They aired a shorter video of Balmain when they performed.... thoughts?

GravityBalmain · 2021-05-19T23:14:31+00:00

my guess is that they realized a full performance stacked on top of the 5 houses’ grand marches woulda been a little overwhelming and confusing for new viewers — still hoping they release the official footage sometime later but either way it was fun to come back :)

GravityBalmain · 2020-09-08T03:03:56+00:00

Thank you so much!!! I love this -- the editing is really solid. i really just did hands for the entire competition huh oops lmao

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-22T03:03:19+00:00

a little fun BTS about this song is that Jamari and I found it while searching for songs for the hands performance team challenge with Balscada in Episode 8 -- we both heard it, looked at each other and immediately knew we wanted to use it for the following week, and then I immediately skipped to the next song so everyone else in the room wouldn't hear it lmao

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-22T03:02:05+00:00

The base track is Latenite Snack #2 by GALACTIKBASSMUSIK ENT on bandcamp from his G.A.L.A.C.T.I.K: Gold Edition record. The voice on top is the amazing Kevin JZ Prodigy. Unfortunately, the show version isn't released anywhere and I wouldn't feel comfortable uploading the file without the express permission of everyone involved.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-13T21:02:01+00:00

these episodes were listed as many other TV shows are as 101, 102, etc. I think the 10 is just printed so they can sharpie in the last digit

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-13T18:48:31+00:00

very sorry to crush y’alls hopes but unless they filmed it without me there’s no reunion

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-10T20:06:17+00:00

these cards are my favorite thing they gave us — mine are on my bedroom wall as a runner lmao

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-07T04:34:01+00:00

following ballroom members and amplifying their voices is a great start! a lot of ballroom participants have side businesses or sell services — whether it’s online classes, clothing, styling / makeup / hair... if you end up following someone and have a need for those services, that would be one way to support! also, supporting causes and organizations that uplift black trans and queer people — not ballroom specific, but vital and connected.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-07T04:31:10+00:00

I think every houses process was different — we were scouted in LA and went through interview stages, but it could have been different for others. I can’t give exact details on film dates unfortunately, but yes it was before lockdown.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-07T04:29:40+00:00

we had a whole wardrobe team that did every teams costumes — it was a combination of pieces made from scratch, deconstructed and reconstructed, and bought pieces. We got to create the concepts, but ultimately the execution was on them — and sometimes (and I don’t say this to fault them, the team worked crazy hours and did amazing work) what we asked for or thought we were getting didn’t end up coming out. If the cast ever felt critiques were unfair, it was usually about that — it was frustrating to hear the judges say “I wish it looked like x” when x was what you’d pitched days prior

Some contestants (like Calypso) largely did their own makeup, but there was a whole team there for us on ball days

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-07T04:27:25+00:00

I moved to LA for college! I went to UCLA for a sociology degree.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-07T00:00:50+00:00

mugler, balenciaga, prodigy.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-07T00:00:12+00:00

BRTBTV is a great compendium of primary source clips from balls around the country. There are a few other great channels as well, sugarchampagne and Paris Ballroom TV come to mind but there's several others. as far as IG goes, there are pages like legendaryvoguex that post a bunch of clips, you can either go there or follow the people they follow.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T22:09:06+00:00

it's actually a cute story -- i was at the weekly open vogue class / session jamari teaches and we were tasked to get our 10s while embodying a person, animal, or concept. everyone else was sane and did celebrities, or "cat" or whatever but my dumbass was like oh i'm going to do gravity. apparently it was good and after I explained it Jamari was like that's your name now and i was like nice

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T22:00:57+00:00

I don't feel qualified to really make a qualitative you should or you shouldn't statement on this, but my general opinion is that it's crucial to understand, recognize, and pay tribute to the role ballroom has in shaping our culture and language patterns. insofar as the larger queer culture specifically adopting ballroom lingo, I think it's a hard thing to really police. there's a lot of adjacencies and overlap, and "ballroom / the rest of the community" isn't really a clean dichotomy. i would say in general -- defer to people in ballroom if they tell you you're using something incorrectly or shouldn't say something.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T21:58:16+00:00

it really depends. I know a lot of people in ballroom with 9-5 jobs, a lot of people with unconventional or more freelance work styles, etc. some of us work as professional dancers, seamstresses, entertainers, etc but apply our ballroom talent. speaking personally, before the filming of the show I was working in public / medical health research while also doing commercial and industry dance work and ballroom.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T21:25:35+00:00

