HEARTBREAKER ~ kiki ball At The Birdhouse

Tickets

Cost: $15.00
Find tickets: here

It’s that time of year again: love is in the air & chocolate prices are at a premium. Why is it that we’re so caught up on who’s in our dms though? There’s three people we need to uplift this year, and they go by ME, MYSELF, and I.
The Birdhouse is pairing up with a pair of the premiere house parents of Vancouver Ballroom to bring you a night of vindication & self love! Come dressed to impress, become a part of the living ecosystem of Ballroom in action. Everything is unscripted, from the looks to the gags and the results of each battle, so grab a front seat to find out who’s getting the most love tonight & how they’re gonna pull it off.

Doors at 7pm // Ball at 8pm
COMMENTATOR - Father Gago Gvasalia
HOST - Mother Ivy Andromeda

~ BALL CATEGORIES & EFFECTS ~
- OTA Virgin Performance - 1 trophy
CUPID YOU ARE NOW. Bring out your inner matchmaker and come in an effect that channels the mischievous god of desire. Let feathers fly & bring all 5 elements of Vogue, or else it’ll be a missed connection.
Beginners, you will be judged for your look AND your performance. Knowing how to vogue comes first, but having an on theme cupid fit will factor into the final verdict. Educate yourself, practice and have fun with getting ready.
Virgin Categories in ballroom = not yet winning the respective category/ and or never walked category
BEGINNER VOGUE CLASS WITH VAN VOGUE JAM LEARN THE FUNDAMENTALS TO HELP GET YOUR 10s
- OTA Virgin Runway - 1 trophy
Judges…please accept this rose. Dress for a romantic night out & put your best foot forward in front of a live studio audience! MUST BRING A ROSE to present at the end of the runway. Prove you’re the bachelorexx worthy of our love by building on top of the basics.
Beginners, you will be judged for your look AND your performance. Runway is about selling a garment, but being able to walk can make a difference between just looking fab & getting past your 10s. Are you walking All American or European tonight? Make it clear.
Virgin Categories in ballroom = not yet winning the respective category/ and or never walked category
- OTA Runway (European, American, Drags) - 3 trophies + $100CAD cash prize
Show us your ideal VACATION ATTIRE sold by an undeniable strut. We’re going off the itinerary for this trip! Doesn’t matter if the engagement just got annulled, these tickets are bought and someone’s gotta use them.
- Club Kid Face - 1 trophy + $100CAD cash prize
Love can really bite, but is it wrong if we wanna ask for more? Incorporate SPIKES, TEETH & an artistic use of TEARS into an effect to show us just how bad the love bug’s got you down this cuffing season. Let the best of your face elements shine through an extreme club kid style beat!
- Bizarre - 1 trophy + $100CAD cash prize
Nothing hurts quite like a good heartbreak, each one unique from the last like some kind of messed up snowflake. Embody the feeling of having your heart crushed, pierced, squished, scorched, blended, thrown out, strung out AND OR ripped apart by way of an expressive masked effect that will make us SCREAM in sympathy. Plan a simple gag or four to help your character move through the stages of grief in their story on stage.
- OTA Realness (MF, FF) - 2 trophies + $100CAD cash prize
The love of your life could be a brief conversation away…or not. Next! Dress in PROFESSIONAL, SPEED DATING ATTIRE with a NAME TAG and get ready to make it personal. Pick a role, convincingly chew on the material & effortlessly swerve to answer any questions.
Make it to battles and you’ll be on a double date with your competition! Who’s gonna come out on top? Open to Femme Queens, Trans Men, Butches & Butch Queens.
- OTA Performance - 1 trophy + $100CAD cash prize
I WEAR MY HEART ON MY SLEEVE CUZ IT’S MY BEST ACCESSORY. Battle down in the way only you can, and do it all in a cute HEART-shaped effect! Simple, no?
- OTA Best Dressed (MF, FF, GNC) - 3 trophies + $100CAD cash prize
Shoutout to my EX–bring it in your best new look to turn out for a lost love. Show up with the glow up that they wish they tried better. Your effect should be fitted to the uniqueness of your body, let the clothes hold YOU in all the ways THEY couldn’t. This isn’t a costume show, we’re here to elevate real life to the next level.
- Sex Siren (MF, FF, GNC) - 3 trophies + $100CAD cash prize
Love, leather & lace: was ever there a throuple so sweet? Pick your poison of a LACE or LEATHER themed look for the night and indulge in your fantasies on the floor. Remember: less is more in this show-stopping category. Ain’t no quickies here, this is a long session. Fall in love with the real you inside that body of yours to seduce as your most authentic & undeniable self for a chance at the trophy.

COMPETITORS:
Please come prepared knowing what to expect. If you are walking in a category for the first time. Please do your research and understand that there can only be one winner per category. Look up videos on YouTube, come to a VVJ session, look at the resources on www.vanvoguejam.com, reach out to us by e-mail or on Instagram. Please use the resources around you to be prepared. We also encourage you to ask us for feedback before you compete so that you feel strong going into the ball. We want everyone to have fun, to feel they were able to serve their best, and we want everyone to have a fair chance at competing but you WILL be chopped during your 10s and unable to compete if you are unprepared.

LAND/CULTURAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & CONSENT:
This event is being held on the stolen, ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Skxwú7mesh-ulh, and Tsleil-Waututh nations. As we live and organize queer space as settlers on these lands, we have an obligation to continuously work to repair harms perpetrated upon Indigenous communities, presently and historically. Settler colonialism has brought (and continues to bring) untold violence to these lands, via unlawful resource extraction, racism in medical and foster care systems, and the intergenerational trauma of residential schools.
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 / The Birdhouse can better create an inclusive and safe space please do inform us by e-mail at info@vanvoguejam.com so that we may listen to your input and improve on this for future events. For questions/feedback you may reach The Birdhouse at Birdhouseon4th@gmail.com

HISTORY:
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).

A BALL:
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.

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