Keontay Burns Class of 2019

Interview and photo by Aneara Burns.

Collegiate has always supported the fine arts and encouraged its students to participate in the arts as well. Keontay Burns has taken that encouragement and turned it into a career. I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to him about his career, ballroom experience, and struggles post-graduation.

Aneara: What has been your career path since graduating?

Keontay: Since I graduated, I've been doing a lot of traveling, modeling, and ballroom across the East and West coasts.

Aneara: What is ballroom? 

Keontay: The ballroom scene is an underground LGBTQ+ subculture created by black and brown people that originated in New York City. You walk different categories to win trophies or cash prizes.

Aneara: How do you feel about ballroom coming back into mainstream culture?

Keontay: I think it's our time, and we are here to let the girls know.

Aneara: What ballroom category do you walk?

Keontay: The category that I walk in ballroom is All-American Runway, which is an all-American guy, GQ Model type vibe. You battle for the prize, and the person who has the most confidence in selling the garment wins. And you can win a cash prize of hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Aneara: What would you say to someone who wants to get into ballroom?

Keontay: I would tell them to come into this new world very confidently, with your head held high— and to just be your authentic self. You can come in and outshine the next person that's been there for the last decade probably. So just being confident and being yourself will take you a long way.

Aneara: What has been a life-changing experience for you? Any event, anything that you participated in after high school?

Keontay: I feel like overall, traveling has been a blessing. You know, I've got to see a lot of amazing places, try a lot of new things, like a lot of new foods. One experience that stuck with me was when it was my first time going to Atlanta, and I was able to experience the ballroom culture out there. I went out there because The house of Balenciaga was celebrating its 20th anniversary. I got to walk in this really extravagant garment. It was everything. It was like a movie.

Aneara: Tell me a little bit about Collegiate Couture 

Keontay: Collegiate Couture was the modeling team at FCA. It was originally run by Corey Ings but he stepped down for personal reasons. So, I took over as coach a year later. I’ve always had a passion for modeling and I used to be on the team, so it only felt right.

Aneara: What was it like being a coach for Collegiate Couture?

Keontay: That was one of my favorite moments after high school, starting Collegiate Couture back up. I remember coming to Collegiate. That was my break out of my shell. I was a very shy and timid kid, and modeling just gave me that extra boost of confidence that I needed. I just felt like I needed to come back and give that back to somebody else. 

Aneara: Do you think Collegiate should bring back Collegiate Couture?

Keontay: I do think they should bring it back. I think it’s an overall good look for the school and I think it's something very good for the kids to get into. If you really think about it, you're teaching kids how to keep themselves well groomed, like people taking care of their skin routines and things like that. There are so many avenues you can go down with that—other than just modeling.

Aneara: What struggles did you face after graduating from Collegiate?

Keontay: After Collegiate, I felt like a lot of my struggles with the real world had to do with me feeling sheltered. This is a predominantly black school, and I was not used to certain things. Just say, I'm going to go to work at a job. In a certain part of the city that I didn't go to school in, I would be met with a lot of microaggressions that I wasn’t used to. 

Aneara: What advice would you give to the Class of 2023?

Keontay: If I had to give any piece of advice, I would just say to be yourself.

Aneara Burns is a sophomore at Arizona State University.