Before she was serving looks and lip syncs on Drag Race, Mia Starr was dancing on tour for Rihanna and Britney Spears, soaking up the kind of star power that only comes from sharing a stage with the greats. Now she’s bringing that professional dance background to her drag career, and she’s not shy about who else on the show can actually keep up choreography-wise.
In a candid new interview, Mia Starr breaks down her Snatch Game regrets, her chosen “drag baby” Zoo Star, and why she thinks South Florida queens have an energy nobody else can touch.
Before drag fans knew you as Mia Starr, you were dancing for some of the biggest names in music. How has that professional dance background shaped the performer that we see when you’re in drag?
The way it shaped me as a drag artist is that I’ve soaked up everything that the greatest of the greats do. What I’ve learned as well is that it’s great to be full out, right? There’s something about an artist who could just stand there and command. You see all the greats like Michael Jackson, he could just stand there, and the crowd goes freaking nuts. Beyoncé, Madonna, anybody. And from the artists that I personally dance for, let’s say Rihanna, she’s such a badass that I always want to bring that to my performance, it’s just that badass energy, that badass attitude. And Britney Spears with dance…I always want to have some type of choreography in there because that’s what makes me as a viewer feel alive, so I want to be able to do that as well for somebody who’s at the show.
It’s also made me very aware, especially when I’m lip syncing, if there’s the lead vocal or the chorus, sing that lead vocal. Sing and perform to that certain part of that song. I know there’s a lot of lip syncs where it’s natural for the drag queen to sing the chorus. But there’s the ad libs and stuff, and nobody’s singing those. Those are the parts where that artist kicks in that I’ve realized, oh, that is what you do, and now that I’m able to do it, I’ve come back after all these years I just apply that to it.
What drove you to bring the Mia Starr dance experience to your fans?
I knew that I wanted to merge both of these worlds – the dance world and the Drag Race world and also, it just sets me apart from just the thousands of drag queens that are now a part of the fan tribes. There are so many of us that you have to find what makes you different and what makes you stand out. I know that I have a lot of information and a lot of knowledge that I’ve learned and if I was a younger version of me, I would love to take a class from not only one of my favorite artists on TV, but also a dancer for maybe my favorite artist at the same time. I would love that.
What does a trained dancer such as yourself notice about a drag performance that the average audience member might miss?
Actual choreography. I feel like there’s a real difference between moving and knowing what you’re doing. I feel like because drag is big and it’s so bright and colorful, I feel like a lot of people can get away with dancing on stage as a drag queen that a real dancer can see and be like, “Oh, okay. Oh, she messed up right there, but she kept going, which is great,” there’s a different nuance I feel like that a trained dancer can tell.
So, side question, who do you think has exhibited the best dance skills on the show, besides yourself?
In my season, Juicy Love Dion is definitely one of the best in my opinion – and I’m not just saying that because she’s my niece. She’s a trained dancer, she gets it. She does choreography very well, but she could perform her butt off, and she does tricks that we haven’t seen on the show, and it’s really cool to watch – even when she’s kicking your ass right next to you.
I really appreciate Sasha Colby as a dancer. I just love what she brings. As a performer and dancer, LaLa Ri is by far one of my faves, just with the energy and just what she does for me when I watch her perform. I’m like, “Oh my God, I love her!” There are just certain people that you may look crazy watching their performance, but that’s because you’re so enthralled in it, and I would say, honestly, I would say those are like my top three. Anetra’s really good. You can tell she’s self-taught, but she’s really good. She’s a great, fabulous performer. Jorgeous is great too. But dancers, hands down, I would say Juicy and LaLa Ri.
I was going to add Brooke Lynn Hytes in there just because I’m a huge ballet fan, and I love seeing how she incorporated those kinds of moves into drag.
Yes. And that’s the thing too, Brooke Lynn Hytes and Lady Camden, they have the technique. But when they do choreography, it’s a little less seasoned as opposed to LaLa Ri or like a Juicy, and that I think just because like I am more of like hip hop dancer. I love that type of like grit and grunge and that kind of like rawness to it. But yeah, I do appreciate what they do. They’re so good too.
Your drag and your dance classes have a ’90s and 2000s performance energy. Who are the artists and choreographers that have influenced your style the most?
The artist that influenced my style, I would definitely say was Rihanna – again because I was on tour with her and I got to just see her firsthand. I would say Britney Spears as well, in the sense of the dance aspect. I love Trina, she’s down south and just such an incredible rapper. I love Cardi B as well. I take a lot of her influences. Beyoncé is definitely great. As far as a choreographer, it’s my best friend, Chris Grant. He is Beyoncé’s choreographer, Shakira’s choreographer, and we’ve grown up together. We were in a dance crew together and I’ve just learned so much from him as a dancer and as a performer.
