The Berlin Pride weekend was a total blast and one of its major highlights was the second Colors of Pride Kiki Ball hosted once again by the wonderful mother Gina Angels and the charming Papi 007 at the colorful space of The Social Hub Berlin. Last year, the ball was a surprise smash success with such a wild turn-up of participants and spectators that hardly fit into the space. This year was no exception and the kiki was such a fun spectacle that will go into the ballroom history books. Gina and Papi just know how to put something like this together and bring in a crowd, congratulations!
The Social Hub is also such a perfect space for a ball, its colorful interior and exterior being a good match for the theme. And they all made sure that everyone was well fed and lubricated for the action. Special thanks to Hennessy who supported the ball and gave a couple of rounds of shots to everyone.
As Ballroom customs have it, the kiki began with the LSS and special honors, and those were especially gratifying for me, as two of my favorite ballroom personalities received legendary status this evening. One was the amazing Bree who is not only a fantastic performer, but also my favorite ballroom DJ. Congratulations, diva! The second honor went to David who has been somewhat of a guiding light into the ballroom scene for me. Just a day before I was contemplating with a friend why David of all people hasn’t gotten the legendary title before many others around him – and bam! – a day later after his own ball on Friday he received his title. Finally! Congratulations, David! (The coverage of David’s Nostalgia Ball will follow shortly…)
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by Frank | Ballroom, Photos
The Ballroom scene of Berlin is on fire right now! Never have there been more balls happening with new events popping up every other week. It’s exciting to see the enthusiasm of the young generation and how they rise up to create their own gatherings.
After we had so much fun at the last ball hosted by the charming David Angels Milan during Pride, we teamed up with him for his next ball Voguing for the Ocean that is happening this coming Saturday at Säälchen. The oceanic theme is not just meant as a dress code for the outfits of the Voguers, the event is also a charity fundraiser for the organization Ocean Now that is campaigning to protect this important ecosystem. Voguing for a good cause!
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by Frank | Ballroom, Stories
Coming from the queer black and latin underground culture of New York over 50 years ago the Ball Culture took a long time to finally arrive in good old Berlin. Thanks to the famous Paris Is Burning documentary and – yes, maybe also because of that one Madonna song – the Ballroom Community and more specifically one of its disciplines – Voguing – have surfaced from the subculture into the mainstream, also spreading the concept into many major cities in the world. Learn more about the history of voguing in this earlier iHeart feature.
In Berlin, one of the major independent theaters has embraced the local Ball Culture inviting it onto its stage. Together with the Berlin Ballroom Community, the Hebbel Am Ufer manages to successfully melt the intimate world of Ballrooms with the extroverted world of performance art. It’s a fantastic spectacle that let’s a wider audience get a peek into an otherwise quite private world, encouraging people who are curious about Voguing to join a House or even form a new one. Berlin already has a couple of “Houses” which is how a group of Voguers is called that form a fabulous little family.
This past Saturday we had the chance to join the Opulence Ball at HAU2 and of course, we wouldn’t miss the opportunity to take a couple of photos and animated GIFs. Enjoy the show!
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by Frank | Ballroom, Party, Photos, Theater
