‘Dancing With the Stars’: First Same-Sex Couple Revealed

Dancing With the Stars made history during the Season 30 premiere. For the first time, a same-sex couple will be competing on the series. During the premiere, the show revealed which professionals that the celebrity contestants would be dancing with. At the end of the night, they revealed that Dance Moms alum JoJo Siwa would be dancing with pro Jenna Johnson. 

It was previously announced that Siwa, who came out as a member of the LGBTQ+ community in January, would be making history for being a part of a same-sex dance partnership on the ABC series. But, her partner has been kept under wraps until now. Siwa did speak out about being on the show when she appeared at the Television Critics Association panel in late August. At the time, she voiced her excitement over the opportunity and shared that she was pleasantly surprised that the series gave her the opportunity to work with either a male or female partner. 

“When I got the email [with] the subject ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ I didn’t even read the email. I just replied, ‘Yes,’” Siwa explained, per The Wrap. “I didn’t look at the time, I didn’t look at anything. I just knew I wanted to do it. Then finally I gathered my thoughts and I ended up going back and reading the email. And in the email, it said, ‘Jojo, would you like to be partnered with a girl or with a boy?’” She explained that she requested to dance with a female pro “without hesitation,” adding, “It would be so incredible, it would mean so much to me – and I think so much to a lot of people around the world – if I partnered with another female,” she said. “So right away, it wasn’t a question.”

While Siwa shared her excitement over the opportunity and her history-making partnership, she also touched on some of the unique “barriers” that she and her partner would be tackling on the upcoming season. According to the 18-year-old, there are certain challenges that they will have to address when it comes to their routines, but she’s looking forward to all of them regardless. She said, “There [are] a lot of barriers that we’re going to have to break through Who leads? How do you dress? What shoes do you wear? But I think it’s all something that I’m looking forward to.”