Courtney and Josh use drag – explicitly this time – to create the visual aesthetic of a heteronormative ballroom couple.

This quickstep is focused more on the couple’s collective external relationship to their audience, rather than a sense of intimate connection forming between the two partners.

Aesthetically, they choose gender-normative costuming, but their specific choreography presents a more equally balanced power dynamic in their partnership.

Editor Annie Lu interviews Oskar Odiakosa, a British Amateur Latin dancer & dance teacher, shortly after attending The TIRED Movement’s “Racial Representation in Ballroom” webinar on August 4. The TIRED Movement’s mission is to improve racial equality and representation in the dance industry. Oskar is a TIRED Advisory Board Member and was a moderator for the webinar discussion . In addition, he is a semi-finalist of the 2022 UK Closed Championships and the first black man to be sponsored by International Dance Shoes.

Spectators of recent dance competitions may notice an unusual decoration against the dark black of leads’ shirts or encircling the golden tan of followers’ arms.