Fairies’ Turn ‘Em On.” They were charged with “offering to commit lewd acts.”’  

Moving forward to 1967, when Miss Philadelphia Rachel Harlow was crowned Miss All-America Camp Beauty Pageant, Crystal LaBeija called out the judges for discriminating against the Black and Latinx contestants. Crystal decided from then that she would no longer attend the balls that discriminated against her and her peers. As a result, Crystal and Lottie LaBeija went on to create their own ball, later creating the House of LaBeija.

In ball culture, ‘houses’ were a means of finding belonging through chosen families, with queer people forming ‘families’ with house mothers to support them. As ‘mothers’, many queer elders aimed to support younger queer people, known as ‘children’. For those no longer accepted by their biological families, houses were a way for queer youth to find safety in a world that was readily hostile towards LGBTQ+ individuals. While houses functioned as family units, they also formed teams which would compete against one another in balls. Some of the most famous houses other than LaBeija include the House of Ninja, House of Revlon, House of Balenciaga, House of Mugler, House of Xtravaganza, and many more.

In ballroom, categories were used to distinguish between different looks and acts contestants performed. As the ballroom expanded, so did its categories, going from just a few to countless categories for all types of people to walk in. One of the most famous categories is ‘realness’, where the contestant dress and act to “pass” as a heterosexual man or woman. This was a way of being able to experience societal acceptance by playing the parts that they were not able to access due to their race, sexuality and/or gender identity; these balls were judged in a fashion similar to pageants where the judges vote out of ten.

This brings me to voguing – although it was brought into the limelight with Madonna’s hit song ‘Vogue’ of the 90s, voguing originated many years before that. Voguing in its most basic form consists of fast, sharp poses and variations in levels. It takes inspiration from gymnastics and the hieroglyphics of the Ancient Egyptians. Most notably, Willi Ninja is one of the most famous examples of someone who was mesmerising when voguing and is often referred to as being the ‘Godfather of Voguing’.

Willi Ninja appeared alongside many others in the 1990 documentary Paris is Burning. In this famous documentary, director Jennie Livingstone offers a glimpse into the New York ballroom scene. Filmed over the course of seven years, Livingstone recorded around 75 hours of footage and cut it all down to 70 minutes or so of footage.

Livingstone documents voguing, numerous balls and categories, as well as candid interviews with some of the most notable queens including Dorian Corey, Pepper LaBeija and Venus Xtravaganza. “In a ballroom, you can be anything you want,” says Dorien Corey. Meanwhile, Venus Xtravaganza wishes how she could be a “spoiler, rich white girl. They get whatever they want, whenever they want it.”

In the present, the influence of ballroom can be felt everywhere. Ballroom culture continues to thrive today, with its legacy pervading pop culture. In television, shows such as RuPaul’s Drag Race, Pose and Legendary showcase the ballroom culture’s timeless presence in queer culture. And its influence can be seen in mainstream music from the likes of Lady Gaga, Beyoncé and Madonna. In Beyoncé’s latest album Renaissance, she makes a plethora of ballroom and queer culture references, particularly in the song PURE/HONEY, where the song includes samples from Kevin Aviance and Moi Renee’s song from 1992 “Miss Honey”. These references are felt everywhere, showing how all the individuals from this intricate and beautiful subculture have paved the way for pop culture as it is today.

Ballroom emerged out of an oppressive society, where being queer was taboo and in some places, illegal. Despite this, ballroom culture continued to thrive and is a testament to the unapologetic and brave people who built the foundations of queer culture, and pop culture, we see all around us today.