You had stepped away from drag for nearly a decade to focus on dance. What was the moment that you’re like, “It’s time to come back”?
In the middle of COVID. When COVID first started and when season 12 was airing, we were just at home watching TV. But, even before that, there was something…and I knew that I wanted to come back to it because I never really fully got my drag experience, because I did it for six or seven months before I stopped. But COVID really made me feel like, okay, now the whole world has stopped. Thankfully, the tours kept coming, but it just prolonged drag. It was just like, I’m always going to work, so let me keep going on this tour but doing it in the middle of the pandemic and picking it back up was like, okay, I can shift right now. I’m at this age right now where I’m older as a dancer, but it was also more clear to me that there was a greater possibility to do it because there was nothing that was going on in the world. We were all stuck. So, I really had time to think and be like, “Okay, this is what I really want to do.” I love drag, but then also Drag Race really was like, okay, this is next for me. I soaked up everything from all the artists that I ever danced for and now applied it to myself.
Going into Drag Race, did you feel more pressure because people already knew that you were an experienced dancer?
Yes and no. Yes in the sense of I know they’re expecting me to do all the tricks that Juicy does, but I’ve never was that dancer. But, if you are a fan of the show and you don’t know who I am, and you just hear, “Oh, this person was on tour with this person, this artist,” you’re going to have higher expectations, obviously, but I’m not the girl who flips. I’m not the girl who does the splits and all those things. So, in that sense, yes. From a drag perspective, no, because I stopped for such a long time, and I didn’t have an expectation for drag. I didn’t put any expectation on myself because I wasn’t a Miss Continental title holder, or any of those things, so I felt free from that pressure.
There were expectations that since you came in as a dancer that you would dominate choreography challenges and things like that. But was there another challenge that you secretly hoped your performance would surprise people in?
I wanted to do good at the Snatch Game. I just wanted to do good. But you know what? Something inside of me just knew Snatch Game was not going to be it for me. I really wish I would’ve gotten a chance to do the Rusical. I would have loved to do the Rusical. But as far as things like the girl group challenge, I felt very good in. The talent show I felt very good in. I wish we had a singing challenge because that could’ve been really cool to showcase. The Rusical I guess was, but, yeah, it was bad. But the Snatch Game, I don’t know, I think our season did well. It really showcased the ones who didn’t do well. Mine was horrible. I knew. I was like, “You’re going home. I don’t care what anybody says, you’re going home for this. Just based off of this performance alone, you are going home. If I was watching you on TV, I would be like, ‘She’s going home.’ There’s no lip sync in the world that’s going to save that.”
Some queens are comedy queens, some are fashion queens, and you’re telling stories through movement. How do you approach building a performance from the ground up when you’re doing drag?
I just do what I like. Honestly, my best like ideas come in a long car drive. When I play a song, I just do what it tells me to do. Like whatever my body naturally wants to do, that’s right. I go with that and build on top of that because there’s so many times where, as a dancer, you try to edit, try to get the best thing. But it’s like, no. There are peaks, highs and lows in a performance, so it doesn’t have to be on 100 the entire time. I just envision myself being in the audience of what I want to see on stage. And that’s how I build and create.
What is the bigger challenge for you, making choreography look effortless or making drag look effortless?
Ooh. I would say making drag look effortless. It’s really hard. Drag is so hard and so many people don’t realize it. It is hard, but it’s so fulfilling when you do it and do it well. But absolutely, so much of the fandom have their opinion on just everything. Even if you win, they’re going to have their opinion and most anybody with an opinion can’t do even a third of what these drag queens do at all.
How do you balance the technical precision of dance with like the emotional performance in drag?
Feeling, honestly. Drag gives me a feeling, and you hear Ru say it all the time – it’s like that superhero that’s inside of you. Being in drag is who you really are at the core. It’s that confidence that you can be whoever you want to be that day, but again, it’s hard, especially when you’re corseted and cinched in. As a drag artist, I dance completely different outside of drag. I’m free, wearing baggy clothes and sneakers and with drag you have the wigs, you have the heavy accessories. You have a breastplate. You have the hip pads. You have the heels. It is such a different world, so I do what makes sense for me. I’m more of a smart performer and artist and I’m not doing that is going to get me injured. Like, if the stage is slippery, I’ll pivot into something different. If I know I have hard choreography, then I would do differently in a sneaker. And if I’m slipping and sliding all over the stage, I will not do it. I will do something different, just modify.
