Wonder Women of Ballroom: Leiomy Maldonado, an Afro-Latina Heroine in Ballroom and Staple in Black Culture

“The Wonder Women Of Vogue” Leiomy Maldonado, trans activist, and dance icon is one of ballroom’s leading visionaries. She is the unofficial head honcho of voguing for over a decade now and thanks to her hair whipping and high energy flips and dips, Maldonado has shaped the art form to what it is today.

The Afro-Puerto Rican broke into New York’s ballroom scene at the age of 15, grabbing the attention of more than just her peers. In a 2016 Oxygen interview, she opened up on how she was introduced to ballroom dancing in late 2002. It was her mentor and friend, a fellow trans woman, who helped her become acquainted with the scene. “She’s the first trans woman I ever ran across,” she said. Maldonado at a young age dealt with gender dysphoria and explored it through the art form of voguing. “I found how to cope with it through voguing,” she added. 

To understand the history of ballroom dancing, one must look back at the plight of queer Black and brown people in New York City. Drag culture served as the catalyst to ballroom, which attempted to mimic cis-hetero TK.

In a 2017 interview with The Creative, Leiomy describes her experiences when she was a novice dancer in the ballroom scene. “I would show up at the balls to compete and they would tell me ‘You’re no good.’ They always chopped me.” Adding, “The judges would be like, ‘No, that’s not voguing’…I started doing research and started looking into what is vogue and where it comes from. I learned the history about the culture. That’s what made me more amazed with the style itself.”

Ballrooms are the stories of broken Black and brown youth. All starting back to the Harlem ballroom scene in the 1980’s. Maldonado credits her ballroom predecessors, who were trans women, as her inspiration to finding her identity and love for dance. Maldonado carries the torch left from supremes like Willi Ninja, known as the “Godfather of vogue,” and legendary Pepper Labeija. These names might sound familiar because they are in the award-winning cult classic, Paris Is Burning (1991). 

The ballroom community fosters talent, but also the identities of queer youth struggling with coming to terms with themselves. A lot of the kids growing in the ballroom scene have “houses,” these houses become their families. Maldonado recounts her experience with The Creative in being in a house. “My family were the House of Mizrahi and some of the leaders there, they helped me mold myself into who I am today. Without that I would have been lost,” she shared. Leiomy now has her own house, “House of Amazon.” 

Maldonado appeared on MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew with her group, Vogue Evolution, and was the first women of trans experience to be showcased on the show. She brought her ballroom background to the mainstream, connecting another experience of Blackness to the forefront. The “Leiomy Lolly,” is Maldonado’s signature move that artists such as Beyonce and Lady Gaga mimic in their choreography. Maldonado, since her appearance in MTV’s America’s Best Dance Crew, has since been sought out by kids who look up to her. “I was stopped in the street by parents. Like, “Oh my god, you’re the girl from America’s Best Dance Crew! After hearing about your story and really researching it, you helped me love and understand my child.”

“The Wonder Women Of Vogue” received her name from Jack Mizrahi, one of the ballroom MCs. Maldonado’s style is innate to how voguing is consumed today versus when it began. Maldonado’s style defies gravity. In a 2019 Vice interview, she was asked how she would describe her style. “I basically vogued from the heart,” saying, “I get down and dirty.” This can be seen in Willow Smith’s 2010 “Whip My Hair,” as Maldonado plays the teacher. 

In 2019, Equinox teamed up with Maldonado, Tati 007, Tamiyah Mugler, and other dance icons in the community for the “#HouseLivesMatter” campaign. The campaign focuses on, “activism, social justice, and human rights issues that impact the ballroom community.” Maldonado states, “I vogue because it’s a way to express myself. I use vogue to tap into different emotions and use my body to create art. I vogue because it inspires others to dance without care.”

As one of the leading faces of ballroom, Maldonado has since collaborated with Nike for their notable #BeTrue campaign. Directed by Daisy Zhou, the video shows the athleticism of voguing, paying tribute to the ballroom scene. The spokesmodel has also worked on Ryan Murphy’s trailblazing show, POSE, as choreographer. She also appeared in some of the episodes herself. 

The Wonder Woman is now a judge on HBO Max’s Legendary, starring alongside Megan Thee Stallion, Law Roach, Jameela Jamil, and Deshaun Wesley, her close friend and member of Vogue Evolution. The competition involves eight outstanding houses fighting for a $100,000 cash prize. Also, Maldonado recently teamed up with AREA, an indie NYC designer, launching its Ready-To-Wear 01 collection.