Dana Piccoli: JoJo Siwa has become a queer icon. 'Dancing With the Stars' proves it. - NBCNewsTHINK
. While this queer writer and critic expected the pairing to be newsworthy, what I didn’t expect was how delightfully subversive and powerful it would be.
Siwa and Johnson’s first dance was a colorful quick step, where the much taller Siwa caught her partner after a slight fumble. Engaging and high energy, it set the tone for the duo. By week three, Siwa and Johnson settled in as a team, and as they did, they invited the audience, particularly the queer audience, in. Wearing, I kid you not, plaid leotards, they danced the Argentine tango to Britney Spears’ “...Baby One More Time.
But it wasn’t until the following week that I witnessed the true impact of this partnership on the LGBTQ community. Week four was “Disney Week: Heroes Night,” and out walked Siwa in full Prince Charming regalia. As she and Johnson did the Viennese waltz, I recalled my childhood. As a girl, dreaming of my personal Prince Charming was expected — but my heart had other ideas. Seeing Siwa as Charming was surprisingly, deeply moving, and I wasn’t alone: Queer Twitter was also abuzz.
Siwa and Johnson have continued to play with heteronormativity, dancing as fanfic favs Mal and Evie of “Descendants” in a powerful pasodoble. They followed that up as Sandy and Frenchy from “Grease” for a fox trot, for which they earned perfect scores from all the judges. Even Len Goodman! Serena, a friend and “DWTS” superfan who identifies as pansexual, summed this all up beautifully. “I’ve cried almost every week,” she told me, noting that “seeing two women dance together in romantic, nonromantic dances … just so important and magical.”
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