♪♪ [ Train rattling ] [ House music plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Cheering and applause ] Leggoh: The power of dance is something we haven't totally tapped into yet.

It's spiritual.

It's energy.

It's raw.

It makes people feel good.

It makes them age slower.

♪♪ ♪♪ It definitely represented that thing that you could do to release emotion when there were no words to say what you wanted to say.

[ Applause ] Marcy: I feel like the truest version of myself.

I feel the most peaceful when I'm on stage doing my act.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I was living in Gainesville, Florida, at that time, when I first made contact with voguing.

So then fast-forward to 2016.

I make the move to New York.

You know, one of the main reasons being to delve into ballroom.

Also, career and sort of lifestyle move and change.

Yeah, there's really lots of avenues, and especially in a city like New York, that, you know, entertainment and performance is such a big part of it.

I always had a feeling, when I was a kid, that I wanted to be some type of performer, even if I felt too shy to do it at the time.

Eventually, it just took feeling like I could leave my hometown and I found that freedom and that confidence and I feel like I've really made a niche for myself in Brooklyn and on the New York City nightlife scene.

Yeah, one thing led to another and here we are.

♪♪ Leggoh: When you see people dance here now, you get that fusion of different styles, countries.

But back in the day, yeah, sure, you could tell if someone was, you know, from Brooklyn, the way they would do the dance.

And Bronx dancers got their own Bronx thing, you know, birth of hip hop and B-Boy being there.

I think, yeah, if you're from New York and you grew up here and you grew up in the '80s and '90s, you can definitely tell the different styles of the boroughs where people were from.

[ Mellow hip hop plays ] ♪♪ [ Horn honks ] ♪♪ ♪♪ My mom is a dancer and dance was a big part of her life and sort of growing up in our house, you know, dance was a big part of my life as well.

It definitely had to be somewhere in church or something like that.

I'm pretty sure that had to be my first contact with actually dancing myself.

♪♪ You know, at that time there was no ballroom community in Gainesville.

I started just trying to vogue in my living room and just like watching them and trying to, you know, repeat it in my living room and so that was when I first started making steps.

And, you know, I'd go to the gay club in Gainesville and try to vogue there.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I think it was the mix of expression or expression through femininity as well as athleticism.

You know, that sort of unique take on movement and expression really drew me in.

Leggoh: I would put voguing way more with a sport than it is just a dance, but it's dancing, of course.

It's artistic.

Even being able to bring a specific style and bring your personality into it, that's artistic.

♪♪ Voguing is one component and one category of ballroom and ballroom is really the cultivating place of voguing and ballroom started in New York City with Crystal LaBeija, who is the founder of the House of LaBeija, the house that I'm in.

♪♪ So a house is a grouping of people that are brought together, generally speaking and historically, because they didn't have, you know, their biological family, you know, to fill that void that was sort of created, you know, by being queer and sort of the repercussions of that back then.

You know, at this point in time, the House of LaBeija, my house is, you know, really killing it out there.

Everyone really knows LaBeija's name in New York City.

♪♪ ♪♪ Crystal LaBeija, who was sort of upset and disgruntled with the sort of racial discrimination that she received at the drag pageants that she would compete and attend.

But for these pageants that she, you know, initially, she would paint herself a lot lighter, to try to, you know, compete with the fair-skinned girls.

And so, you know, after she was disgruntled with the discrimination, she decided to make her own forum for, you know, people of color who wanted to walk pageants and so that started the ballroom culture movement.

[ Piano plays tender tune ] ♪♪ ♪♪ At the times when ballroom sort of just came about, visibility for people of color, trans people, you know, was zero to none.

And so, to have a forum, you know, where you could go in and, just for a night, be a star, you know, among people like you, that was big.

♪♪ And then, it's mostly femme queens, as we say, women of trans experience, and all that stuff, but then butch queens, cis males, get involved in ballroom and, as more time goes on, then performance, voguing, becomes a part of ballroom.

[ House music pulses ] ♪♪ First, it was very different than what it is now and we call it old way now, but that was what the original vogue was.

It was this very statuesque sort of thing, where it's just about these lines and everything, you know, like they saw in Vogue magazine.

