Many of you ATRL girls think that "shade, drag,kii, seethe, for filth" and etc were lingo established by the members of ATRL, when that is COMPLETELY UNTRUE.
I am here to educate you girls.
In New York during the mid 80s "Balls" started to be made. Drag queen shows started way before, in the sixties, but many people saw them as a taboo and they didn't gain a mass following until later years. These "balls" were events where the Latino and African American queens got together and competed in competitions based on dancing and fashions. Mostly fashion during the beginning. The words, shade, drag, for filth, mess, and many other common words became slang in the ball culture and passed on to what we know as normal slang in the gay community today.
"Houses" were invented. These are sort of like a gay streat gang. A gay adult would be the "Mother" and of the house and his boyfriend would be the "Father" of the house. They would create a house name and all of the members would create a stage name with the house name as their last name. They took in random members and gay runaways or homeless teens and competed in Balls against other houses
Famous Houses:
House of Ninja
House of Mizrahi
House of Labeija
House of Chanel
House of Prodigy
House of Khan ect, ect
Those are extracts from "Paris is Burning".
It's a 1990 documentary film directed by Jennie Livingston. Filmed in the mid-to-late 1980s, it chronicles the ball culture of New York City.
Then the culture EVOLVED. More notice was paid to the vogue part of the show and the dance evolved into an international marveled craft. producing Ballroom legend such as:
Alloura Zion
Leyomi Mizrahi
Yolanda
Willy Ninja
ect.
The five elements of Voguing are
Hand performance
Catwalk
Duckwalk
Floor performance
Dips
Spins (unofficial)
Here is a great song from modern artist using the slang we use here on ATRL everyday
