"Never fear, the queen of the North is here." - Friday Feature!

Hello Dancers! This weeks Friday feature is none other than the Canadian drag queen herself, Brooke Lynn Hytes! Being the first ever Canadian drag queen to compete on Rupaul's Drag Race, she made sure that she put Toronto on the map!

Cite: Brooke Lynn Hytes, P1M Magazine

Onstage and while performing, she is known as Brooke Lynn Hytes. But when she's out of drag, who really is she?

Brock Hayhoe was born on March 10th 1986 in Toronto, Ontario. He attended the Etobicoke School of Arts where he had discovered his passion was to dance. When he was 15, he joined the National Ballet School of Canada and had danced there for 5 years. After his training, he got a job dancing in South Africa with Cape Town City Ballet. Hayhoe claimed that even when he was dancing the principle male roles, he felt as if "something was always missing...[he] always saw myself as that tall, glamorous soloist girl from Balanchine's 'Rubies." (McKie, 1). With this realization, Hayhoe decided to move to New York and join Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, which is an all male drag based ballet company! Finding out about drag, this made Hayhoe discover a new side of himself and made him take drag seriously, which is when he started to officially transform into Brooke Lynn Hytes! After making drag his full time profession, he won plenty of pageants, performed at different clubs and bars in Toronto, gaining plenty of fans, which then gave him the idea to audition for Rupaul's Drag Race. After securing a spot on Season 11 on the show, Hayhoe made sure to represent Toronto, and his ballet training throughout the show, he even walked down the runaway on pointe! Unfortunately, he had lost and came first runner up, however, regardless of the loss, he had gained plenty of fans, brand deals, and plenty of love from his fellow Torontonians. Hayhoe is an inspiration to all and surely represents that regardless of gender, dance is an outlet where anyone can find, express, or create a new version of themselves.

Cite:

McKie, Evan. “Meet ‘RuPaul's Drag Race's’ First Professional Ballet Dancer: Brock Hayhoe AKA Brook Lynn Hytes.” Dance Magazine, Dance Magazine, 16 Mar. 2020, www.dancemagazine.com/rupaul-ballet-2634773313.html?rebelltitem=10.

Queen of the North. www.brookelynnhytes.com/home.