First the late Willi Ninja becomes a breakout icon from the ballroom community in the wake of the Paris Is Burning documentary along with Octavia. Then Jose Xtravaganza ends up as one of Madonna's dancers and in her Vogue video. Isis makes the move from the ballroom floor runway competition to America's Next Top Model, and now we have Leiomy Mizrahi Maldonado making a name for herself and the Vogue Evolution dance crew she's been leading in Season 4 of America's Best Dance Crew.
Check out some of her moves from the ballroom.
And word to mainstream peeps, you may want to start checking out a ballroom competition near you. Your next runway modeling superstar or hot dancer could be honing their skills there right now.
Not to mention Beyonce's choreographer ripping off some of Leyomi's moves and giving using them in Beyonce's videos. Not to mention a previous ABDC group dedicating a piece to Lyomi in season 2 and admitting a large amount of what they did was taken from her Youtube videos. Leyomi (or Leiomy... it seems to be spelled both ways) is a major artist. That she's even competing (much less disrespected) on ABDC is kind of a joke and a sign of how little respect the Ballroom community gets. Some other great transwomen dancers like Roxy Prodigy have moved on without getting that recognition, but I hope we all realize how lucky we are to get to see someone like Leyomi dance for us on a major tv network.
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