Origins of Ballroom
The world of Ballroom has a rich history tied to oppression, political resistance and queer freedom. Before the worldwide phenomenon infiltrated the media and pop culture of today, Ballroom was an underground subculture born out of necessity and survival.
Pre-Ballroom / Drag Balls
In 1869, the first queer masquerade ball was held in Harlem, New York. Organised as a defiance of laws prohibiting people from wearing clothes of the opposite gender, these balls held pageants where men and women would dress up to compete as the most convincing impersonator of the opposite sex.
For the next 50 years, these events grew in popularity and by the end of the 1920s, these drag balls attracted thousands of queer folk who gathered in prominent venues such as Madison Square Garden.
As masquerade drag balls gained traction, so did the political movement against gay men. In 1923, New York state legislature criminalised ‘homosexual solicitation’. Police doubled down targeting the city’s gay men by intensifying regulations and cases of entrapment. However, the increased interest in drag balls made it a bigger challenge for police to contain the culture’s growth and impact on the local community.
The racial climate in the USA had significant impacts in drag ball culture. In the 1960s, pageant judges were often always White, and Black queens were expected to match White beauty standards to increase their seemingly slim chances of winning.
As an act of resistance, Black and Latin trans women and drag queens began to organise their own events in 1962. One renowned drag ball was organised by drag queens Lottie and Crystal LaBeija who had experienced anti-blackness at a previous drag ball which was allegedly fixed to favour a Caucasian queen. This resulted in the first annual ‘House of LaBeija Ball’ in 1972 and marked the establishment of the House of LaBeija - the first Ballroom House which still exists today.
Houses proliferated and diversified across Harlem and Brooklyn throughout the 1970s and 80s. Willi Ninja founded the House of Ninja which brought in Asian aesthetics and philosophies to the Ball scene. The first Latin house founded was the House of Xtravaganza.
With more Houses being established, Balls were being held more frequently and developed to be longer events which featured many competitive categories. At this point, these Balls had grown away from the drag balls of the early 1900s and into the early versions of how we know Ballroom to be in the 21st century.
What is a House?
Houses stood as chosen families for queer youth who often experienced estrangement from their biological families. Primarily consisting of Black and Latin youth, many of these young people would have been homeless and engaged in sex work to survive prior to finding solace in Ballroom.
Prior to their House debut, members of the House of Marama performed at the 2022 Nest Fest in Hawke’s Bay.
House of Marama, Nest Fest, 2022. Photo supplied by OVĀ Collective.
Led by more established Ballroom participants called “mothers” and “fathers”, Houses provided shelter, safety and community to their “children” who typically lived under the same roof and built relationships with their “siblings”. Parents would often guide children through their own journeys with personal identity, supporting them to build careers and lives outside of Ballroom. Houses would prepare for, compete at and host Balls together.
The creation of Ballroom Houses reflected the sociopolitical landscape in New York City at the time. The early 1970s saw a new wave of gangs come about, particularly in the South Bronx where widespread poverty, crime and drug addiction strongly affected communities.
This was supported by political endorsement of macho ‘real man’ narratives which further isolated the Black, Latin, gay, working-class youth in their neighbourhoods. As a result, they turned to each other and formed their own version of gangs which they called ‘houses’.
The House of Coven-Aucoin honouring their Overall Founding Fatheir Fang Coven-Aucoin with the title “Legendary” in the Aotearoa Ballroom scene.
The Categories are: Realness and Voguing
Realness
Femme Queen Realness, The Grand Kiki House of Marama Ball, 2025. Photo by Lewis Ferris (274113)
The ‘Realness’ category sits at the heart of Ballroom. Born from the need for trans and gay people to survive against societal oppression and alienation, Realness stands to acknowledge their struggles and honours their work to “pass” in mainstream society.
Competitors are judged on their ability to fit in cisgender heteronormative environments without being recognised (or “clocked”) as a marginalised identity.
Trans Man and Femme Queen Realness - the category called for a ‘Date Night’ effect.
Date night category: Trans Man and Femme Queen Realness. The Grand Kiki House of Marama Ball, 2025. Photo by Lewis Ferris. Te Papa.
Different subcategories were created under the ‘Realness’ umbrella such as ‘Executive Realness’, ‘Schoolboy/girl Realness’ and ‘Thug Realness’. This paralleled the realities experienced by trans and gay people when systematic marginalisation often prevented them finding opportunities for employment or higher education.
Voguing
Voguing emerged as the key dance style of Ballroom and is one of the most well-renowned categories. It began with Paris DuPree and other Black queens emulating the models’ poses on Vogue magazines, switching between poses whilst following a beat.
Voguing is about storytelling and a “dip” is used to punctuate one’s movement.
The Grand Kiki House of Marama Ball, 2025. Photo by Lewis Ferris. Te Papa (274131)
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Competing queens tried to stand in front of their opponent throwing “shade” at them - and attempting to one-up them with prettier poses. When this practice, originally called “posing”, gained more attention at Balls, people started calling it “voguing”.
Since then, performers brought in their own style and influences into the dance, creating what we now know as the three styles of vogue: Old Way, New Way and Vogue Fem.
Virgin Voguers showing off their nastiest ‘Catwalk' at the Grand Kiki House of Marama Ball, 2025. Photo by Lewis Ferris (274158)