![]() But he’s not the only one – Vjuan Allure, the scene legend Mike credits as his “favourite producer,” estimates he’s made “at least 350 to 400 ‘Ha’s’” over the last years. “Just about all of the tracks I’ve made are ‘Ha’s’, maybe 90% of them,” says MikeQ, on the phone from New Jersey. There is now a “Ha” for nearly every occasion and popular culture reference: A "Ha" sampling Rihanna and Britney, Scooby Doo and Super Mario Brothers… even a “ Resident Evil Ha”. ![]() Second in importance is the “ha” itself, a sample from the movie Trading Places that MAW morphed into a sound byte so saucy and dismissive it should come with a flick of the wrist. Ballroom is most in love with the song’s metallic, demanding, industrial-sounding crash, often used every fourth beat to punctuate dancers dramatically dipping to the floor. Basically, “The Ha Dance” is to ballroom what “Sing Sing” is to Baltimore club or “Pulse X” is to UK grime: a song that’s been hacked to pieces and turned inside out by thousands of versions and bootleg remixes. Until recently, new ballroom was married to a limited palette of sounds, most of them sampled from pieces of Masters at Work’s 1991 classic, “ The Ha Dance”. And like almost every true underground dance scene, proper releases are almost non-existent, with the producers mostly releasing tracks via homemade CDs or file-share links. It’s a mix of these – plus the influences of hip hop, R&B, deep house, and the more aggressive sounds of Baltimore and Jersey club – that have spawned the first wave of dedicated “ballroom” producers: names like Vjuan Allure, Angel X, MikeQ, Divoli S’vere, Kevin JZ Prodigy, B.Ames, and DJ Chip Chop. ![]() Technically, ballroom refers to all the music played at vogue balls, from house and disco classics like MFSB’s “Love is the Message,” Todd Terry’s “Bango,” and Ellis Dee’s “Dub Break” to hard house staples like Junior Vasquez “ X” and Kevin Aviance’s 1995 anthem “ Cunty”. And with MikeQ releasing on the taste-making Night Slugs and Fade to Mind labels, Divoli S’vere remixing San Francisco’s bass dude Reilly Steel, and Boddika & Joy Orbison reworking Robbie Tronco’s vogue classic “ Walk 4 Me,” the number of heads suddenly interested in this gay subculture is at an all-time high. Originally created by Jack Mizrahi and Luna Khan as a place where young voguers could hone their craft, Vogue Knights has become something of an underground mecca for anyone wanting to taste the real essence of ballroom. On the mic, Kevin JZ Prodigy makes this non-touching cat-fight reach fever pitch with demanding, high-energy chants and take-no-prisoners commentary. Performers new and old show off moves that are glamorous, dramatic, gymnastic, and occasionally death-defying: all whip-sharp wrists, split-second drops to the floor, and pirouettes that would make Baryshnikov cry. Inside a club called Escuelita on 39th Street, DJ MikeQ is behind a pair of CDJs looking out over a crowd of 100 or more performers who’ve come here to compete for $50 or $100 prizes in categories like “Beauty Queen Sex Siren” or “Soft and Cunt”. ![]() ![]() It’s a windy Tuesday night in midtown Manhattan Times Square glimmers in the distance, darkened office buildings sulk, and a few fluorescently lit pizza places hawk grim $1 cheese slices. ![]()
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