A space for the queer community to connect, create and express themselves is emerging in Toronto through the ballroom scene.
“A ball is one of the few places where you can truly bask in everything that is yourself,” said Twysted Miyake-Mugler, co-founder of the Toronto KiKi Ballroom Alliance (TKBA).
Miyake-Mugler said the city’s ballroom scene draws inspiration from the New York ballroom scene of the 1960s.
“We are not creating anything new. The style of voguing may be new to people, but it’s coming from people who were reading the Vogue magazine — shoutout to Paris Dupree by name,” Miyake-Mugler said.
“She was reading the Vogue magazine in jail and started doing poses from the magazine to music, hence the name ‘vogue.’”
Ballroom came as a response to racism within pageantry, created by Black and Latino queer and trans communities that wanted to be judged fairly, Miyake-Mugler added. Competitions known as ‘balls’ and the support of community ‘houses’ empower people to be their true selves in a safe space.
“A lot of us come from homophobic, transphobic families that might understand us culturally, but they don’t truly understand everything,” Miyake-Mugler said.
“When it comes time to talk about dating and boyfriends and attraction, they don’t really understand us.”
Miyake-Mugler said that being a “house father” is more than just being a ballroom teacher.
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“It truly means that people are dependent on you to be that dad to them,” Miyake-Mugler said. “Not just a father that teaches them ballroom, but to go to doctors’ appointments, the hospital, these very serious things — they call you.”
TKBA is trying to grow the kiki ballroom scene, with hopes of opening a building to hold events and programming and offer community supports.
Right now, there are 12 active kiki houses, with leaders of all different ages and participants as young as 10 or 11.
Many of those involved are the next generation of the LGBTQ2 community, looking for guidance and mentorship.
“It’s important to see yourself, and I think that’s the most important thing about community is you get a reflection,” said Diseiye Thompson, the mother of the House of Juicy Couture Canada and a TKBA board member.
“I just want to be that person that I didn’t have when I was growing up.”
Thompson, a costume designer, offers beginner sewing workshops for her community, alongside various free public programming organized by TKBA at Wildseed Centre for Art & Activism.
“We have a lot of talented kids in the scene; what they might be lacking is just the opportunity,” she said. “Having that access to that opportunity would really change other people’s lives.”
Feel It founder Milani Telfar is part of that next generation.
She’s started an open-to-all (OTA) vogue night in the Village, operating at Buddies in Bad Times Theatre.
“Having underground scenes like this come up in spaces where they normally wouldn’t be seen, it sends a strong message to institutions,” Telfar said. “We are taking up space: this is our culture, this is who we are.”
Telfar said she credits the ballroom scene for changing her life.
“The kiki scene in Toronto is very family-based,” she said. “I think that level of chosen family is the reason why a lot of people participate in this really beautiful culture. It’s that capacity to make real connections with people that are just like you, that know your story and feel your experience.”
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