The Long Beach Pride Festival will host a ballroom competition on Saturday. But for the uninitiated, the performances may be surprising.
Destiny Grey, center, with her ballroom children, l-r, Vance Medeiros, Damian Velazquez and Brandi Chun practice voguing at the Madilyn Clark Dance Studios in North Hollywood on Tuesday, May 14, 2024.
Destiny Grey, center, with her ballroom children, l-r, Vance Medeiros, Damian Velazquez and Brandi Chun practice voguing at the Madilyn Clark Dance Studios in North Hollywood on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. Destiny Grey, center, with her ballroom children, l-r, Vance Medeiros, Damian Velazquez and Brandi Chun practice voguing at the Madilyn Clark Dance Studios in North Hollywood on Tuesday, May 14, 2024. “It means a lot to be able to combine the love of my city and my passion for ballroom together,” the 31-year-old Long Beach resident said. “I’m excited because there’s not much ballroom presence in Long Beach, so I’m really trying to cultivate and curate ballroom people within the city.
Ballroom features often fashionably dressed performers competing in a range of categories, including: Gray, for example, has seven “children” within the L.A. chapter of House of Ninja, which started in April 2019. The house gained some notoriety afterGray — whose ballroom name is “Destiny Ninja” — is a host and longtime participant of the ballroom scene. As a Black woman and an ally, Gray said she always felt welcomed because “a lot of ballroom and LGBTQ+ jargon is deeply rooted in African American culture — so I never felt out of place.
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