And then trans women sort of started wanting a performance category.

You know, with their generally flamboyant character and sort of the way they presented themselves, the movements became a lot more fluid and the movement, the wrist is a bit more and it's more about giving you body and all this stuff.

And so that is when the feminine aspect of voguing sort of came in.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Over time, categories come and go, new categories come.

You have the various voguing categories.

Vogue Femme, which is the one that I walk, and that is the voguing with feminine movements.

You now have new way, which, there's more emphasis on sort of flexibility of the person doing it.

♪♪ ♪♪ There is, of course, the fundamental and core movements or elements, if you will, to voguing femme.

There are five elements of voguing femme -- catwalk... ♪♪ ...duck walk... ♪♪ ...hands performance... ♪♪ ...spins and dips are generally put into one element... ♪♪ ...and floor performance.

♪♪ ♪♪ But those are the five elements, but that's really just the base layer.

But you have to.

It's imperative that you sort of put your own spin and weave those together with some sort of uniqueness and individuality.

[ Siren wailing ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ We are at the amazing Nightclub of the Year, 3 Dollar Bill, and this is where I host, along with the icon Tim Lanvin, OTA weekly, which stands for Open to All.

♪♪ Actually, OTA is actually something that we use in our categories to identify like anybody can walk this particular category.

I wanted to have that same application towards this event.

Anyone can come, being that you're willing to learn the ways of ballroom.

Ballroom is a pageant-like forum that has categories, varying types of performances, so it's a pageant-like competition forum.

[ Chanting ] Go, go, go, go, go, go!

♪♪ The diversity of ballroom now, while it still has, you know, a core and a big part of it is, you know, people of color, African Americans, Latinx people.

Leggoh: Ladies and gentlemen, how the fuck are you feeling tonight?

Oh, you not gonna do this to me.

We about to [indistinct] I said, how the fuck are you feeling tonight?

[ Cheering and applause ] Jabari: The MC and/or commentator is the showrunner for the event, you know?

They keep it all going along.

They sort of commentate as people walk.

♪♪ ♪♪ Leggoh: There goes a lit bitch.

There goes a lit bitch.

♪♪ Jabari: The amount of judges varies.

It's always an odd number, so you can get a good vote, you know, anywhere from 3 to... 13 or something like that, honestly, depending on the ball, the scale of the ball and all that stuff.

Usually, at least a trophy, but usually, there's some sort of a cash prize.

♪♪ Leggoh: So, the judges look for technique, knowledge, you know, confidence, of course, you know, creativity, but then also, the standard of whatever that category is.

Think of it as if I gave you potatoes, greens, and chicken.

Think of those as the elements.

Your personality is the seasoning.

Are you going to fry it?

Are you going to, you know, bake it, or are you going to boil it?

So what they look for is how well you are able to blend the elements with your style.

Any category, they already know what the standard is.

Most categories are broken down, so you have the category as a whole -- face, voguing -- but then they're broken down, generally, by sort of gender expression.

♪♪ You have the various voguing categories, which is the one that I walk.

♪♪ [ Cheering, whistling, and applause ] ♪♪ Again, what I liked about voguing was that it was so in the moment.

I was a little bit iffy about it, but now, I've definitely warmed up to it and like, you know, they're fun as well as, you know, great to look at.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ For body, there's luscious body, there's slim body, there's big girl and/or big boy body.

♪♪ There is sex siren, which is similar to body, with this sort of sexual undertone, if you will.

♪♪ The list goes on.

Runway.

Runway is broken down -- European runway.

♪♪ European runway is the very like hips and all these like very flamboyant turns and all this stuff.

And all-American runway is more very square, thinking like '90s Calvin Klein or Tom Ford.

♪♪ ♪ And pose ♪ ♪ And pose for me ♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] [ Singing ] Now, one, two, one.

Two.

[Indistinct] Speaker: Pussy popping!

[ Laughter and applause ] [Indistinct] stays.

Speaker: [ Laughs ] [ Cheering and applause ] ♪♪ Jabari: There are fashion categories, like Best Dressed.

[ Hip hop plays ] There is Bizarre.

