Pump, Create, Elevate: the Bizarre & Effects Workroom – With Legion 007, Isabel Jazzabell, ziehe es an

Das sagt der/die Veranstalter:in:

Communal Atelier, Crafting and Upcycling Workshop

Haunani-Kay Trask Hall
English and German with consecutive translation
Free entry

The series Pump, Create, Elevate returns in 2025 with a second round of public events for and by Ballroom’s extended family. Under the continued programme Politics of Rhythm, through which HKW stimulates practices that embody dance and music to further develop and maintain communitarian knowledge, the series is hosted in collaboration with and by House of St. Laurent. With dedicated moments providing space for gathering outside of the dynamics of the ball, it welcomes others interested in expanding their knowledge, skills, or network. As Ballroom culture originated from trans women of African, Central and South American, and Caribbean heritage, and continues to centre racialized and sexo-diverse (or queer) people’s lives and resilience, their participation is especially invited. 

With guests facilitating the programme, each session focuses on a different facet, offering a frame to look into aspects of the culture, such as expanding on and preparing for different categories, the basics and practice of categories that centre sensuality, and exchanges on the worldwide network of Ballroom and the particularities of how it takes place across different latitudes.

The Bizarre & Effects Workroom includes a presentation of the category Bizarre by Legion 007 in the frame of an upcycling and crafting atelier dedicated to it and to Fashion Killer. The workshop is accompanied by Isabel Jazzabel & Ziehe es an, both knowledgeable makers and costumiers. During the five-hour timeframe of this hands-on workroom, these experienced designers and practitioners are available to guide participants on how to transform their ideas into reality, finding and processing inspiration and transforming that into a costume, especially in a sustainable and financially accessible way.

Introduced by Legion 007, who has successfully walked Bizarre since 2019, this category asks for something otherworldly and completely outside of the box. Rather than just making an outfit, it’s about creating a new creature, a new being. Imaginativeness, architectural finesse, and forward-thinking beyond existing trends and norms, is required and expected.

Accompanied by Ballroom beats, the atelier is an interactive and creative experience in the crafting of effects, while also being a moment to connect with fellow makers and a space for designers interested in collaborating with Ballroom artists. While during the session some materials and items are readily at hand to be upcycled, workshop attendants are encouraged to bring materials, effects, and the ideas they are working on at the moment. This is a chance for the community to prepare outfits for upcoming balls.

Additionally, there is a library available in the space featuring publications that delve deeper into ballroom culture, and its history and knowledge. In conjunction with the programme House of Houses, HKW also offers continued internal rooms for rehearsal for members of the International Resilient House of Makaveli, and for local practitioners of New Way, assembled by Litchi Saint Laurent.

With self-determination at its core, mastering the art of presentation has been a catalyst for self-empowerment inside the practice of Ballroom culture. Using fashion as a vessel of self-expression and affirmation, in line with a long history of excelling in terms of creativity, style, and precision, the Ballroom community’s art reclaims space, demands acknowledgment, and puts forth a commitment to beauty and agency.

From its early stages in Harlem’s drag balls of the 1920s to the consolidation of Vogue as an expressive movement practice, Ballroom culture has shaken the naturalization of sexuality and gender binary performativities, as well as exposed the intersecting racial and economic glass ceilings often at work. Playfully examining, deconstructing, and turning performativities into tools for anyone troubled by cis-heteronormativity and aiming to fool/surpass its segregative impact, such practices have continuously evolved beyond the framing of passing. This has included, for example, the assertion of gender non-binarism and consolidation of embodied vocabularies and language that describe less regimented and more plural ways of being. In today’s socio-cultural climate, in which far-right and fascist politicians are harshly limiting and trying to erase the existence of sexo-diverse people, safe spaces, solidarity, and support are crucial to continue building a plurality of non-patriarchal, gender-euphoric, equal futures.

In, around, and associated with HKW there is no space for, nor tolerance towards, hate speech or hate actions of any kind.