Derek Hough Hopes To See More Same-Sex Pairings On ‘DWTS’
It’s not at all uncommon for head judge Derek Hough to perform at least one routine on new seasons of Dancing With The Stars. During Season 33, he and his best friend Mark Ballas decided to perform an Argentine tango.
While some viewers raised eyebrows at two men performing together, Derek and Mark explained the history of the dance. The Argentine tango was always originally a performance with two men.
In a new interview, the head judge admitted this was a “soft launch” for a new era of DWTS. Read on to see what Season 34 might look like.
Derek Hough & Mark Ballas Hope To Usher In A New Era Of DWTS
Same-sex pairings aren’t new on Dancing With The Stars. Jenna Johnson and JoJo Siwa competed together in Season 30, finishing in second place. Gleb Savchenko and drag performer Shangela paired off in Season 31, finishing in fourth place. On top of that, the show’s UK counterpart, Strictly Come Dancing, has had several same-sex partnerships.
During Season 33, Derek Hough and Mark Ballas wanted to show audiences that it’s perfectly fine and normal.
“We wanted to soft launch the idea of two men dancing together on Dancing With The Stars, you know what I mean?” Derek told Deadline in a recent interview. “It became sort of like an introduction, if you will, and left the door open a little bit for some future partnerships on the show.”
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While Shangela lives as a man when she’s not in character, she competed as her female persona during Season 31. Derek and Mark’s Argentine tango marked the first performance of its kind on the show.
“This hasn’t been done on the show before in 33 seasons, which is actually kind of crazy if you think about it,” Derek continued. “And we were like, you know what? It feels like one, it’s the right time.”
DWTS Hopes To Be More Inclusive Moving Forward
The show hopes including same-sex performers will make the competition more appealing to a wider group of contestants.
“It’s funny. I actually have a few friends who have been approached to be on the show and they’ve actually said, ‘well, I don’t want to do it until I can dance with another guy,” Derek told Deadline. “We wanted to be able to introduce this concept in a way that if there’s anybody out there who might feel a certain way about it, we’re like, ‘hey, check this out.’ I think that it opens up a lot of opportunities and doors for the show to have that.”
What did you think of Mark Ballas and Derek Hough’s Argentine tango? Would you like to see more same-sex routines performed on Dancing With The Stars? Leave your thoughts and ideas in the comments.
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