♪♪ Realness is a category for both people that present as males and people that present as females.

Generally, I walk Schoolboy Realness, which is looking like you could go to school or looking like you're at school or something like that.

But I also walk Executive Realness, which is presenting as an executive.

You know, again, looking back at sort of historic ballroom, back then, the idea was that, you know, as a Black gay man, I'm not going to get a job on Wall Street, you know, but, you know, tonight at the ball, I'm going to dress up and I'm going to look like it, you know, and I'm going to show, you know, the ballroom that I can play that part.

But there is this flip side of realness, where it's a category in ballroom and, almost seemingly, it's promoting, you know, that you pass as cisgender.

But I think, you know, most people in ballroom have an understanding that, you know, this is, at times, a survivability thing.

And, further, realness is a ballroom construct, so it's for the ballroom floor and, especially now, it's almost an homage to kind of what it was back then.

[ Cheering, whistling, and applause ] [ Funk plays ] Leggoh: There's definitely a difference.

If you see back then, it was more so about being a particular kind of feminine, which is more so posh and dainty.

Now, it's either being very, very banjee or like a breakdancer.

Everyone's more excited about just doing the dip and just trying to do an exciting dip because they want to be like the next Leiomy or the next Dashaun or the next [Indistinct].

[ Whistling and applause ] [ Cheering and applause ] The legends and the icons are people who have been doing this for a while and, in that time that they've been doing it, they have made a name for themselves consistently.

You know, when you say their names, they, you know, people are already standing up like, "Oh, my God!"

You might see a few girls like on the side like, "Aah!"

It's our little Hollywood, you know, which is amazing to have.

Gays are the only celebrities, in their heads.

It doesn't matter if you live in Timbuktu, you live on a farm with a cow.

Bitch, you're Beyoncé of that farm.

[ Cheering, whistling, and applause ] ♪♪ Jabari: I think more and more places outside of ballroom are starting to look to ballroom for that sort of talent.

For runway walkers, you know, for dancers.

You know, during pride month, all the ballroom girls were getting booked and all that stuff by all these big corporations.

Barefoot Wine was, you know, booking people, you know.

Especially in a city like New York, that, you know, entertainment and performance is such a big part of it, to make a significant amount of your income, if not all of it, from ballroom.

There are at least two main avenues into voguing.

Especially today.

You know, there is sort of the class avenue, if you will, and that was definitely one that I took, where I was going to classes at these studios.

And so I'm like, "I need sort of the fast track to be able to delve into this thing."

Whereas, on the flip side of it, there are people that sort of come into the scene and come into voguing, not necessarily from the technical aspect, but it's like more from the emotional and kind of just like visceral aspect of it.

And so that's almost been the struggle for me is like, okay, you know, I've gotten, let's say, three years of technique going to these classes, but now how can I put in the character?

Like how can I put in, you know, Jabari LaBeija to that?

How can I wrap that all with Jabari LaBeija?

[ Reggaeton plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Stepping back from the competition aspect, like at the end of the day, everyone in ballroom is sort of a part of the community.

You know, you see the same people every week and so you start to become friends with them.

And so there's all these things, you know.

At balls, you're all at the house table together.

You're helping people get ready together.

And so I think there is a certain level of just kind of mutual respect for other people in ballroom.

There's definitely that aspect of it.

♪♪ You know, I think it, again, goes back to sort of the visibility of it all.

You know, you have this platform, you know, that is for you, you know.

Perhaps you go out into the real world and, you know, there are these platforms out there, but they're not accessible to you.

But to have this one that is accessible to you and it's just about bringing it as big as you can, you know, and really just doing the most over-the-top job that you can.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Hip hop plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Rue: The reason why art is very prestigious in price is because the people that love art have a lot of money.

So, the fan base is willing to pay millions of dollars for certain pieces that they love.

There's no fans willing to pay $1,000,000 for a hip hop performance.

A lot of times, the reason why hip hop dance or street styles may not be taken as serious is because, let's be honest, it's from the streets.

♪♪ The culture was created from a place of raw, authentic energy.

♪♪ You know, the culture itself started mid- to late-'70s and was transcending with rap and with graffiti and with dance and with deejaying -- the four elements of hip hop.

