by Anthony Trung Quang Le | October 2025
This article was originally published in the Aqua Plums Substack. Subscribe to get new blogs sent to your email.
Part 1: Tarot Reading
It was a rainy day in June. The rain felt refreshing on the skin. I met up with Adam Chamy, who’s currently in an exhibition at the Y Gallery, to talk about portraiture and drag. I talked about how fluid my art practice felt at the moment. It felt as fluid as melting wax I remember from this performance by Maps Glover and Holly Bass that was part of their 2023 duo Transformer show.
The transformation of form.
The anticipation of impact.
Sitting through fear.
I learned that tarot reading is one of Adam’s family’s pastimes, and he asked if I was open to one. I accepted, curious about insights into my art practice if at all possible. Adam placed a scarf onto the table with the tarot cards, wet from the rain. After some shuffling and airing out (of grievances), we began.
Part 2: The Hermit
Tarot voice of god: The Hermit symbolizes a time of solitude and research, especially with the Queen of Swords and a critical academic lens. Deep work in progress.
The cards seem to be pointing to a major shift in my art practice this year. Painting has long been a comforting friend in my practice since 2018. A lot has changed since then. An unashamed fascist administration has taken over the country and my home town. My tax-paying complicity in the government’s actions with ICE and the genocide in Palestine feels demoralizing. The occupation of DC, the lack of DC statehood and the engorging of rich politicians at the cost of our quality of life feels like I’m being drained of my blood. I recently watched the “Interview With A Vampire” TV show…Queer and sexy, honey! It’s been difficult to get a solo show in DC (said everyone). A critique of my work and how I use the image of others has also temporarily soured my desire to paint others, even myself. I know this will likely pass with time.
As I anticipated some of these changes, I was also preparing for two huge Vagabond projects with the exhibit and cabaret. I knew that embracing a movement practice was not only vital to my joy, but also my ability to hold myself together through everything.
I had committed to trying out drag for the cabaret and was reaffirmed that it was the right decision when it was banned by the Kennedy Center.
I’ve learned that when my work is censored, I’ve struck some emotional chord, some internal dialogue and questioning even if I disagree with the outcome.
Drag provided me with a new chance to be interdisciplinary, weaving in animation/video work with costumery, prop-making and dance. I had the least experience in dance, so I set a goal of taking more classes.
First, here are some drag influences.
I’m a fan of Sasha Velour, and I saw her at the Strathmore in January. The show started with a chair. Then she emerged as the chair. Then she took off the chair, and it still functioned as a chair on its own. Brilliant!
Sasha also showed me the power of video backdrops and transitions. She isolated her head which had a lipsync, which freed her to do other things on stage. I also learned the pacing of gags from her which I incorporated in my different reveals.
I am also a big fan of Grace David, especially Ebonibleu. I learn a lot about storytelling in their performances which mix dialogue and music. There’s a mastery of props in a bottomless briefcase. It’s also a performance with a cute bob but without a face, yet it conveys.
I learned to dance with my hands with DansFit.
I have enjoyed taking Gabriel Sanchez’s free dance classes in the lower fountain section of Malcolm X Park since the winter of 2024. The class taught me how fun hip-hop and latin dance is when you’re just trying to keep up with the choreo and don’t have to look at yourself in a mirror. Bonus if the weather is nice. The class, like most dance classes, is mostly femme, but this one is multi-generational too. It’s a community with meet ups and mutual aid. I appreciate how rare this free communal resource is.
Gabriel unlocked the joy of dancing with my hands and upper body. Before taking this class, I thought that dancing was essentially moving my lower body. Moving my arms, hands and head felt comical or flamboyant. In retrospect, it felt embarrassingly or exposingly Queer, and Queer is freedom I remind myself.
I’m facing the fear of freestyle with Lion’s Den DMV.
In June 2025, I started taking dance classes at The Lion’s Den DMV in Del Ray. Lauren DeVera runs the group and invites instructors who teach different styles, so it’s always exciting to see what classes are coming up. The class is in a traditional dance studio full of mirrors and beams. I’ve taken Vogue Femme with DMV Kiki Nights, Afro-Bhangra with Khiry Brothers, House fundamentals with Eli and Campbell Locking with James Wu Styles. I know I’ll take more even though it’s an hour commute away.
Lauren’s intention was to create a dance space that’s non competitive. The teachers provide instructions and sometimes choreo, but at the end there’s usually a chance to improv or freestyle based on what you learned. This was quite nerve-racking to me at first. The fear of any dance battle vibe had this very masc connotation to me which felt competitive despite knowing that wasn’t the intention. The actual vibe of the freestyles were the opposite of what I expected though.
I’ve learned the lesson that freestyles catapult my dancing forward from following choreo to creating my own movements. This was absolutely crucial to developing my drag performance.
Vogue Femme with DJ Tony taught me that energy can be everything especially with a frequent, forgiving crash. It doesn’t matter what your experience or skill level is in voguing. It doesn’t matter that my double spin into a dip takes a few more beats. It’s the energy you’re bringing. There are 5 elements (Hands, Catwalk, Duckwalk, Spins and Dips, and Floor Performance). There isn’t choreo to follow, so it’s a freestyle always. After learning the 5 elements, I had to battle which was again terrifying but thrilling.
I’ve learned that my preference for dancing isn’t a dance cypher which is a circle where people take turns in the middle. For me there’s too much of a barrier to jump in. It was the campbell locking class that made me realize that we need to bring back Soul Train, where everyone lines up, and two people dance down the line at a time. There’s an energy with the crowd in the line cheering you on. There’s a collaboration with the person who goes down the line with you. And everyone participates despite perceived hierarchy of ability. I found the Soul Train quite intoxicating, wanting to go again and again the more that everyone got into it.
