Ballroom culture is now a mainstay in popular culture. Not to be confused with waltzing, swinging or doing the two-step, the ballroom in question has become a global phenomena. It’s championed by Black and brown LGBTQ artists in dance, music and fashion.
Beyoncé’s Renaissance World tour, which swept St. Louis off its feet last month, featured prominent ballroom dancers like Honey Balenciaga of HBO Max’s “Legendary.”
St. Louis’ own ballroom scene has grown and flourished for several years thanks to the event coordination of Maven Lee, founder of Tens Ballroom. Lee, and several St. Louis ballroom legends are featured in the documentary by filmmaker Bobby Best, “Tens Across the Board,” which premieres tonight at the Contemporary Art Museum.
Best is a transplant from Washington, D.C., a city with a rich ballroom history. However it wasn’t until he moved to St. Louis that he became engrossed in the scene — and wanted more people to know what St. Louis has to offer. “I feel [St. Louis ballroom] is very underrepresented, especially being so close to Chicago,” Best said on St. Louis on the Air. “It kind of gets dwarfed. Not even dwarfed — it's so overshadowed.”
While he doesn’t walk or compete in any balls himself, Best said that he learned a lot about the ballroom culture and himself while filming “Tens Across the Board," thanks to connecting with Lee and becoming friends with people in the scene. “They live unabashedly. They live true. And not all of us do that,” Best said. “I may not know how to walk runway like Amari. I may not know how to vogue like Mariah, but I know how to live now.”
Though ballroom comes from the minds and creativity of Black and brown queer people, Best says the documentary has something for everybody. “It's not just about getting your 10s. It's not just about walking balls, but it's about community,” he said. “And I think that's valuable in society nowadays.”
For more on “Tens Across the Board,” including the impressively fast turnaround on the feature-length documentary, listen to St. Louis on the Air on Apple Podcast, Spotify or Google Podcast by clicking the play button below.
Related Event
What:“Tens Across the Board” documentary premiere
When: 6:30 p.m. Sept. 22
Where: Contemporary Art Museum (3750 Washington Ave., St. Louis, MO 63108)
“St. Louis on the Air” brings you the stories of St. Louis and the people who live, work and create in our region. The show is produced by Miya Norfleet, Emily Woodbury, Danny Wicentowski, Elaine Cha and Alex Heuer. Ulaa Kuziez is our production intern. The audio engineer is Aaron Doerr. Send questions and comments about this story to talk@stlpr.org.