It started in the Bronx.

That's its birthplace.

Back in the day, I think, by the mid to early '70s, they would do a lot of dancing on the break of the beat, which was how they created the word "break boy," because these dancers would dance in the break of the song when the lyrics would kind of go out.

Then, early '90s, you've got a lot of us at our age, at least in my age, that were watching this in our, you know, early years being influenced by that subconsciously because they're on the major TV videos doing this and they're also killing the underground scene.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

One and two.

Three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

One...

I've been the type that didn't know I would do it for my whole life to make money or -- I just knew that I loved it and had fun with it and it felt good.

And I was about to graduate high school and I had an opportunity to dance on tour with a group called 3LW.

I was making, you know, a good amount of money each show.

I says, well, if this continues, I won't go to college.

I'll just see where this takes me.

Because, like, why stop making money to go pay to get educated?

So $300 to $600, you know, a week depending on -- People would like that now.

[ Chuckles ] ♪♪ It was a great experience, and a lot of the jobs I did were great.

You know, I did a couple movies, tours, dancing for Madonna.

So I had a taste of -- The only thing I didn't do yet was Broadway.

I'm a stone-cold, hard-core killer.

When it's time to lock in and to really go after what it is, I don't play any games.

♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ I go to battles when I'm invited or if I'm getting -- or if a friend of mine is battling.

I'll come check it out.

Or I'm judging.

But other than that, I haven't had a lot of time to go to battles.

I've been working a lot.

But when I was younger, I was at all the battles that I would see pop up.

Me dancing on stag with a big star doesn't feel the same as me doing a one-on-one battle.

It's a drug, and once they don't have that feeling, they want it again, so they're willing to pay for it and do what they got to do to be there for it.

So it's that simple.

Yeah.

One, two, three, four.

Five and six.

Seven and eight.

One and unh.

Boo-doo boom-boom.

Boom-boom, unh.

Do, do, ah.

Dee-dee, dah-dah.

Dee-dee.

Other side.

Dah-dah, ah.

Ah, bah-bah-bah.

Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah.

Boom.

Boom.

Bup.

Nice.

It's been awesome because now I'm content on being a coach.

Right now I'm just focused on building my company, getting my athletes to get right for their own battles.

I'm just taking a little bit of the dance power that I feel and applying it to make a sport.

♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ The information behind the whole Dancers are Athletes movement -- I started it in 2012.

I had ideas about making hip-hop dance a sport because I felt hip-hop dancers do not have the platforms to be seen besides maybe dancing in movies and music videos, and that was created off of who is better than who in this friendly competition, and that's what made everyone want to be the best.

So I just figured, let me make something more official and put a points system behind it, something that could organize the competitions and give it, you know, validation.

That's what athletes have.

♪♪ Dancers compete.

They train.

They work hard on their bodies.

They go through injuries.

100% parallel to what professional athletes go through dancers go through in their careers.

We have seasons.

We have the summer, fall, winter.

And every season we have dancers sign up to join the program.

They learn choreography over eight or nine weeks, and then you put them in a competition with the people that they've been rehearsing with.

So there'll be -- Let's say we have 20 dancers in the program.

We'll have, at the end of the eight weeks, ten dancers versus another ten dancers doing all the eight routines.

♪♪ They get scored on four different things -- execution, precision, energy... and if they make any mistakes within the choreography.

Those winners sometimes win clothes, cash money, opportunities.

♪♪ What I love about the sport that I created, it's the first sport to my knowledge that both men and women can compete equally on the same playing field.

♪♪ A lot of the times, to be honest with you, women have been a lot more -- a lot stronger in the league than the men have.

So, you know, if you want to look at it that way.

♪♪ ♪♪ We've had stuff from different styles of litefeet to hip-hop to house.

♪♪ The difference between, I would say, hip-hop, litefeet, house, and breakdancing is the technique of it.

♪♪ For house music, the movement is based in the feetwork.

♪♪ When it comes to the beat-boy routine, a lot of stuff will be on the floor.

♪♪ Now, let's say you're doing a street jazz routine like the Beyoncé routine.

