Strictly same-sex

They’re two of the few openly queer people on Australian television, but Strictly Dancing’s same-sex semi-finalists Adam Francis, 22, and Alex Bryan, 20, don’t consider it a big deal.

It certainly was an issue, however, for some viewers of the top-rating ABC show who, according to The Daily Telegraph, flooded the TV station with complaints when the pair cha-chaed their way across the screen recently.

But according to the boys most of the feedback turned out to be positive, with only about 20 percent of people having negative comments.

We don’t really care what people think, said Francis.

It’s not getting in our way. It’s actually quite hilarious in a sense.

At the end of the day we’re not gay activists. We’re not looking to promote the whole gay thing. It’s really all about two people dancing.

While Francis is openly gay, Bryan has kept his fans guessing -“ though it’s not too hard to do the math, Francis said.

On the show I said I was gay and that Alex wasn’t, so people assumed he was straight. But he’s not, Francis said.

He’s not gay but he’s not straight.

Unlike most of the couples, who excel in some dance styles and not in others, the boys are incredibly strong in all areas.

The pair, who aren’t a couple off the dancefloor, both started dancing at the age of 10 and today work as dance teachers in Melbourne.

Bryan is the Australian champion of street Latin dancing, so has been able to teach Francis that style, whereas Francis has studied classical ballet and contemporary dance and jazz.

So we’ve been able to cooperate and help each other with unfamiliar styles, he said.

As for who takes the male and female roles on the dancefloor, Francis said with a chuckle they’re both very versatile.

We alternate and change roles all the time, which I think makes it more interesting to watch. So that’s a strong point we have over the couples, because we interchange all the time.

Next year they hope to represent Australia at the Chicago Gay Games. (Any rich sugar daddy who wants to pay for us to go overseas, we’d be very grateful, Francis said.)

In the meantime you can see the boys perform in the semi-finals on Friday 22 April at 8pm on ABC TV.

You can also catch them dancing at Melbourne gay club The Market every Thursday night.