If you tuned into last night’s World of Dance season three premiere you saw the stage set on fire by same-gender salsa duo Jonathan y Jorge who brought the house down to Jennifer Lopez’ El Anillo.
The dance partners who hail from Orlando, FL and Lima, Peru met virtually and took a risk on becoming partners, but have since become champions in ballroom and salsa competitions around the world. They’ve been dancing together since November 2017.
At the advanced screening of the season three premiere, Jennifer Lopez told INSTINCT:
Oh, Jorge and Jonathan! I think the audience is going to love them! They found each other on the internet—Jonathan was looking for a dance partner and Jorge flew from another country and they just started dancing together and it just worked. It’s just one of those things—and you never know. I feel like America, this is where we’re at in society right now. We see all different kinds of people and all different kinds of cultures and two guys can dance together—and that’s okay. We had that last year as well with a contemporary couple that danced together.
Jonathan y Jorge are the second same-gender duo to hit the World of Dance stage. Last season, partners Charles Fournier and Wyatt Rocker from marInspired gave some inspiring and personal contemporary performances.
But this season Jonathan y Jorge came to slay. They got the rhythm going and they set the bar for salsa dancers everywhere. They even got judge Derek Hough to get on the stage a try a little partner work with Jorge—I think that came a little TOO naturally to him, right?
INSTINCT got in touch with dance partner Jonathan Troncoso who shared how his experience with World of Dance has already elevated them as fan favorites.
INSTINCT: What has been the response to your performance on World of Dance?
JONATHAN TRONCOSO:
The responses to our performance on the show have been amazing! People have been extremely supportive and are constantly telling us how much they Loved our show which we truly appreciate! As dancers, we’re always our biggest critics and tend to be overly hard on ourselves so we know we can do better and promise to continue to bust our butts in the studio so that they next time we hit that stage we can make everyone proud!
INSTINCT: How does it feel to see all the support you and Jorge have been receiving?
JT:
Wow…all of this love and support we’re receiving…It’s honestly very overwhelming! Lol Going into this experience we had hoped that people would be able to look past the fact that we’re not a “traditional couple” and just judge us on our dancing. We had no idea that we would have so many people backing and supporting us from all over the world!! We’ve been receiving a crazy amount of comments and messages (we’re trying our best to comment back to everyone, we promise we will!) through social media that exude so much love and support and we’re truly, eternally grateful! It’s definitely fueling the fire for us to want to work harder and get better to make everyone proud! We Love you all!
INSTINCT: What is it like to know that Jennifer Lopez has her eye on you in this competition?
JT:
Knowing that JLo has her eye on us 1. makes us extremely nervous! Lol 2. makes us want to work that much harder to make her proud! & 3. is absolutely bonkers to us because of the fact that she even knows who we are!! Lol it makes us very proud to even be able to be anywhere on her radar!
INSTINCT: What does being on World of Dance mean for the same-gender dancing community?
JT:
We hope that by being on WOD we can shed light on the fact that same gender partnerships can be just as strong & impactful as “traditional” partnerships can be! Our sexuality has absolutely nothing to do with our dancing and we just want to be seen as the dancers that we are and not as “that gay dancing couple” ya know?? As a dancer it’s always hard to allow your vulnerability to show through your work and we’re extremely grateful that people have been so receptive and welcoming towards us. We work very hard and sacrifice so much to be able to do what we Love and we feel like it’s all worth it because of all of you beautiful people!
Watch Jonathan y Jorge’s full qualifying performance as they give some next-level spins and tricks on the World of Dance stage:
World of Dance Season 3 continues on Sunday, March 3rd on NBC.