Then a lot of it's gonna be about standing upright, more feminine movement.

♪♪ Then you have some routines that mix them all together.

♪♪ ♪♪ The movement's evolved because dancers are evolving style-wise.

They're, you know -- Perfect example -- when I was younger, a commercial dancer -- Like, a ballet and modern dancer would never do hip-hop.

♪♪ You're either ballet.

You're either tap.

You're either ja-- Like, there wasn't a mixture.

Now they mix it all together.

You see a lot of hip-hop influence in contemporary dance these days.

♪♪ The people that are part of the culture and that have done this for a living, done this...

It provides food on our plates.

Yeah, we get a little annoyed when we see certain styles being taken, and the innovators of that style are not being -- They're not given the props for it.

♪♪ A lot of the times, the reason why hip-hop, dance, and street styles may not be taken as serious is because it was developed by people that a lot of the times people didn't consider them citizens or considered them on the same level as them in society.

So, of course, it's gonna start off automatically that this dance is a lower art form because it came from a "lower" form of people, that they believe that.

So, of course, something like ballet or modern is prestigious because the people believe that they were more prestigious than the people that created our dance, which was, you know, brown.

I -- You know what it is, too?

I go here.

I stay -- I keep my focus that way.

Like, I go this way.

I don't even look the other way.

I stay there.

Then I look down that way.

Mm-hmm.

'Cause the -- If you try to keep your head going, it'd be too fast.

If a white person was responsible for the creation of hip-hop, hip-hop would be at a whole different level of prestige.

Here we go from the top.

The teachers within the school told me to my face that, "This is not real dancing," that, "You'll never -- You'll never be made -- never be professional."

And then look.

How many years later, I'm working at a school, this huge Broadway Dance Center, for over 20 years.

I have my own dance company.

I've toured with Madonna, Jay-Z, P. Diddy, Alicia Keys from "hip-hop."

My career, I've never done anything -- I've trained in ballet and on the modern and stuff like that, but my main career has been based in hip-hop, so they were uneducated, as well.

And it comes from them thinking that this culture comes "from the streets," and anything from the streets can't be serious.

♪♪ ♪ Okay, look ♪ ♪ Don't come for me ♪ ♪ Ain't got time for that ♪ ♪ Unh, this girl over here ♪ ♪ Thinks I'm playin' ♪ I think the political thing that makes hip-hop strong is because it's -- it's colorblind.

It was created by, you know, of course, the Black culture, but it's always been limitless as far as how much culture is -- you know, how many people it can reach and how it actually blends all together with one common love of the same type of culture, the music, the style of dressing.

Basically, you know, if you've got the right type of literature behind you and you put it together the right way with song, it can be very powerful in the hip-hop world.

So I think... is a very strong culture.

♪ Unh ♪ [ Scatting ] ♪ Like fire ♪ ♪ We got you ♪ ♪♪ [ Scatting ] ♪ Like fire ♪ ♪ We got you, unh, unh, unh ♪ [ Scatting ] ♪ Like fire ♪ ♪ Unh ♪ ♪ Like fire ♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ Richardson: I love the ritual of coming to the theater.

♪♪ When I come to the theater, I'm in my silk robe and my slippers.

You know, I'm already half-undressed by the time I get there.

And I feel, you know, there are days I might show up in sweat pants and a T-shirt, but I live so close, I kind of feel like, why not set the tone right when I walk out the door that I'm about to do something special?

♪♪ Turning on my makeup lights at my station, starting my makeup, doing everything step by step.

♪♪ I love to do a smoky eye, a really bold, full lip, full lashes.

You know, more is more.

It's one of those things where I could do a lot at home, you know, if I wanted, but part of my night is getting to the theater early and listening to the music that's playing, and being in the environment really helps get me in the mood to do a show.

♪♪ ♪♪ Burlesque, and especially, you know, here at this theater, it's all about, you know, overwhelming all of the senses.

♪♪ Burlesque is less about the tease and the seduction.

You know, it is that for many people, but for me, it's about freedom and liberation.

♪♪ Richardson: Burlesque came into play because there's such an appetite for variety shows and burlesque in New York.

