Lifetime’s Dance Moms dancer and recent USC graduate Zackery Torres is beginning their transition! She’s nonbinary and uses She/Her and They/Them pronouns. They posted a TikTok to celebrate.
“I’m transitioning! That means I’m transgender if you didn’t know. My pronouns are they/she, which means that they or she are totally fine.” She continued, “And I’m just hopping on here to tell you that I’m going to be posting more on TikTok and I’m excited about it!”
Zackery Torres opened up to The Daily Trojan, a USC student newspaper, about the effects of Dance Moms on her career as a dancer.
The way they were treated in class affected how they related to her gender. As the first assigned male at birth (amab) dancer on Dance Moms, “I started seeing all of the expectations that teachers — well-known dance teachers, and well-known choreographers — had for me as a male dancer growing up and at the time identifying as a boy.”
Their teachers tended to criticize Zackery Torres for not fitting the conventional idea for an amab dancer. “Oh, you’re too feminine, you need to dance like a man.’ Just having teachers tell you that on national television, all this stuff, it kind of really got to me.”
She criticized the artistic communites for their lack of acceptance of those who don’t fit the binary. “Everyone always talks about how inclusive the arts communities are. But I’m just not really feeling it. I’m not seeing it on an everyday scale.”
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Zackery Torres said her goal is “to empower the next generation like the ones before did for me.”
In an Instagram post honoring the Trans Day of Remembrance, Zackery Torres took the time to support their community and opened up about allyship. “Allyship is not a 9am-5pm work shift. It is a life practice.”
She added, “I thank all of the people that have supported me through the years while I grew, and continue to grow, into who I am today. It’s that unwavering support that gets me up in the morning when I am feeling defeated, and more importantly, it’s what keeps me feeling empowered to advocate.”
Zackery Torres finishes with the fact that they, “can only hope to demonstrate allyship to other communities who need me the way people have been allies to me. With that being said… let’s get to work!”