If you were watching last night’s season 15 premiere of Fox’s So You Think You Can Dance? you may have come across a familiar face and long pair of legs. Laganja Estranja, one of RuPaul’s Drag Race’s most dramatic competitors in herstory auditioned in hopes of making it to the SYTYCD academy. Laganja, who is going by her actual boy name ‘Jay Jackson’, stepped out in full geish before judges Nigel Lythgoe, Mary Murphy, Vanessa Hudgens, and tWitch.
In Laganja fashion, Jay exclaimed, “My name is Jay Jackson, also known as Miss Estranja, honey darling. I am 29 years old from Dallas, Texas,” but no mention of the name ‘Laganja’ which represents one of the queen’s favorite puff puff pass times.
In Laganja’s video package, he says:
I’d like to say that drag chose me, I did not choose drag.
Everyone said I was too feminine. My build is very slender, I just didn’t fit the mold.
When I fully embraced that, yes, I am a feminine male–I put on drag for the first time ever.
When I get up onstage I tear it up. The floor is my mission, and I am on it.
For her audition, Laganja chose to perform a number to none-other-than Mama Ru’s “Cover Girl”. With one of her iconic death drops, Laganja dances her way past the audition rounds and into SYTYCD’s dance academy where she will be pushed to new dance heights–hopefully never feeling attacked yes GAWD!
Will Jay Jackson get through the competition as Laganja Estranja or will he compete as his male self? How far will she go and how many times will she be on Mary’s Hot Tamale train?
Check out the audition and tune in to So You Think You Can Dance? on FOX Mondays this Summer:
