Influence of Ballroom
For decades, the ballroom community's innovations in performance, fashion, style, music, language, and activism has produced lasting impact throughout the world. Below are a few examples of ballroom's influence.
Peformance
Fashion
Activism
The LGBTQ+ community has faced many hardships over decades. The community has been and is continuing to fight for acceptance, representation, and equality. During the rise of ballroom culture mid-1980s, the LGBTQ+ community were facing another challenge: the AIDS epidemic. HIV (human immunodeficiency virus) causes AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), and during the peak of the AIDS epidemic in mid 80s, the government did not take any steps to help those affected by the epidemic. There was also only one pharmaceutical company working on a treatment. The crisis created many organizations like ACT-UP (AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power) and many legendary ballroom participants became activist like Hector Xtravaganza.
Media
Pose (2018-) - Pose is a drama series that is aired on FX. This series is set in New York in the late 1980s, and it highlights the underground ballroom culture. The series does well in the representing the Black and Latino LGBTQ+ community. Not only do we learn about the structure of ballroom, houses, mothers, brothers, competitions but we also learn about how this community's struggles as the LGBTQ+ try to be accepted in society and the AIDS hits their community (FX Networks, n.d.).
RuPaul's Drag Race (2009-) - Rupaul's Drag Race is a reality competition series that has expanded to a very successful franchise. Created by RuPaul Andre Charles, known as RuPaul, the competition tests drag queen contestants in their entertainment skills in a series of mini and maxi challenges. The purpose of the show is to find "America's next drag superstar". Today, RuPaul's franchise spread all over the world. Today, there are mutiple series in this frnachise like RuPaul' Drag Race: Untucked (2010), RuPaul' Drag Race All Stars (2012), RuPaul' Secret Celebrity Drag Race (2020), RuPaul' Drag Race UK (2010), Canada's Drag Race (2020) to name a few (Viacom International, n.d.).
The show showcases the talented drag queens across the world, and the success of the show is thanks to the ballroom scene created by Black and Latino community in New York.
My House (2015) - My House is a documentary series created by Vice that follows the lives of Tati 007, Alex Mugler, Jelani Mizhari, Lola Balenciaga, Relish Milan, and Precious Ebnoy. The web series gives a glimpse of what is modern-day ballroom scene (Street, 2019).
Legendary (2020-) - Legendary is a reality competition series in which contests, or voguing houses, compete to win a cash prize and be able to claim legendary status. The contestants are houses, and the contestants include the House of Escada, Ebony, Ninja, and many more. With this competition series, the audience is able to see exactly what ballroom competitions look like (WarnerMedia Direct, n.d.).
