🌈 Willi Ninja ✨

 

Willi Ninja was recognised as the “Grandfather of Vogue '', Willi Ninja rose to prominence in the Harlem Drag Ball scene in the 1980s and took the dance form of Voguing around the world. In 1982 Willi Ninja founded the House of Ninja, actin as ‘mother’, the group became home to many gay and transgender ‘children’ in New York City. Moving away from showgirl drag, the Harlem drag ball scene provided African American and Latino youth a space to express nonconforming gender presentations. The houses of the drag ball scene provided the participants a support network and an extended social family. Each house having distinctions, the House of Ninja was famous for its dancers. Willi Ninja helped create and shape the dance form of voguing that was a combination of exaggerated model poses and intricate mime-like choreography. 

 After appearing in the documentary Paris is Burning, Willi rose to fame as a choreographer, musician, runway model and modelling coach, as well as serving as a direct inspiration to various artists who immortalized the style in their music videos. Willi Ninja’s life illustrates what it means to be a black gay male in a world that lauds white male heteronormativity. Willi Ninja transgressed rigid gender barriers as he participated in the ballroom scene and performed an androgynous gender presentation on and off the stage. 

Willi Ninja was born William Roscoe Leake on April 12th 1961 and grew up in Flushing, Queens. Willi was a completely self-taught dancer and began to dance publicly at the age of 7. Willi dropped out of college, enrolled in beauty school and moved to Greenwich Village in the late 70s. Although not much is known about his childhood, during interviews Willi would describe his mother, Esther Leake, she was very accepting of his sexuality and had a big role in nurturing his interest in dancing. Willi Ninja spoke in an interview with Joan Rivers about how he never had to ‘come out’ to his mum, in fact it was his mother who confronted him, claiming that “mothers always know”. She told him that he was her son and she would love him no matter what. 

Inspired by Fred Astaire, Olympic gymnasts, and the martial arts (hence the name “Ninja”), Willi formed a dance group who called themselves the Video Pretenders in the early 1980s. They would go to clubs and mimic the dance moves in the music videos being shown on the screens. They soon realized that they should create their own choreography. Willi began voguing at the Christopher Street Pier and Washington Square Park, popular hangout sites for LGBTQ youth, and made his debut in Harlem’s famous drag balls.

Willi Ninja participated in the drag ball scene to perfect his dance form. Others used it to polish their modelling or singing or other performance art. Arguably, the children benefited the most from the ball scene as it provided a chance at fame in the subculture and legitimized their identity and experiences. Having a space to fulfil their fantasies, they could be the person they wanted to be through the performance of an identity otherwise unattainable to them. Queens won prizes for expressing the most realness, a transformative and convincing performance of a particular persona. Many of the youth could not obtain jobs or an education, but by dressing up as a certain professional or student, they felt like they were fulfilling their desires of being that person and proving they could be that person by dressing the part. The categories ranged from company executives, students, military men, runway models, and a heterosexual man, and then dancers would come to sweep the stage. 

The drag ball scene in Harlem was not simply a product of the LGBTQ subculture of New York City. In its own right, the drag queens operated as a wide-ranging community of gay men, trans men and women, lesbian women, and queers. It was a reflection of many gender nonconforming people in society. Queens did not just imitate gender binaries; they pushed to break them down. Willi Ninja did not to “pass” as a woman. He did not live as a woman nor do full drag. He walked and danced down the stage sporting a moustache, long hair, large jewellery pieces, make-up, women’s clothes, all while performing a blend of masculinity and femininity. While a lot of the femme queens and transwomen found validation in winning categories for their realness of passing as biological women, Willi Ninja, an androgynous self-described butch queen, performed a fluid gender presentation in a world that celebrates white male heteronormativity and in a subculture that rewarded woman realness. He just wanted to be himself and showcase his talents and techniques. 

Willi redefined voguing and prided himself on being a clean, sharp dancer to “kill his competition.” He is credited with revolutionizing the dance form by adding swift angular movements and contortionist arm and leg positions. Willi made voguing a legitimate dance form by teaching it all over the world. He met Malcolm McLaren who took a group headed by Willi on a tour of European fashion houses. Willi modelled in runway shows for Chanel, Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, Karl Lagerfield. He took voguing to Europe and Japan. He choreographed and appeared in various concerts and music videos and really took voguing to a level of visibility and perfection in performance that no one had reached before. He trained models like Naomi Campbell and Iman. He taught female models femininity by showing them how to acquire grace and poise. Willi opened a modelling agency, EON (Elements of Ninja) in 2004

After succeeding in his dream of traveling the world, Willi Ninja never lost touch with the drag ball scene. He was instrumental in getting the ballroom scene to discuss HIV/AIDS prevention throughout the 1980s when it was not being talked about in the gay community because of social stigma and anxiety surrounding it, making it a habit to split time between performing and community engagement. He was diagnosed with HIV in 2003 and continued working to support his elderly mother while not being able to afford healthcare for himself. He continued to mentor upcoming dancers and models until he lost his sight and became paralyzed. Willi Ninja died of AIDS-related heart failure in New York City in 2006 at age of 46 surrounded by the children of his house. He continued to provide an outlet for self-expression in the queer community until the end. The House of Ninja continues to perform at drag balls to promote HIV/AIDS awareness in their mother’s name.SOURCE

https://outhistory.org/exhibits/show/tgi-bios/willi-ninja

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Here's a clip of Willi Ninja dancing from the Paris is Burning documentary 

The House of Ninja on Instagram

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