Halie JohnsonWomen were dressed as men, some men were dressed as women, and a few women were dressed as men dressed as women at the 2nd Annual Dance in Drag in the Student Union on Nov. 4. The event, hosted by Mouthing Off, a queer club on campus, featured a performance by drag king quartet The Transformers, a drag contest, and two DJs.
“It wasn’t anything like what I expected,” said junior Rachel Howard, who’d bound her chest with an Ace bandage and wore baggy jeans and a t-shirt. It was her first drag dance experience. “Everyone was really into it.”
The wildly popular Transformers were brought to Mills by sophomore Saranique Schwartz, and performed dance routines to “boy band” songs like ‘N Sync’s “Bye Bye Bye.” They were met with screams of approval and wild applause from the audience; one spectator even flung a bra on the stage. The Transformers are a group of six Bay Area drag kings, although only four performed at the dance on Saturday.
Then came the drag contest, where students strutted their stuff on the stage to noisy calls from their peers. There were cowboys, plumbers, well-dressed socialites, gangstas and male prostitutes. The contestants were judged based on originality and believability by Mouthing Off President Helen Vance and five other members of Mouthing Off. The winners-a golfer and his lady and a priest punishing a naughty Catholic schoolboy-received $25 gift certificates to Good Vibrations, a Bay Area retailer of sex products.
There were virtually no attendees for the first hour and a half, but students began trickling in around 10:15 p.m., after the Mills Players’ Alice in Wonderland finished. By 10:30 p.m., the dance was in full swing.
“I wasn’t so concerned [about the attendance] because I knew the play was going on and I expected people to show up after,” said Vance.
Overall, the drag dance was enjoyed by those in attendance.
“It rocks my cock,” said “Earl,” who affected a Southern drawl and packed his camouflage pants to create a prominent bulge at the crotch.
“I’m finding it a little difficult,” “Mrs. Earl” said when asked about the dance, one hand on her aproned belly, “because I’m drinking for two now.”
Occasionally, a circle would form as students watched their peers demonstrate complex dance moves with claps and barks of approval. Then the circle would close up as the dancers once again moved in close, grinding hip to hip and thigh to thigh.
Samantha Calamari DJed the first half of the night, and Jocelyn Agloro DJed until the dance ended at 1 a.m, after complications with the originally hired DJ’s equipment arose.
For more on the Transformers, visit www.thetransformers.org.
