The Israeli production of the international hit Dancing With The Stars broke new ground this week when it became the show’s first version to introduce a same-sex duo as dance partners.
In the live broadcast, statuesque blonde Gili Shem Tov, an openly lesbian sports presenter, shimmied onto the stage in a skimpy dress, fishnet stockings and dangly earrings alongside her petite, straight partner, professional dancer Dorit Milman, who wore an identical outfit.
Before performing their piece, Ms Milman gave Ms Shem Tov a sisterly kiss on the cheek. At a pre-broadcast run-through, Ms Shem Tov said that she had asked to dance with another woman because it was comfortable for her.
“For me it felt natural. I live with a woman, we are raising my son,” she said. “It’s not an issue.”
Assaf Gil, who produced the show, said Ms Shem Tov was a natural choice for the competition, which pairs national celebrities with professional dancers for weekly dance-offs.
But he admitted he was surprised when she said she would prefer to dance with another woman.
“It was quite something unexpected,” he said. “We didn’t actively search for same-sex couples but when she did approach us and she requested to dance with a girl we said: ‘Absolutely, why not?’”
Ms Shem Tov said her decision was driven partly by a desire to encourage Israeli society to become more accepting.
“If by doing that, even only a few people will be more tolerant or open-minded, so I achieved my goal,” she told journalists.
At the end of their dance the women were warmly applauded by the studio audience and well-received by two out of the three judges, especially by the only woman on the panel, actress and comedienne Hana Laszlo. “I couldn’t imagine what it would look like with two women dancing,” she said. “It looked great, you need to loosen up but I was surprised.”
Israel’s homosexual community is hardly cloistered – the country hosts an annual gay pride parade and has a thriving gay club scene in Tel Aviv. But intolerance of homosexuality is also one of the few issues that unites the country’s religious Muslim, Christian and Jewish communities, and a 2009 poll found 46 per cent of Israelis consider homosexuality a “perversion”.
Ms Shem Tov said most of the reactions to her pairing with Ms Milman were positive, with messages of support coming in from around the world. But she said others expressed concern about the sight of a same-sex duo on a “family show”. “I heard that there are some people that think that this show is for the whole family and little children are watching that and they don’t want the children to see a same-sex couple,” she said.
“I don’t understand that. I have a little son and this is the way he lives, with me and my partner, and I don’t think that’s a problem.”
Mr Gil said he consulted both the local production company and the BBC, which owns the franchise, and ultimately decided the pairing would be well received by Israeli viewers.