Put The Bass In Your Walk: Jas Minh Interviewed

Taken from Issue 001 of The Irish Dance Globe. Purchase any remaining copies here while stocks last.

Jas Minh, a 29-year-old professional Irish dancer and drag performer from Vancouver, Canada, stands at the unique crossroads of Irish dance and drag. Having started Irish dancing in 2003, Jas — real name Fred Nguyen — swiftly ascended the competitive ranks dancing with the De Danaan School, becoming a nine-time Western Canadian champion and placing as high as second at the All Irelands and World Championships in CLRG. She cultivated strength and athleticism dancing in the boys’ sections while also admiring the essence of grace and precision that was traditionally reserved for the girls’ competitions.

After touring with shows like Heartbeat Of Home and Riverdance, Jas has honed her performance skills to merge the art of Irish dance with the transformative nature of drag. Jas Minh, the “Riverdancing Queen”, has already garnered immense support from audiences in both communities, and this is only the beginning. She continues to inspire new generations of male dancers while highlighting the thrilling possibilities of combining the drama of drag with the skill of Irish dance.

At what point did you decide to integrate drag with Irish dance?

I always love this question. I feel like growing up, for a lot of queer dancers, or just anyone in the queer community, RuPaul’s Drag Race is really our first glimpse at drag in the mainstream. It just gives us that exposure to knowledge of understanding what you can truly do with your own expression and art. It’s just so cool. You see the depths, the splits, and all that jazz. I feel like putting girls into wigs, dresses, and makeup is so “drag” already even though they’re not lip-syncing. The essence is always there. It’s the composure, it’s making sure that you are showing full confidence, showing full-scale and technicality. I feel like when I put the girls in the wigs, it kind of clicked for me in the sense of understanding that it literally is just makeup and a wig. And the rest is you.

So, when I was on tour, anytime that we had opening parties there was a portion when the music came on at the end of the night and I always felt down for a lip sync number. It kind of progressed from being on tour where everyone told me I should be doing drag, to me leaving tour actually doing drag, you know? And that’s really what I always wanted. I wanted to dance as a troupe member but I also wanted to be in the spotlight. Instead of being in a troupe for someone else, I wanted to be my own female lead and make whatever I want come to life.

Did you ever consider putting on a dress and wig during your competitive career?

I always thought it would be a little bit gaggy in the sense that it would be a cool shock to the Irish dancing community where it kind of moulds gender, like shape-shifting. I thought about it a lot, but it would always come down to never acting on it, because I didn’t know how the community would take it. The extent of it was that I did a slip jig for a competition. I didn’t win the soft shoe round, but I had gotten very high scores. Doing a slip jig really is the closest I’ve come to even doing drag, just because slip jigs are only done by girls. Even at Halloween competitions I’ve thought about doing it, but my teachers would say it was maybe not a good idea.

You never know how the judges are going to take it or the people around, you know? But looking back, because I don’t have my TCRG or anything, I’ve contemplated the idea of coming back and just doing a local competition in drag because there’s no boys or girls split. It’s like, anything goes. So I’ve thought about it, but now, at the age of 29, it’s really hard to think about coming back.

Do you find that there’s a difference when learning traditionally female steps?

I feel like there’s so many moves that the boys just typically don’t do, like rocks, crosskeys, fling legs, or even a kick to your face. That’s not a common thing for boys to do, or even tippy toes. But those are things that I love to incorporate. When I was growing up, my workshop teacher would always tell me to learn a slip jig just because it really does teach you a good balance of grace and control. And I think boys can do the same with the likes of football players learning ballet. You are learning how to be graceful, how to be swift, and think fast on your feet. I think those are elements that I have absolutely learned from slip jigs. When there’s so much history to it, you can’t help but immerse yourself in that. It’s taught me a lot. I would say doing a slip jig definitely made me want to do drag even more; especially because Riverdance and Lord Of The Dance both have slip jig based solos — it’s incredible, it’s the fantasy.

How long into touring professionally in 2015 did you decide you wanted to do drag?

