Athens dips in vogue. Poses. Sangria. Neon lights. Loud music. Fashion. Dance. A frantic party and, together, a reserve marathon: the first ball of Lea Vlamos in collaboration with Onassis Culture It is a fact. The dancers-protagonists of “Climax”, his cult film Gaspar Noereconnect and welcome participants from the Greek and international ballroom scene for a special evening.
In the industrial area of ​​Onassis Ready (Legaki 7A, Agios Ioannis Rentis), just before it was renovated, h Roof of the Onassis Foundation and the Lea Vlamos present a ball of free expression and equality. On April 16, Lea Vlamos, a member of the House of Ninja, and over 40 contestants / voguers put the dance above races, genders, ages, sexual preferences, size, height.
In an unexpected place on the invisible side of the city and in a stage-tribute to the cult film “Climax” by Gaspar Noe.
The balls are safe spaces of expression and freedom, created by and for black and Latino trans women and the gay community in New York’s underground scene in the late 1960s, in order to escape racism in society and on white runways.
An underground culture for and from the LOATKI + community. The ball is a competition where fashion, beauty and dance performances are combined around many categories and give the necessary space to an entire community so that its members can express themselves freely and without fear, to create and meet, having in front of them a a society that continues to discriminate, judge and condemn.
The movie “Climax” (2018) by the great provocateur Gaspar Noe began with an unimaginable intensity, absolutely uplifting, liberating and extremely technically demanding dance monoplane lasting ten minutes, where vogue was the basic style. Set in the winter of ’96, “Climax” was one of the Argentine creator’s best films, introduced in 1991 with the medium-length “Carne”, he continued his nihilistic vision in 1998 with “Alone Against” of all “and became known to all in 2002 with the explosive” Irreversible “. “Climax” had all the elements that make its cinema special, absolutely beloved by some, controversial for others: a rudimentary script structure (young dancers, isolated in the lead, tripping in groups when one distorts the sangria of the party), dizzying direction of photography , neon lights, directing distance from what is happening on the screen.
Led by Sofia Butella, the cast of young French performers included, among others, DJ Kiddy Smile, a well-known figure in the Parisian electronics scene, and Lea Vlamos, the dancer who introduced Noah to the vogue and inspired him for the film. Vlamos, who comes from the House of Ninja team and participated in the explosive “Fashion Freak Show” of Jean-Paul Gautier in 2019, met Noah in a commercial where she participated, under the direction of the other greatest European provocateur, Nicolas Viding Refn (“Drive”, “The Neon Demon”).
A few words about voguing
With Madonna’s “Vogue”, a key element of ballroom culture, as it had developed in New York in the late 1960s, went straight into the mainstream and would take many years to establish the truth. The award-winning Sundance Film Festival documentary “Paris Is Burning” (1990) was the first film to draw the audience’s attention to this hitherto unseen outsider artistic expression. In Ryan Murphy’s Netflix series “Pose” (2018-2021), which is perhaps the most important fictional revival of its golden age, we saw, among other things, the difference of opinion among its representatives, when “Vogue” swept the charts: others were thrilled with this widespread recognition of a cultural product of their own, completely underground, and others, like the character played by the delightful Billy Porter, were more skeptical about turning their artistic heritage into mass fashion.
The voguing borrowed its name from the poses of supermodels in the pages of the magazine of the same name, as a key element of the dance are the intense, exaggerated, sophisticated poses, reminiscent of high fashion, as well as the art of ancient Egypt. The performers’ limbs, arms and legs, form linear, rigid movements and alternate quickly from one static position to another, with admirable technique. As a dance style, it continues to evolve aesthetically and artistically today, being now a global movement inherited from LGBTQI + individuals around the world.
A few words about Lea Vlamos
Lea Vlamos was born in Paris. He started ballet lessons at the age of 6. She studied at Marius Petipa Dance School for a year and then at the National Regional Dance School (CNR) for three years, where in addition to ballet she also studied contemporary dance. In 2010 he went to New York to study for two years at the Broadway Dance Center. In 2013 he discovered and fell in love with vogue and the following year he joined the famous and emblematic House of Ninja. Since then, her name in the ballroom is Lea Ninja, where she has distinguished herself in various categories (from runway to vogue fem), while she has delivered countless workshops around the world. Following a modeling career, she has been on the catwalk at various fashion shows and is the face of several campaigns. As a dancer, she is a member of the original troupe of Jean-Paul Gautier’s theatrical performance, the “Fashion Freak Show”, which is touring around the world. She is also an actress, with her most notable participation in the film “Climax” by Gaspar Noe, which was her first experience in the film industry and led her to the 2018 Cannes Film Festival.
Performance information
Onassis Ready (Legaki 7A, Agios Ioannis Rentis)
Limited capacity event with limited free seats and standing spectators in their majority. The doors open at 16:00. Food and drink available for sale. The ball starts at 17:00 and ends at 23:00. Access for the public 16+
Tickets: Tickets available at the entrance of the ball. Entry in order of priority. General admission: 15 euros.
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