The Climax Ball
organized by Lea Ninja
Dates
Venue
Time & Date
Information
General Information
Doors open at 16:00 - Food & drink available on sale - Ball starts at 17:00 and ends at 23:00.
Limited capacity - majority standing event. Limited free seating is available.
Age: 16+
Tickets
Tickets available at the door on a first come first served basis.
Ticket price: 15 €
The Ballroom Code
If you are not a member of the LBGTQIA+ community and decide to attend, you are most welcome but must abide by the ballroom code: racist, homophobic, transphobic, sexist, ableist, fatphobic, or any other discriminatory behaviors will not be tolerated.
Audio and video recorded
Your presence at this event constitutes your consent to be audio, video and image recorded. This material will appear on the Onassis Channel at a later date.
Transfer policy
Transfer from Onassis Stegi to Legaki and vice versa will be available with a minibus of limited seats and free ticket, every 15 minutes. Transfers start at 15:30 from Onassis Stegi to Legaki and end at 23:45 from Legaki to Onassis Stegi.
From Onassis Stegi to Legaki
15:30, 15:45, 16:00, 16:15, 16:30, 16:45, 17:00, 17:15, 17:30, 17:45, 18:00, 18:15, 18:30, 18:45, 19:00, 19:15, 19:30, 19:45, 20:00, 20:15, 20:30, 20:45, 21:00, 21:15, 21:30, 21:45, 22:00, 22:15, 22:15
From Legaki to Onassis Stegi
15:45, 16:00, 16:15, 16:30, 16:45, 17:00, 17:15, 17:30, 17:45, 18:00, 18:15, 18:30, 18:45, 19:00, 19:15, 19:30, 19:45, 20:00, 20:15, 20:30, 20:45, 21:00, 21:15, 21:30, 21:45, 22:00, 22:15, 22:30, 22:45, 23:00, 23:15, 23:30, 23:45
Limited parking seats at Onassis Ready venue.
Safety at Onassis Culture productions
In accordance with Greek government guidance, and as part of measures combatting the spread of Covid-19, everyone entering Onassis Stegi and Onassis Culture for “The Climax Ball” event must present either a vaccination certificate (valid 14 days after final dose) or a recovery certificate (valid for six months after diagnosis) plus ID card. The use of mask is mandatory.
Introduction
Athens dips deep into vogue. Poses. Sangria. Neon lighting. Pumping music. Fashion. Dance. A delirious party that’s also a rapturous marathon – Onassis Culture’s first ball is here. The dancers-leading characters of the Gaspar Noé’s cult film “Climax” are brought back together and welcome participants from the local Greek and the international ballroom scene, for a special night, during which we will enter for the first time Onassis Ready, the industrial venue launched by Onassis Culture.
Are you Ready to vogue?
A culture, a contest like no other, in a space like no other. The first ball to be hosted by Οnassis Stegi and Léa Vlamos at Onassis Ready is ready to make history. Onassis Culture hosts at its industrial venue, Onassis Ready, in the Athenian area of Aghios Ioannis Rentis, a ball that champions freedom of expression, and equality. On April 16, Léa Vlamos, the House of Ninja, and up to 40 contestants/voguers will be putting dance over and above race, gender, age, sexual preference, size, and height. Inside an industrial space situated in Athens’ underground quarter, and inside a setting that pays tribute to Gaspar Noé’s cult film “Climax”. Welcome to the Climax Ball. Strike a pose and dip deep into vogue.
Ballroom culture is a safe space for expression and freedom created in the underground scene of late ’60s New York by Black and Latinx trans women and the gay community in order to escape the prejudice inherent in both balls controlled by white people, and society in general.It’s an underground CULTURE by and for the LGBTQI+ community. A ball is a contest where fashion, beauty, and dance performances are combined across many categories, giving an entire community the space it needs to express itself freely and without fear, where its members can meet and create in defiance of a society that continues to discriminate, to judge, and to condemn.
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Photo: Pinelopi Gerasimou
From “Climax” the film to the new Onassis Ready space
In 2018, the great provocateur Gaspar Noé’s return to the cinema screen opened with an incredibly intense, utterly uplifting, liberating, and exceptionally technically-demanding ten-minute dance long take, in which vogue was the core style. Set in the winter of 1996, “Climax” is one of the best works by this Argentine filmmaker who first introduced himself to audiences with the mid-length film “Carne” before expanding his nihilistic vision with the 1998 feature “I Stand Alone” and becoming widely known for 2002’s explosive “Irréversible”. “Climax” bears all the elements that make his filmmaking unmistakable – revered by some, contentious for others: a largely unscripted premise (a group of young dancers left alone in a rehearsal space trip out when someone spikes the sangria at the party they’re throwing), dizzying cinematography, neon lighting, and a certain directorial detachment when it comes to everything that’s happening on screen.
Headed by Sofia Boutella, the stunning cast of young French performers also included DJ Kiddy Smile, a famed figure of the Paris dance scene, and Léa Vlamos, the dancer who introduced Noé to voguing and inspired him to make the film. Vlamos, who belongs to the House of Ninja and took part in Jean Paul Gaultier’s explosive “Fashion Freak Show” in 2019, met Noé during the shoot of an advert she was in – directed by that other great European provocateur, Nicolas Winding Refn (“Drive”, “The Neon Demon”) – and ended up entering his hallucinogenic trip.
16:00 | Doors open
17:00–23:00 | Ball
Beauty / Body
Face: (FF, MF, NB)
Sex Siren: (FF, MF)
Body: (FF, MF)
Fashion
Fashion Killah
Runway: American/ European
Realness
Female Figure (Drag, femme queen)
Male Figure (Trans men, MF everyday realness)
Performance
Old way/New way
Hands Performance
Baby vogue
Butch Queen Vogue Fem/ butch queen vogue fem in Heels
FF performance
Commentator vs. Commentator
Lipsync
(The categories are not in the ball's order)
OTA: open to all
FF: Female figure
MF: Male figure
FQ: Fem Queen
BQ: Butch Queen
NB: Non Binary
GP: grand prize
TBA: to be announced
10s: getting your tens you can access to the battles
Chop: you are cut from the category
As a form, voguing took its name from the poses struck by supermodels on the pages of Vogue magazine – fitting since its core dance vocabulary comprises striking, exaggerated, and contrived poses reminiscent of high fashion, as well as ancient Egyptian art. Performers use their arms and legs to form lines and precise movements, quickly shifting from one static pose to another with formidable skill. The dance style has continued to evolve both artistically and aesthetically right through to the present day, and is now a global movement that is being passed down to LGBTQI+ people across the world.
In September of 2020, Onassis Foundation reshaped the former KOCH plastic parts factory into an unexpected space for artistic experimentation and exploration. A huge industrial building, it is situated in an unexplored neighborhood of Rentis, between working-class apartment buildings, dirt roads, and materials yards.
The first Onassis Ready ‘tenants’ arrived and gave life to the former factory.
This year, Onassis Ready hosts the stage performances “Of Mice and Men,” “Aris,” and “The Red Lanterns,” directed by Vassilis Bisbikis. Nikos Karathanos rehearsed there his “Prometheus” which was performed at the Onassis Stegi Main Stage, in October 2021. His ‘roommate’ Lena Kitsopoulou conceived at the very same space her next performance, inspired by Mary Shelley’s classic goth novel “Frankenstein,” which will be staged at Onassis Stegi in May 2022.
Renovation work will soon begin at Onassis Ready and the building will be full of people and lights.
