J. Aramowicz

This show is interesting in many ways, some of them good, some not so much. As a cis woman who vogues but is not affiliated with a house, I’m trying to be careful how I address the culture since I’m not truly a member of the ballroom scene. However, I have friends in the scene and I attend balls in my city and I strongly believe in protecting the integrity of the culture. What HBO has done is put a Drag Race-style lens on an underground art form to make it accessible for the masses. On one hand, I really appreciate that ballroom is getting the attention it deserves after more than 40 years of clandestine existence. But what this show delivers is a divergent take on ballroom—it’s real people from the scene doing choreographed routines with a big Hollywood budget that doesn’t exist anywhere in the underground culture. In other words, it’s commercialized ballroom. Vogue isn’t a choreographed dance form and it’s not all flips and dips in front of a glittering panel of celebrity judges. Vogue is about individuality, sexual and gender identity, and freely expressing your queerness through movement. Legendary provides plenty of bravado and jaw-dropping dramatics but it fails to tell the full story of ballroom and properly recognize how house culture has shaped the lives of thousands of gay and trans youth. Is it pretty? Absolutely. Is it entertaining? No doubt about it. Is it full of star-studded scene legends and icons who can vogue the house down? 100%. But is it really ballroom? Well...that depends on who you ask. It’s a reality show inspired by ballroom designed to be digestible by mainstream pop culture. I appreciate Legendary for what it is, but like all reality television, we’re never seeing the full story or how much staged Hollywood intervention there was in a culture that’s otherwise known for being notoriously real.