And I eventually just started to dip my toe in and create acts.

So I had never really considered it before, but it happened very organically and very naturally.

Man: Good.

Cut.

Nice.

[ Applause ] I did grow up taking ballet, and then ten years ago, I discovered pole dancing.

And that also led to my work in circus arts and acrobatics.

And I became an acrobat and pole dancer on the nightlife scene here in New York.

[ Laughs ] Right?

No matter what you do.

I think you got it in.

That's through.

I don't know if it's gonna stay.

I think that's gonna be fine.

Thank you.

McCormick: So, I started a company 14 years ago, which is insane.

Time really flies.

When I was a student at Juilliard, I decided that I really wanted to focus on choreography, and I started going to venues in New York, and I loved the energy of these burlesque shows.

The audience was so on board to have a wonderful time to support the performers, to come from a place of positivity.

[ Dog barks ] So -- There's my dog.

[ Laughs ] I've recently, yes, acquired a miniature Poodle who I'm hoping... will look great in pasties.

[ Laughs ] [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Richardson: I think body positivity has always been a part of burlesque.

You know, if you look back to pictures from the early to mid-1900s, you will see men and women cross-dressing in burlesque, for example.

You'll see many different body shapes and sizes and heights.

And I think that that is what makes burlesque particularly beautiful, is that there's not one body type you need to be.

I think burlesque means so many different things to different people.

A lot of people think of it as striptease.

The word "burlesque" is actually derived from the Italian word "burla," which means a joke.

♪♪ So, back in Italy, in the 1700s and 1800s, a burlesque show was actually more of a variety-type minstrel show that included sketch comedy, political satire, multiple types of performers such as circus artists, dancers, musicians, acrobats, and, of course, striptease, as well.

The 1600s, 1700s people would sort of take famous opera compositions and change the words to be more political or to be funny.

Satire is a huge part of the history of burlesque.

Richardson: It's very interesting that after shows sometimes certain patrons will approach me after the show and say, "I loved the show, but I didn't like the politics.

You should keep the politics out of it.

I didn't come here for that."

And I say, "You know, you should do a Google search because burlesque's roots are actually in political satire, and they very much should be a part of this."

So...cheers to that.

[ Audience cheering ] ♪♪ McCormick: So, most of the shows that we do here at Company XIV are re-imaginations of either classical ballets or fairy tales.

I'm really drawn to telling narratives through variety art forms, and dance is a huge part of that.

[ "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ One of our most popular shows is called "Nutcracker Rouge," which takes the classical ballet that every dancer has grown up doing their whole life and gives it more of an adult spin, certainly a burlesque spin.

[ "Russian Dance" plays ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] There are many performance artists that have very -- very artistic, very experimental types of costumes and movements.

I look for people that are doing unusual things.

♪♪ I had hired a dancer, and she randomly, one day after rehearsal, was like, "You know I ice-skate, right?"

And I was like, "No."

So then flash-forward to a few weeks later, we had synthetic ice on the stage and she was skating and stripping.

And so it's basically like, don't tell me anything that you don't want me to put in the show, is kind of the moral of the story.

♪♪ [ Singing operatically ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Whip cracks ] I didn't aspire to be a ballerina or a dancer per se, but movement was always part of my life.

And then eventually I stumbled on to music and I became an opera singer.

[ Singing operatically ] ♪♪ ♪♪ A lot of people probably think that in my private life at home I'm really wild and really sexual and really crazy when, actually, you know, when I take the costume off, when I leave the theater, I lead a pretty boring and simple -- simple lifestyle.

But when I'm on stage, I genuinely feel...that way.

I feel free.

I feel sexy.

♪♪ ♪♪ I think about, what poses can I do where you're going to see the entire costume showcased?

And where can I find places to -- you know, to touch myself, to caress my body, to make people wish they could, too, you know, to find pleasure in sort of touching yourself occasionally when you're up there.

So I definitely think about those things when I'm creating a routine in a burlesque context.

♪♪ ♪♪ As a choreographer, I look for fearlessness in performers, I think.

♪♪ Richardson: Oftentimes I'll put striptease as just an element of that act.

That's an act of just feeling free, liberation.

