#queer performer

"Pas de Deux"

Okay, listen. This man performing was on national television throughout the 70/80/90s in a yellow jumpsuit with glittery green triangles dancing like a queen

Plus, you were literally in the same room with him. Here’s the proof!

No way you can’t think about this!

Live in Omaha, Nebraska April 2019. Shot by Sage Griffith

As far back as I can remember, being a little kid in my bedroom, I would dance and put on little stage shows and lip-sync in the mirror before I even saw that on TV, ya know. I definitely grew up watching MTV and I was like a video baby where it was like, “whose music video is on TV?” Now they don’t play video on MTV. So when it was time to graduate high school, I was like, “Well, I need to go to college, what is that going to look like?” And I thought, “What do I want to do?” and I could never find clothes for myself, the way I envisioned them in my head, so I went to fashion school. Graduate Fashion School and I was working in the industry for a little bit, and I was till kinda bored and my soul always wanted to dance. One weekend I decided to go take a dance class and when I was done with that dance class, the instructor pulled me to side and he said, “Who’s your dance agent?” I was like, “What do you mean?” He was like, “You’re not signed?” I was like, “No, this is my first dance class.” He was like, “Oh my god. You did really well. You need to be doing this.”

I was doing fashion and then I was a back-dancer. I quit my job so that I could audition. I was booking a few commercials, coca-cola commercials, a few stage shows here and there, dancing back-up for some artists; I loved it but there something more calling me. One day, over Christmas break, I was in my kitchen and I just started spitting out lyrics and started writing them down. My first song, “Bangie Power”, came from that. I worked with a producer to come up with the song and I did a video for it; choreographed, styled it and I was like, “This is it!” I’m putting my fashion with my dance and what I have to say into this visual package. That’s when I found that I was home as an artist.

My first two performances, at Mustache Mondays and at Carnival, which is a Choreographers Ball, I knew that’s what I was to do. It was the easiest, effortless thing I could do. It was easier than just designing for another brand; it was easier than being a back-up dance and fitting in into a cast of like 10. Taking center stage, just expressing myself in all my authenticity, was the easiest thing for me to do that I was like, “I’m going to do this for the rest of my life.” No matter how hard it gets, no matter what I have to do, no matter how in debt I am, no matter where I’m living, who’s couch I’m crashing on, this is what I’m gonna do.

It’s that dream that I had when I was little kid. I would go to bed and dream of me being on this stage doing these elaborate performances that didn’t make sense then but now I’m like holy shit, I’m in my dream.

AB Soto, He/Him/His Los Angeles, CA

Hey fam! I just got cast as Moritz in Spring Awakening here in Boston! If you want to follow my journey as I vlog my experience doing a dream role, follow my channel!