Same-sex Pairings on Strictly Come Dancing: LGBTQ+ Identity and Leisure Participation in Ballroom Dancing

Ballroom Dancing is a leisure pursuit that is currently enjoying a resurgence stimulated by TV shows including ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ and ‘Dancing with the Stars’. Watching such TV shows can be a leisure activity in itself as well as encouraging viewers to attend dancing lessons. Existing scholarship has highlighted Ballroom Dancing’s focus on heterosexual partnerships and mixed-sex couples. In response to growing pressure from the LGBTQ+ community, in 2018, Strictly Come Dancing (SCD) announced they would feature same-sex professional partnerships for the first time. This chapter analyses online articles in order to discuss the response to the representation incorporated into the show. From our findings we argue that debates about inclusion and representation can act as a ‘positive problem’ (Stebbins, Positive sociology: An overview) for the leisure sphere.