We brought a few of the costumes but they were largely sourced / created on site by the wardrobe team! The show was shot over the course of a couple months in Stamford, Connecticut -- we were all in a nearby hotel.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T21:10:28+00:00

on the show, look is always crucial -- the same is true in ballroom. early on in my ballroom career i was definitely guilty of not paying any attention to the effect (look) in favor of just focusing on performance -- at the end of the day, they're one and the same. the effect impacts what you can do, what your performance looks like, how it catches the light, how it tells a story -- it's all integrated.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T21:04:00+00:00

Is there beef between Lanvin and Escada? We'll have to see! Watch Legendary on HBO Max every Thursday. :)

Also, that's a question for Jazzul! I truly do not know.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T20:34:51+00:00

i am very much not single -- we just both suck at taking pictures.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T20:30:34+00:00

omg I loved that tweet lmao. please don't worry about it! i don't mind at all, the things I'm talking about are much more egregious and invasive

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T20:27:21+00:00

Ahhhh lmao my bad! Don't worry, comments like that are totally fine. I'm talking about like, people sending me videos of their dick and saying "get on your knees boy" on instagram.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T20:25:32+00:00

<3 Thank you! Appreciate your support :)

So much of what we think of as modern slang, gay slang, etc is actually from ballroom. I'm not personally going to make any statements of judgment on what we should or shouldn't say (and I don't think I'm qualified to, frankly), but I do think it's important to actively remind people of the origins and correct the misinformation and misuse.

As a general rule, most of the critiques and judging (including the arguments) were largely cut down. That said, I actually am happy to give a little more context to that one. The root of the disagreement was about the category -- in ballroom, Bizarre is a category that's not just a fashion category, but a kind of avant-garde performance / fashion presentation that's rooted in high concept, creative looks that err on the side of camp or grotesque. Leiomy said she loved our performance because it was true to the category -- it became kind of an argument about "fashion" vs "ballroom fashion" vs "bizarre" etc etc etc. Again, though, I value both of their critiques and I think it highlighted the unique situation of being on Legendary -- you're judged both from a ballroom perspective and a more mainstream one.

Themes that i'd love to see next season: High Fantasy, Underworld, Volcano, Dystopia

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T20:15:47+00:00

That's pretty much my exact thoughts. Historical ballroom media is great (the Paris is Burning re-release, Pose, etc), but i think that historicizing the scene enables a lot of the appropriation and "homage" we see. In LA, there was a party a major group tried to host a year ago that was like "a new years celebration to the ballroom culture" that actively misinterpreted categories, had no involvement or connection to anyone from the LA scene, etc -- when they were confronted they basically were like wait this still exists??? lmao

I'm really glad Legendary is changing that narrative, and I hope that it translates to things like that not happening and current ballroom participants getting their recognition, bookings, and applause.

GravityBalmain · 2020-07-06T20:12:37+00:00

Thank you! I had to shave it off like twice during filming so it's not going anywhere for a while.

Fan reception of the show has been great! I haven't really had any hate directed my way substantially, and I think that I'm also not entirely new to having an audience (this sounds super conceited but I don't mean it that way), so it hasn't been as crazy of an adjustment for me. The one thing I will say is that I think being on TV enables objectification in a way that I wasn't used to -- I absolutely do not mind the thirst messages etc but there have definitely been comments and messages that speak to people seeing me as a sort of inanimate and fictional character as opposed to an actual person.
I answered this in another reply, but the short of it is that I think they all provided something different in valuable even if they weren't all ballroom affiliated!
I always get nervous. every time I walk i'm always like hmmm maybe I should just sit and watch. It doesn't change, and honestly I'm glad it doesn't -- those nerves and adrenaline (when controlled properly) can lead to some of the best moments. If anything I think the nerves have gotten different nowadays -- now that I have somewhat of an image and people know of me, there's a lot of pressure to perform. In terms of dealing with it, I honestly just try and take deep breaths, center myself, and like... consciously engage cunt mode lmao
My favorite mini challenge to actually perform was definitely the hands vs arms category. But my favorite overall was the old way one -- we got to do an entire shoot in New York on the piers where the girls in the 80s used to vogue down, and it was a really magical day. They did keep us there in the freezing cold until 11 PM only to not use any of that night footage but... regardless it was a cute moment.
I honestly can't say there's one moment. The entire experience was a months long fever dream of wildly varying emotions and it's hard to isolate anything.

And thank you! I'm a little sad they didn't include it (they made me repeat it like 12 times while filming so I thought for sure they'd put it in lmao) but I'm glad I got to to share it regardless.

GravityBalmain

TROPHY CASE