throwing shade

Disrespecting someone on the slant — a backhanded remark, a look, a pointed silence that lands the insult without quite stating it. As drag legend Dorian Corey put it in Paris Is Burning: 'I don't have to tell you you're ugly because you know you're ugly.' That's shade — the curve to reading's pitch. Born in the 1980s Black and Latino gay ballroom scene, gone fully mainstream after RuPaul's Drag Race.

In ballroom and vogue specifically, shade can be thrown through movement itself — a dip, a spin, a gesture aimed at your opponent mid-battle to show contempt without breaking the dance.