It just feels good to take it off.

It's really not about tease as much as it is about freedom and just feeling free to do what I want when I want.

You know, if I'm -- if I'm in this theater and I want to take my top off, God damn it, I can.

♪♪ [ Applause ] I never had anyone in my family who is alive that I knew growing up that I could share this with, so I definitely am a bit of a black sheep, I would say, in the family when it comes to all of this, and I feel like I'm often misunderstood.

♪♪ When it comes to burlesque and any possible stigmas around it, I think there are some stigmas.

I think people hear the word "burlesque" and they think stripping, stripper.

And I'm also someone who embraces strippers and stripping, and I think that that is a completely legitimate art form, as well, so I do think that there is a stigma.

But with movies, like the movie "Burlesque," for example, and "Moulin Rouge," I do think that more people sort of accept it as a mainstream art form.

McCormick: I think burlesque has become really mainstream with, you know, people like Dita Von Teese and Instagram.

And so I think it can turn people off, but the flipside is it can really turn people on, too.

So we've, I think, expanded our audience quite a bit by letting people know that burlesque is a huge part of our productions.

♪♪ What I gravitate towards most is showgirl-style burlesque.

♪♪ What makes a lot of my work different is that when I'm in the hoop or I'm in the silks, I'm not in spandex, I'm not in tights.

I'm usually in a thong.

My bare skin is showing.

And it makes me feel the most confident and most sexy.

♪♪ As an acrobat in more of a burlesque element, I tend to just deal with a few more inconveniences.

You know, should I say -- Like, for example, I was filming today, and I definitely have, you know, this skin burn that I got after doing my routine a bunch of times because, you know, my skin is bare, so it's not super-comfortable, but I always say skin grows back.

I think it's -- it's worth the pain sometimes.

[ Audience chatter ] ♪♪ [ Audience cheering ] ♪♪ [ Singing operatically ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ I see myself performing indefinitely.

I do not ever plan to retire.

I'm performing until I drop dead.

I want to be walking down the sidewalk and explode in a burst of glitter and have that be it.

[ Laughs ] [ Singing operatically ] ♪♪ ♪♪ [ Song ends ] [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ ♪♪ Taylor: I work as a landscape architect at Prospect Park, but ballroom is sort of the passion where I can sort of express myself after I get off because, you know, you do spend a lot of time and a lot of money going after this, but I think it is the drive and desire for the notoriety, you know, at least within the ballroom community.

But it's also just getting out there and expressing yourself.

Like, I don't view it as, like, the show, you know, for people to come wa-- I'm really doing it for myself, you know?

I was actually initially trying to become a doctor in Baltimore.

I was working as a phlebotomist at a medical system.

And, you know, when you're young, you make wrong decisions or whatever.

So that was a passion that I had to let go.

So ballroom basically saved me.

You know, ballroom gave me another passion that I was able to do that I really, really liked doing.

And, you know, 40 years ago, nobody thought that this was possible.

♪♪ Rue: I think the political thing that makes hip-hop strong is because it was created by the Black culture, but it's always been limitless as far as how much culture is -- you know, how many people it can reach and how it actually brings us all together with one common love of the same type of culture and music.

That culture was created from a place of raw, authentic energy, and the culture itself never loses that.

♪♪ McCormick: I think the easiest way to answer sort of what dance is, is that you know it when you experience it.

It's something you can't really describe.

It's that moment of, like -- I have it when I'm -- when I'm watching performers, you know, in the shows where it's transportive and you kind of feel so connected to them in this way that is very spiritual.

Richardson: I absolutely cannot imagine myself not having dance and movement and nightlife as part of my life.

And when I'm up there, it feels like it is just me and the lights and the audience and the music, and nothing else exists.

Night after night, no matter how many times I do it, I never take it for granted, and it's always a really special moment for me.

♪♪ I have no intention of doing anything else, and I can't imagine doing anything else.

So I am hanging in there indefinitely.

♪♪ ♪♪ [ Hands clap ] 5, 6, 7, 8.

♪♪ [ Laughter ] [ Cheers and applause ] ♪♪ [ Cheers and applause ] [ Whistling ]