ECO MINI BALL WITH VAN VOGUE JAM
TUESDAY, AUG 11
Online Zoom Event
with ASL Interpretation

We bring to you our second eco-mini kiki ball, celebrating and honouring mother earth and all its bounty. Eco Mini Ball shares the collective brilliance and rich history of the Ball scene while simultaneously having a dialogue on eco-friendly and sustainable art practices. This will be a SUBMISSION style ball, with 2 deadlines: Preliminaries – August 6th & Finals – August 11th

Judges:
Brandon Flora 007 (PDX)
Chéline Siriano 007 (MTL)
Ralph “Posh” Gvasalia Lanvin (YVR) 

Categories:
1. OTA Face – there are no mandatory dance elements but it is encouraged for competitors to have an elementary understanding of face category techniques.
2. OTA Runway – there are no mandatory dance elements but competitors should have an understanding of the difference between American (butch) and European (femme) runway styles. Both styles will be competing together with no restrictions around which genders are able to participate in either category.
3. OTA Vogue Performance – Must show your 5 elements confidently to get your 10s and will battle live. Because of online sound discrepancy, we are aware that you will not be “on beat” so it will be about who can serve the best on their screen during 10’s and battles. 

Cash Prize (CAD$) – top 3 tear prizes/Category
1st – $250
2nd – $150
3rd – $100

ROUND 1 – Water
Due: August 1- 5 : IG Live judgement on August 6th – top 6 move on to Round 2
Water is Life. Give us life with an effect that will quench our thirst. Bring it in a WATER inspired effect – ex: use the color blue, sea creatures, or a glacier, etc. Thrift clothes to save water, what fabrics can you source withlow plastic content – how much water goes into making that product? Make an effect that honours Indigenous water protectors taking care of future generations by stopping extraction projects such as Dakota Access Pipeline, Coastal Gas Link and more.

SUBMIT YOUR 30 – 60 second SUBMISSION by August 6th
Face: https://forms.gle/VV4LGgrxThR1gxDU9

Runway: https://forms.gle/WQGpbbQ6yYQRapRa8

Vogue Performance: https://forms.gle/PyRjnw6EqtFKTmbN6

ROUND 2 – Forest
Due: August 10th : Finals for top 3 prize – FB live Finale
Make us green with envy, with an effect that could shade the rest.
Bring it in a FOREST inspired effect – ex: use the color green, an alligator or a coniferous tree. Ethically source your materials, avoid using fake plant life – we want to see the real deal. Try creating with invasive species to make space for native plants, research ethnobotany. As forests are being clear cutting is eagle nests and ecosystems are losing their homes.

New to Vogue? Free Classes can be found at https://www.vanvoguejam.com/upcoming-events
Contact info@vanvoguejam.com for more information 

FEATURING PERFORMANCES BY:

THE DARLINGS
The Darlings are a multidisciplinary, non-binary drag performance collective based in Vancouver, BC.
Their work challenges the boundaries of conventional drag, and explores genderqueer, non-binary, and trans experience through the use of movement, poetry, performance art, theatre, and immersive/interactive installation. The Darlings are Continental Breakfast (Chris Reed), PM (Desi Rekrut), Rose Butch (Rae Takei) and Maiden China (Kendell Yan).
As an emerging collective, they have mounted four full-length installations in September 2018, October 2018, and March 2019 as well as features at Here For Now Volume 2 dance showcase (December 2018), the PuSH International Performing Arts Festival (January 2019), and full-length features in the Transform Cabaret Festival (October 2020) and Intrepid Theatre’s OUTstages Festival (February 2020). They also produced a digital Live Broadcasted Quarantine-Friendly show during the COVID-19 outbreak (March 2020). 

SKIM AND DONG – Can I
“Can I” is made by two drag artists Dong Ganisa and Skim. They explore themes of memory, storytelling, and performance through the medium of video. Dong and Skim share stories from their youth about queerness, economics, and their experiences as children of immigrants. Conscious of “Fast Fashion” and how it affects the environment and society, the artists wear outfits they created out of used plastic bags. They perform the work in their home and the areas they live in. Acknowledging they are on the unceded and ancestral territories of Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam, and Sḵwx̱wú7mesh First Nations as well as following the laws of white colonizers, Dong and Skim search for a sense of belonging.

**BALLROOM CULTURE**
TO ALL 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 at @VANVOGUEJAM. 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.

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.

**LAND/CULTURAL ACKNOWLEDGEMENT & CONSENT**

We would like to acknowledge that we are coming together virtually to celebrate on the unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations.

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 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.