Ballroom for Beginners

A Mini Glossary

The voguing and ballroom culture is rich in history and diversity, extending far beyond mere spectacle. Since the 1960s, a wide range of specific concepts have emerged. Here is an introduction to some of the most important terms, which may also be relevant in the Animal Kingdom Kiki Ball…

House
A group of ballroom members often named after famous fashion designers. Historically, houses served as substitute families for queer people of color, providing economic and social security. Houses organize balls, and the Mother and Father are the heads of the house.

Ball
A competition inspired by masquerade and costume balls, initiated mainly by Black trans women, held regularly. Participants compete on the catwalk in various categories to win trophies for their house. Historically, balls often parodied and imitated the privileged white population.

Category
Competition categories in areas such as fashion, beauty, body, and especially dance/performance. Before each category at a ball, the commentator calls out: "Category is..."

Kiki
A smaller form of a ball where younger ballroom members, supported by elders, can experiment and develop their artistic skills.

Judges
A selected group of ballroom members who sit at the end of the catwalk and evaluate the performances of participants. The highest award: "Tens across the board!"

Realness
One of the main criteria for judges: how closely participants resemble an imagined societal ideal. "To be able to blend. That’s what realness is." – Pepper LaBeija, House of LaBeija, Paris Is Burning (1990).

MC
The commentator of the ball who introduces participants, announces results, and hypes up performances and the audience.

Reading

A playful art form of insult in which members of different houses humorously poke fun at each other. This happens with a clear distinction from insulting mechanisms that queer people are subjected to by the heteronormative order.

Shade
An elevated and refined form of reading. As Pepper LaBeija explained: "Shade is, I don’t tell you you’re ugly, but I don’t have to tell you because you know you’re ugly. And that’s shade." (Paris Is Burning, 1990).

Voguing
The central art form of ballroom culture, initiated in the 1980s by drag queen Paris Dupree in the New York nightclub Footsteps. Inspired by Vogue magazine poses, it blends movement with stillness.

Old Way
The oldest form of voguing, featuring structured poses, geometric arm and leg movements, and fluid transitions between stances.

New Way
A category that emerged in the 1990s as an evolution of Old Way, incorporating more flexibility, contortions, and sharper accents in sync with the beat.

Vogue Fem
Today’s most popular voguing category, consisting of five required elements:

Hand Performance: Angular, geometric, and spinning hand movements

Catwalk: Energetic and expressive walk with strong hip movements

Duckwalk: Small, crouched steps with outward-tilted feet

Floor Performance: Complex, twisted, acrobatic moves on the floor

Dips & Spins: Spinning turns and sudden "falls" onto the back, ideally executed on one foot

LSS (Legends, Stars, and Statements)
The opening of the evening, where select participants are introduced with their titles in descending order of significance.

Roll Call
Also part of the opening, where famous ballroom members are greeted by the MC.

Beginner
Individuals who have competed in a specific category for less than a year and have not yet won a Grand Prize.

FF (Female Figure)
Fem Queens, Drags, Women

MF (Male Figure)
Butch Queens, Trans Men, Butches (and sometimes heterosexual men)

FQ (Fem Queen)
Ballroom term for trans women

Drags
Cis men or AMAB (assigned male at birth) individuals who represent the societal concept of a "woman."

Women
Cis women, regardless of sexual orientation

BQ (Butch Queen)
Cis men who identify as homosexual

Lion Babe
Non-binary individuals and FF (stud/butch) who embody "masculine" or "feminine" sex appeal

Cat Boy
A less aggressive and less straightforward version of MF Sex Siren, presenting neither a distinctly masculine nor feminine sex appeal

OTA (Open to All)
No division into gender categories, also open to non-binary and heterosexual individuals (some categories, like Realness, may impose restrictions on OTA).

Compiled by Soumayya Gad Alla and Peter Sampel

Further References

Arvanitidou, Zoi.: Fashion, Dressing and Identities in Ballroom Subculture. In Journal of International Cooperation and Development 2, No. 1 (May 2019), 40–50.

Baker, Stuart (ed.): Voguing and the House Ballroom Scene of New York City 1989–92. London, Soul Jazz Records, 2011.

Bailey, Marlon M.: Butch Queens Up in Pumps: Gender, Performance, and Ballroom Culture in Detroit. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press, 2013.

Bailey, Marlon M.: Gender/Racial Realness: Theorizing the Gender System in Ballroom Culture. In Feminist Studies 37, No. 2 (Summer 2011), 365–386.

Butler, Judith: Gender Is Burning: Questions on Appropriation and Subversion, in: Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex, London 1993.

Krauß, Jutta: Voguing on Stage: Cultural Translations, Vestimentary Performances, and Gender Staging in Theater and Dance. Bielefeld, transcript, 2020.

Lawrence, Tim: A History of Drag Balls, Houses, and the Culture of Voguing. ezratemko.com (2011).

Livingston, Jennie (dir.): Paris Is Burning. USA: Academy Entertainment, Off White Productions, 1990. Available at watchdocumentaries.com, 76 min.

Tautfest, ANna: Voguing in ‘Paris is Burning’. In Gender Performances: Mimicry in the Feminist and Post-Colonial Context, Hamburg, Marta Press Verlag, 2018.