I joined Heartbeat Of Home when they premiered after they did the whole online audition period. They sent us to Ireland to do the in-person audition and then they selected maybe two handfuls of us out of like 24 people who auditioned. So we did a couple of tours and it wasn’t until I was with Riverdance, which was maybe two years after I joined Heartbeat Of Home, when we were touring and I actually did drag in China. It started with ‘Break Free’ by Ariana Grande coming on and I had so much fun with that number performing in front of everyone in drag.

Everyone always encouraged me to do it, because I feel like gender wasn’t really something that I necessarily conformed to. Even though in Riverdance the position that we filled was very male presenting, very strong, very fierce. And I don’t want to speak poorly on it, because I do think there’s so much tradition that has been so amazing in the story of Riverdance. But now it’s 2023 and gender is such a clear construct.

What has the response been like from your audiences in the Irish dance and drag communities?

I definitely have found a lot of support within the Irish dance world. I get a lot of people messaging me asking me when I’m going to perform, if I’ll be performing in certain cities that they live in — which is really cool because I do want to go global with this. I’ve also got support from people in Riverdance who are messaging me constantly. I got support from my queer community that I immerse myself into as well. It’s really cool being the premiere “Riverdancing Queen”, even though “Riverdancing” is not technically the term. I guess I’ve been the first performer from Riverdance to really pursue this. So I’m gonna take it!

Have you noticed any interest from current male competitors who are wanting to perform in drag?

I’ve actually had male dancers message me asking if it was fun doing it. I feel like, at the end of the day, it’s the joy that it brings you, rather than feeling like you have to do it because everyone else is doing it. I do have a lot of male dancers, even male dancers around my age, asking me about it. Joey Roca, or Héruma — who has been interviewed by you guys before. Bonnie Staxx, also known as Blaine Donovan, who won nationals and multiple regional titles is doing drag, too. A lot of the boys around ages 17 to 23 have been reaching out to me, so that’s really exciting that I’ve inspired some in those ways, because I never had that exposure growing up.

What is your favourite way to combine drag and Irish dance? They’re such multifaceted disciplines with so much to play with.

When I started doing drag, all I wanted to do was the Riverdance lead solo and Ariana Grande. Those were the only two reasons that made me want to do it. I was like, “I just want a pony, and I want to whip her around.” I wanted to do anything that I saw growing up where it was like, “Wow, the female lead is really the star of the show.” You feel something when you watch the female lead do that slip jig solo. That’s what made me want to do it. Then it really sparked more interest in incorporating Irish dance into other things where I can be a total pop princess. Incorporating any pop song is always unpredictable for people — it’s a gag, no matter what.

What I like about Irish dancing is that even though we don’t use our upper body, people forget that Irish dancing is still storytelling. I like really tapping into that especially with female leads when they do soft shoe, and you can really see them emote with their face and learn how to use their arms to show vulnerability and then show strength and power. It’s like you step out of that competitive vibe and you can tell your story.

Do you miss competing? How does the performance life differ?

There’s just something about competing at such an intense level, it’s hard not to miss it. There are a lot of things that I miss about setting goals and going in and doing what I need to do, to be the best that I can for myself. But I also don‘t miss being backstage and realising you could just be sitting at home watching a movie and eating a pizza instead. There’s always moments of regret. But the prep leading into it, there’s something so special about it, because it almost gives you purpose in life to really work hard. And I do miss that at the end of the day with competition and performing for shows.

I think the one thing that definitely ties the two worlds is attention. It’s fighting for that attention and making sure that you own that stage no matter if it’s just you on stage or someone else is next to you trying to run circles around you. I think there’s something so cool about just really fighting for that attention. You know, who doesn’t want attention?

What can we look forward to seeing next from Jas Minh?

I’ve always wanted to get onto Drag Race, just because I’ve watched it and who wouldn’t want to give it a shot? Especially working this hard on getting my name out there, and doing what I want for myself. I think being on Drag Race would be such a full circle moment for me. I do know that it’s really hard, because I’ve done drag competitions, and it’s not easy. But I think that’s something that I want, for sure. It’s a goal of mine to be on the next season of RuPaul’s Drag Race Canada.