Now, since I’m a South Florida girl, I have to ask you just a little bit about South Florida. It’s got one of the stronger drag scenes in the country. What do you think makes Miami queens different?
What makes us different is just there’s the energy; there’s the stamina that my South Florida queens have. It’s like a boot camp. We train in the heat outside in the hot sun, fully dragged, and a lot of girls can’t do that. It’s hard. Like I said, it’s like a boot camp. It’s always going to be a high energy number. You’re dancing for 15 minutes straight. You’re doing these long brunches that you have to entertain from start to finish if you want to make your tips. Honestly, I just think that it’s an energy that a lot of places don’t have and that’s what makes us completely different.
Even moving to LA to dance and pursue dance, I noticed that all the South Florida people who move from Miami or Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach, they do so well as a dancer out there. It’s just a different type of vibe and an energy that you don’t necessarily see all the time. You just stand out and you don’t really necessarily have to win the show, but there’s something that sticks when a South Florida girl is on there.
What do you hope younger dancers who are interested in drag will take away from your personal journey through choreography into Drag Race and beyond?
That you can do both. You can really do both. When I was doing drag at first and I moved to LA, it was told to me that you have to choose one. You have to… And in a sense of yeah, if you book a tour, yes. But it was like, “Hey, do you want to be a man or a female?” That’s how it felt back then, and it was just like, no, you can make both a possibility. You can be a working dancer and do all of these fabulous things with these artists, but you can also be the artist as well and do drag and bring it to the show as well.
I know that I was the most different. I haven’t seen myself on the show, I just haven’t, like you see dancers, but nobody that had my story, and it was really cool to see, because now there’s a lot of working dancers that seeing me on the show, seeing me as the dancer, but also Mia Starr, I’m noticing that they are coming to me for advice. I’m realizing like, oh my God, I might have a whole bunch of drag children following in my footsteps that are way better than me – and I love that. Technically trained, just super amazing people that are working now as a performer and a dancer but now are starting to dabble in the art of drag, and it’s just really cool. There’s one right now that I’m like, ooh, if you really take drag seriously, it’s game over. She’s one of my drag babies…honestly, it’s like if me and Juicy had a baby. That is who you can expect, and their name is Zoo Star. But that’s his boy name, too. And I was like, “Oh, keep that. That’s cool. Zoo.” But yeah, I’m excited. I just want them to learn hey, if I could do it, you can too.
Is there something that you still want to tackle artistically that you haven’t already?
Yes. I want to sing more. I want to be more of an artist who is a drag queen rather than just a drag artist, if that makes sense. What I want to do is obviously still do the fun club gigs and do the lip syncs because I love that. There’s something that means so much when people come to your show and they’re coming there to hear your voice to hear your own music. That is such a gratifying feeling. So, that is definitely what’s next for me – to create more music that, if you didn’t know I was a drag queen, can be on the radio because I love what Adore Delano does with her music, and she’s just such an inspiration when it comes to being an artist, from the show, from Drag Race. That is what I want to do, to create more of that.
But the way that I sing is such a different way from the way I dance. I’m such a full-out hype rapper, dancer but the way that I love to sing is very soulful, R&B, gospel. I’m now finding that sound to merge the two or just make it different songs. You have the ballads, but then you also have the high energy that people want to see in the club, too. I’m looking forward to that.
Mia Starr Answers the Socialite Seven
After years of performing alongside some of the biggest names in music and making her mark in the world of drag, Mia Starr knows a thing or two about putting on a show. But what happens when you take away the choreography and give her a rapid-fire round of questions? Find out as this RuPaul’s Drag Race season 18 sensation gets in the hot seat for another round of the Socialite Seven.
From her dream musical collaborations to the dance trend she hopes stays firmly in the past, Mia reveals her must-haves, her ultimate superpower and the advice that keeps her moving.
What is your favorite lip-sync song of all time?
Rihanna’s “Where Have You Been”. Love that song.
Which pop star stills tops your dream collaboration list?
Ooh, I would love to do a song with Rihanna. I would love to make music with Rihanna or Cardi B.
If you could choreograph one Drag Race rusical, what theme would it be?
Ooh. Oh, rapid fire. Girls from the Hood.
What is one dance trend you hope will never come back?
The nae nae. (Laughs)
What are three things you can’t live without?
My man. Food. Drag.
What talent or superpower would you love to possess?
Oh, I would love to be able to fly.
What is the best piece of advice you’ve been given?
Have fun. Just have fun.
Follow Mia Starr on Instagram and Spotify. Learn more about Mia’s dance classes and get all the details on tour dates, merch and more right here.
