BALL-OOZA 2024 Kiki Ball + Potluck

BALL DESCRIPTION:

All I want for Christmas... is to SNAG A TROPHY! We are pleased to bring BACK 2017’s BALL-OOZA for even more festive fun, in case you weren’t there the first time around. This time, we’re kicking off with OTY approved categories and revamped effect breakdowns. You don’t want to miss THIS family gathering, cause it’s beginning to look a LOT like Christmas.

The VKBA is pleased to be hosting this event with the support of Van Vogue Jam, Lululemon, HiM Clinic, Vancouver Coastal Health, and The Dance Centre.

Venue: The Dance Centre, Fares Theatre

Commentator: Ego 007

DJs: Gago 007

Virgin Runway

Bring it in a red, white, and green effect reminiscent of a CANDY CANE. Give us a walk with an effect to match that tells us you’re MINT to be on the RUNWAY.

Virgin Performance

Fleece Navidad! Come through with all 5 elements in your UGLIEST CHRISTMAS SWEATER. 

OTA Runway

The word TINSEL comes from the old French word Estinceler, which means to sparkle. Sparkle down the runway in a high-fashion look embellished with any of the following: tinsel, shimmer, sparkles, etc… Dazzle your competition with your look and your walk!

OTA Performance

Santa’s Werkshop has been putting its employees THROUGH IT. So tired, overworked and sore… they just want to let it ALLL out. Show us that you’re Santa's helper of the year in a CHRISTMAS ELF effect. You definitely don’t want to stay on the shelf for this one.

OTA Realness

The Swiss Alps? Cervinia? Whistler Blackcomb? Ski resorts all over the world are in their busiest time of the year, and you’re DEFINITELY not going to miss out on this season. Wax your planks and pack your bags, because we need you to bring it sporty as a SKIER or a SNOWBOARDER.

Hands Performance

It’s so cold you can barely bend your fingers… show us that YOU GOT HANDS in a pair of gloves or mittens if you dare.

OTA Face

You’re no ice queen, they just froze you that way! Put all of your best features on display as your interpretation of an ICE QUEEN/KING/ROYAL. Who will ascend to the throne tonight?

Bizarre

Of all the things that could go wrong on Christmas morning, why is the damn CHRISTMAS TREE coming alive? Put your own BIZARRE twist on the most iconic holiday symbol, and show us what’s been put under your tree. 

OTA Best Dressed

In a season where others may be dressed purely for functionality, you’ve never been one to let sub-zero temperatures hold you back from putting a LOOK together. Serve a look fit for the runway AND the trek home.  

OTA Sex Siren 

You’re on top of the Christmas tree every year, but we want to see what’s under it all. You may look like an angel, but you’re no angel. Serve us SEXY in an (unholy) ANGEL look. See you under that mistletoe…

OTA Body 

You’ve come to life in the oven, and they’re ALL trying to eat you!! Your body is so irresistible, one can’t help but want to take a bite… show us your BODY in a sickeningly sweet GINGERBREAD MAN effect. 

After a fab ball…it’s time to deck these halls!

1-3pm > OPEN SESSION

3-6pm > POT LUCK STARTS *we’ll be eating at 4pm

1-6pm > FREE DISCREET TESTING with HIM/VCH *on 7th floor* 

This has been a long and difficult year, so now’s the time to get together and close things out with a big collective meal. Gather up with the community and bring a side that means something to you, we’re here to fill the tables out with some damn good food. 

Got some tension or lessons from the ball you just gotta let out? Come to an afternoon session from 1-3 at The Dance Centre! Bring your effects from yesterday to help decorate some manequins for the potluck that goes from 3-6.

Main courses are being provided by HiM, who are also offering free testing throughout the day. Get your deets in before the year’s up so you can practice informed sex over the holi-gays every day. In partnership with HIM and Vancouver Coastal Health, nurses will be present to provide HIV/STI testing at this event. Come for confidential, easy, and drop-in testing! 

Let’s have a good time together!

We would like to acknowledge that we are coming together to celebrate on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations.

As an organization that is founded by non Black and Latinx people we acknowledge our ongoing need to question and reflect on how we navigate practicing our ballroom scene here in Vancouver, BC. We know we do not have all the answers and are always looking to be better. We are always seeking and open to how we can better support the Queer/Trans Black and Brown folks that founded the culture we love and share through VVJ.

Creating safe space has always been at the heart of ballroom culture and we hope that this event can be a safe space for everybody to enjoy.

Oppressive attitudes and behaviours including but not limited to misogyny, transphobia, racism, fat phobia, ableism, and general bigotry are not welcome here.

Racism, Anti-Blackness, homophobia, transphobia and sexism are ongoing battles that are being experienced in America, Canada and the rest of the world. We all have a lot of work to do in the ongoing fight for equality and have compiled a list of resources to help you support, donate, educate and take action to help you wherever you may be in your continued unlearning/relearning process.

If there are ways VVJ can better create an inclusive and safe space please do inform us by e-mail at [email protected] so that we may listen to your input and improve on this for future events.

An event that hosts a series of competitive categories, each with their own focus. Having been birthed in NYC by communities of Queer Black and Latinex people out of a need for safe nightlife spaces due to the discrimination they faced, balls are typically centred around creating safe space for LGBTQIA2+ POC.

Spectators, competitors, and judges, come together to celebrate people within their communities and compete against each other in different categories. Some of the most popular categories are Vogue Performance, Sex Siren, Hands, Runway, Bazaar, and Face. Each of these categories have specific requirements, and competitors are judged by a panel on how well they accomplish them. Before competing against others, category participants are required to “walk” one by one to receive full approval from all judges, known as ‘receiving your 10s’. Competitors who make their 10s battle one on one against each other to impress the judges until there is one winner.

Ballroom culture, drag ball culture, the house-ballroom community, and similar terms describe an underground queer subculture in which people "walk" (i.e., compete), perform, dance, lip-sync, and model in different categories, which are designed to simultaneously epitomize and satirize gender constructs, occupations, and social classes, while also offering an escape from reality. Category participants are required to “walk” one by one to receive full approval from all judges, known as ‘receiving your 10s’. Competitors are judged on their abilities, “effect” (costumes, appearance, theatrics, presentation), and perceived “realness” (embodied and/or visual believability, authenticity). Those who make their 10s battle one on one against each other for trophies, prizes, and glory.

Ballroom culture emerged in the late 1960s in New York City, birthed by the Black and Latinx LGBTQ2S+ community who were excluded from the drag pageant world of white America. The development of the Ballroom scene created safe and inclusive spaces for these communities to explore and experience life styles from which they were excluded due to systemic oppression.

Vogue is a freestyle competitive dance form that utilizes 5 key elements in an improvised battle with other competitors. Currently (although open to interpretation within various vogue communities), the five popular elements of Vogue Performance are catwalk, hands, duckwalk, spins and dips, and floor performance.

“For decades, ballroom, ball or house culture has been a way for queer Blacks and Latinos to live their best lives – that is, to figure out how to respond to a society that devalued their lives and attempted to erase their presence. Through elaborate performances incorporating and commenting on race, class and gender, the ball community has historically reflected the American Dream and one’s exclusion from it.” - Les Fabian Brathwaith (Quote from Rolling Stones).

Please contact the VKBA for more information at [email protected]

Event Venue

The Dance Center Faris Theatre, 677 Davie street, Vancouver, Canada