Willi Ninja

William Roscoe Leake, known professionally as Willi Ninja, was born on April 12, 1961, in New Hyde Park, New York. He emerged as a self-taught dancer within New York's ballroom scene, a Black and Latino LGBTQ+ cultural world where competition, chosen family, fashion, gender presentation and movement practice were inseparable. Rather than training through conventional conservatory routes, Ninja developed his artistry within the social networks and competitive culture of the balls.

In 1982, he founded the House of Ninja, which functioned simultaneously as a competitive unit, a creative identity and a chosen-family structure. As founder and parent of the house, Ninja trained and supported younger participants while establishing a recognizable house standard. Ballroom houses operate as chosen families and creative collectives distinct from both biological kinship and commercial fashion houses.

Ninja became especially associated with old-way voguing, refining the form's geometric precision, abrupt stops, controlled transitions and commanding runway intelligence. He did not originate voguing, but he pushed its formal clarity through long lines, photographic poses and expressive hands. A 1982 New York ball attended by Malcolm McLaren became one route through which this underground practice reached a broader audience; Ninja subsequently appeared and contributed vocals to McLaren's 1989 track "Deep in Vogue."

Jennie Livingston's documentary *Paris Is Burning* (1990) made Ninja one of the most internationally recognizable figures from the ball scene it documented. The film widened public knowledge of houses, categories, realness and voguing while generating lasting debates about authorship, compensation and the documentary gaze. The Library of Congress selected the film for the National Film Registry in 2016, confirming its historical significance.

Ninja translated ballroom expertise into fashion, choreography and coaching. He modeled for designers including Thierry Mugler and Jean-Paul Gaultier and coached runway presentation for models including Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks. He provided choreography for Malcolm McLaren and built a visible bridge between club-floor technique, camera performance and high-fashion display.

He remained a teacher and house leader through the end of his life and appeared in Wolfgang Busch's 2006 documentary *How Do I Look*, which revisited ballroom culture from within its community networks. Ninja died on September 2, 2006, aged 45. His legacy continues through the House of Ninja, through dancers who inherited his standards of line and presence, and through the wider recognition that voguing is a rigorous dance language rooted in ballroom communities.