Maybe there was some resistance, but we earned our points. We were the first to walk the balls, and we were invited, never crashing the party. I was invited to come walk, so I ventured to Harlem with a couple of the Pat Field kids-which was another clique in addition to your Keith Haring kids, Pop Shop boys-and we went to the ball. I went from feeling left out to being embraced by this community. There was a specific moment when Danni Xtravaganza came to me and said, “Miss Thing, with that face and that body you could snatch trophies.” He had this way of speaking, and all I could say was: “Which train do I take?” I felt embraced by them. There was a crystal room area where the ballroom kids would hang out, and the dance floor, of course, which we all shared. There were cliques there, and this place was huge, so people had their spots. It drew an eclectic crowd of those devoted to music and dance, and to the rhythm of Larry Levan. My introduction to ballroom, like many back then, came through the hallowed ground of the Paradise Garage. Myra Lewis, founding member of the House of Field: It appealed to me on so many levels, some of which were about being a visual person, some of which were about all the ideas that spring up when you see people reinventing themselves and the world, and some of it was definitely about being a young queer, and gender-nonconforming from a very young age, myself. I was very excited-by the dancing, by the gender play. I went with a windup Bolex camera and black and white reversal film to do an assignment for my summer film class. After meeting the guys in the park, I attended a mini-ball-a smaller ball, for younger participants, with fewer categories, now called a kiki ball-at the Community Center on 13th street. Some guys were posing around a tree calling out category names like “Saks Fifth Avenue mannequins,” and “butch queen in drags.” I asked to take their picture, they said yes, and they let me know what they were doing was called voguing, and if I wanted to see more of it, I should meet Willi Ninja, and I should go to a ball. I was out photographing -I was a young photographer, just graduated from Yale, taking a summer filmmaking class at NYU-and I met some voguers in Washington Square Park. Jennie Livingston, director of Paris Is Burning (1990): I remember we would leave the club with Naomi, Iman, Linda, and go down to the pier just giving runway. I would mimic Naomi ’s walk, but she also learned a lot of stuff, not only from me and the house of Xtravaganza, but from Willi. Pat Cleveland, Marpessa, they had this way of doing amazing turns on the runway, but also posed with their entire body. We watched all the greats when it came to looking for inspiration. I was a dancer, so I think that’s how I was able to interpret it and make it my own. Later on it became more fluid, but voguing itself is a way of self-expression. Back then voguing was model poses and more stiff. That’s when I discovered voguing and the houses, the way many of us did back then. It was the mid ’80s and I was, like, 16 or 17 years old, and I discovered the New York City piers on the West Side. I became an Xtravaganza during the time when I first came out. Jose Xtravaganza, father of the House of Xtravaganza:
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