Out Boulder County’s first ever Spring Fling Kiki Ball is meant to be a celebration of beauty for those in the transgender and queer communities who’ve been told they don’t fit the mold, according to Chris Castañeda.
As the youth program assistant for Out Boulder County, a nonprofit serving the LGBTQ+ community, Castañeda said the ball taking place Saturday night at the Elks Lodge in Longmont is the culmination of nearly a year's worth of efforts to help introduce local youth to ballroom culture.
The ballroom scene started in the 1970s as an underground subculture in New York City founded by Black and Latino LGBTQ+ people responding to ostracization of both their identities and race. At a ball, attendees compete in numerous drag and performance competition categories for trophies and prizes.
Castañeda, who uses they/them pronouns, described the balls as, “essentially a highlight of queer identity, creativity, fashion and performance.”
“Ballroom was started out of that resilience,” they added. “It was started out of the racism that queer and trans black folks were facing in the New York pageant scene. They wanted to have their own celebrations.”
With shows like “RuPaul’s Drag Race” and “Pose” growing the popularity of ballroom culture, Castañeda wanted to bring that experience into the Boulder County community. Castañeda and Out Boulder County began investing more into ballroom culture beginning last year.
They collaborated with LeeLee James, house mother of the Colorado Chapter of the House of Labeija, to host intensives helping the community to learn more about the ballroom scene. That included classes, runway practices and workshops to help young people learn about the scene with the Spring Fling as a culmination of all this work.
“We wanted to set all that up so that youth had the experience of ballroom culture to practice it and then execute that with the Spring Fling Kiki Ball,” Castañeda said.
Open and Affirming Sexual Orientation and gender identity Support, or OASOS, and Youth Advocating for Change are collaborating with Out Boulder County for the Spring Fling. The free event is open to all ages and has separate categories for youth and adult performers.
Castañeda said this was to encourage young, new performers to participate without being intimidated by more experienced ball participants.
“We wanted to give the youth the chance to perform while also letting them see the opportunities that await,” Castañeda said.
There are realness, runway, face and performance categories, and themes for each relate to the spring season — “Flower Power,” “Bring it as a Bunny” and more — with cash prizes. The judge panel will be made up of prominent members of the ballroom community in Colorado, including LeeLee James.
Castañeda said they’ve seen a lot of interest both from the youth and adult ballroom scenes across the Front Range. For Castañeda, seeing the young people in Boulder County getting excited as they prepared for the event has been the best part of the planning.
“To show them that, hey, you don’t need to be at Denver Fashion Week to walk a runway,” Castañeda said. “You can do it in your own backyard in Longmont, celebrated and applauded by your own community.”
The Spring Fling Kiki Ball is from 5:30-9 p.m. Saturday at the Elks Lodge in Longmont. Learn more and RSVP for the free, all-ages event at www.outboulder.org/.
