Ballroom culture also entering mainstream in Poland
Bożena Wydrowska, who is the forerunner of the Polish ballroom culture, asserts that everyone - regardless of sexual preference, skin color, political views, background, or religion - can find themselves in this culture and through it freely discover their own identity. For it is much more than balls and competitions for LQBT+ people, but also a community and homes that often replace these people's families.
"Ballroom culture originated in the 1970s in New York and was created by so-called femme queens or transgender women. It is a culture of people who over the centuries have been discriminated against and excluded because of their orientation, their skin color, their social class, and their background. So it is a culture of people of color, of queer people. It is governed by its laws and to function in it, you need to know certain rules that govern it. Bożena Wydrowska, visual and performance artist, said.
Ballroom culture has been present in Poland for more than 10 years, but it has only been booming for the past five. Today, it attracts mainly queer people, Ukrainians, Belarussians, or Kazakhs living in Poland. It is also attracting the interest of various cultural and art institutions, so it is entering the mainstream.
(Newseria)
