One of the driving forces behind central Texas’ booming queer ballroom scene, Dorian Delafuente lived a dozen lives before settling into their latest transformation: up-and-coming popstar BabiBoi. Growing up in San Antonio, Delafuente first pursued the viola, thinking that one day they would be part of a chamber orchestra. By the time they left for college at the University of Texas at Austin, they were studying theater, hoping they would become an actor.
“That’s what ballroom is about: Just having the bravery to walk is commendable.” Though ballroom is an art form rooted in queer liberation and expression, Delafuente said that many of its traditional categories do rely on some kind of gender performance, whether in “Realness” or “Sex Siren.” “It can be gendered because of the context and the time that it came from, and it should remain loyal to those roots,” they said. “But now categories are popping up for different types of queer people.