Contemporary dance has become a conceptual mod podge of my choreography.
I was unsure what the difference between ballet and contemporary dance was, and Phoebe explained that it’s all in the posture. Ballet is very upright while contemporary has this concave and convex push and pull of countering movements. Both styles are highly emotive and generally slower pace, which my older body loves.
I’ve taken contemporary dance at Dance Place with Carla Perlo. I loved how Carla would tell a story about her weekend and then seamlessly weave storytelling into a dance sequence. I want to be able to do that.
I took another contemporary class with Angel Ramirez who organizes free community classes. The floor work was beautiful, but I didn’t bring knee pads, so my knees hurt for weeks, but I learned so much and purchased knee pads.
I call contemporary dance the conceptual mod podge because I can link different dance styles within my performances with a “break” of contemporary dance such as the fan break in my drag performance.
Part 3: The Devil
Tarot voice of god: The Devil reversed asks me if I’m being provocative just to be provocative?
Drag, for me, is magical. It’s the stage where I get to test out all my weird ideas of what a superhero can look like.
It brings together my love for dance, rhinestones, pop music and being silly. Drag fits into my art practice of examining dissonance and the joy of non conformity in my life. There’s room for critique and expressions of joy.
I was influenced by seeing VIETNAMERICA: the Musical weeks before my performance. The musical had beautiful dance choreo although I found the acting performances uneven. I was really awestruck by the flag ceremony and acknowledgement of community leaders that preceded the musical. There was more energy in the military-style drum performances than parts of the musical, even some subtle gender role reversals.
The emotional thread of the production was about looking towards the past with a grievance for how painful it was. I can empathize with that pain as I think of my own family, and I didn’t live through it. However, the production lacked a forward looking perspective. To me this is encapsulated in the way some first gen Viet Americans will only acknowledge the South Vietnam flag. Any mention of the current Vietnam flag includes commentary on Communism.
I understand the why, but now 50 years later, I wonder when we can let go. I personally feel a fun tinge of healing and alienation when I visit Vietnam, so acknowledging the current flag seems more like an embrace of reality to me even if no country is perfect. I’m from the American South, so I think about the impact of Confederate flags on the American psyche and how it could be an honoring of heritage but also a resentment-filled barrier from moving on.
I worked these questions into the performance through beachballs painted with both flags to the “Golden” lyrics: “I lived two lives, tried to play both sides, But I couldn’t find my own place.”
I’ve heard that 2nd gen folks gasped while 1st gen folks gave side eye. This is what I expected, but I hope that people will laugh when they think of these symbols of past and present in this silly way. Laughter might be a step towards healing or at least a lowering of such charged emotions.
I also edited some footage of the pre-musical flag ceremony to incorporate images of both flags and the rainbow flag which you’ll see in the animated parts of my performance.
There was some dialogue after the performance about whether showing the beachballs with both flags would affect my ability to visit Vietnam, so I’ve been careful not to show images that could be taken out of context. I hope that by containing these images to the full performance, people would understand that I’m pushing for a dialogue about reconciliation.
But perhaps this is the risk of being provocative.
Part 4: The Performance
In this performance, Ant Honey is a pigeon in a white dove world looking for safety, belonging, good music and happiness, which, let’s be real, is what we’re all searching for.
I value the extra time I had to develop my drag performance after it was cancelled in February. Here are some quick notes and then you can finally watch the performance at the end.
Music
I always knew I wanted to use Thuy’s “Girls Like Me Don’t Cry” to touch on my own crying journey. I loved how there were multiple versions of it. I also saw Thuy at Fillmore, so the beginning of the song is actually a live recording I took. I also love the “Stripped” version which I used for the fan dance.
Time allowed me to find “Golden” by Kpop Demon Hunters. The lyrics were perfect for a story of transformation, and the timing was right because the song, like all Kpop, will become oversaturated soon.
Costume
To be honest, my favorite part of developing the performance was making the costumes which included a second costume reveal. The outer layer was a poncho I got in Italy which I linoprinted and added on handles for the wings. The poncho symbolizes how this pigeon wanted to be dove-passing because the poncho is mostly white. After the self-acceptance transformation, I reveal a gray and rhinestone Calvin Klein dress with feathers and orange feet I got from Etsy. I also added fringe to Leak NYC arm length gloves. I finished with some ballroom rhinestone shoes with a short heel. I also used a purple ponytail extension which I braided and which fell off on stage.
Makeup
I’m consciously not trying to pass for a glamorous female diva with 9 inch heels. My drag characters are non binary like me, and I’m fascinated by makeup on Glow Up and Dragula. I used a prosthetic nose and a gray facepaint with a white foundation. I bleached my eyebrows to make it easier to add eyebrows, but in the nervousness of my first performance, I forgot to add additional eyebrows lol.
The Feeling
I’m so grateful for the sold out crowd of over 250 people. I needed the energy. In rewatching this performance, I can see the nerves ease as I go on, and the crowd cheers. I mostly scanned the audience without much eye contact on stage. I did notice a Viet auntie with a confused look near stage right. At first, I thought she hated it, but I think she was just bearing witness to something unexpected. With some stage experience now, I want to engage the audience more in the future without fear.
If any readers also do drag or are interested, please reach out. I’m also interested in working with musicians who want to collaborate with original or improvisational music for a performance.