For those who are not in the know, the ball scene is dominated by the black gay scene where they combine fierce dancing called voguing to a hot bitch track. This world has been explored in the 1991 documentary Paris Is Burning and most recently in the film Leave It On The Floor.
In the movie musical, a young man named Bradley (Ephraim Sykes) is kicked out of his home by his mother when she discovers gay porn on his computer. Alone and with nowhere to go, Bradley stumbles into a gay club, where he meets a group of kids who battle other houses in the L.A. ball scene.
Openly gay director Sheldon Larry is talking about the film (which will soon be released on DVD), and while he hired Beyoncé’s creative director Kim Burse and choreographer Frank Gatson to bring real voguing into the film, the director is throwing shade at Madonna, saying that she ripped off the black gay ball scene to create her classic Vogue.
“Most of the kids in the ball world are runaways and throwaways,” says the 53-year-old. “They’ve been tossed out by their family because they are gay or transgender. They find each other on the street and they connect in the club. And every six or seven weeks, they stage a ball and compete in different category such as Voguing.”
And Larry says the ball scene is where Madonna stole the idea for her legendary 90's hit Vogue:
“I used to see Madonna at these balls,” he recalls. “Her song Vogue was taken out of this world and so was the dance. In this film, I didn’t want to rip them off, as I felt Madonna had in the past. I wanted to put these kids centre-stage and celebrate who they are by bringing positivity to the culture as a whole.”
I loved Leave It On The Floor and I believe that everyone who is gay or struggling with their sexuality needs to see this film, as well as Paris Is Burning. As for Madonna ripping off the black gay scene to create Vogue, I don't get that claim at all. The video and the song comes across as an homage to the culture, not exactly a rip-off. Unlike a certain pop star out today with Born This Way sounding too similar to Express Yourself, I saw Vogue as more of an homage to the underground gay scene rather than a blatant rip-off. I know when I was a gay kid growing up in Brooklyn I had no idea what a ball was, ore that any other gay kids existed until I saw her video. I wound up meeting a young latino gay boy in my high school who was out, proud and vogued openly. He was definitely an inspiration and no one fucked with him. The ball scene is about more than dancing and feeling fabulous for a day and winning a trophy. It's about a bunch of kids who come together and become their own family.
I don't know maybe my opinion of this is biased because Vogue is such a classic, and Madonna brought the underground black gay ball scene into the mainstream. if you guys have a different opinion on this, feel free to sound off below.
Leave It On The Floor is out on DVD September 24. For more information visit www.ballmusical.com
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