Strike a Pose: Ballroom culture since the '70s

"Forget the waltz and the tango. For this show, we’re headed to a different kind of ball. In these spaces, Houses (a kinship system consisting of mothers, fathers, and children) compete in different walking and dancing competitions.

Crystal LaBeija is credited as the beginning of ballroom culture. In 1967, she walked off the stage at a drag ball in protest of racial bias from the ball judges. In the early ’70s, she left the drag ball scene altogether and started what is considered the first ballroom house — the House of LaBeija"