Juicy Love Dion

Juicy Love Dion has been dancing all her life. “Since I was 5 years old, I was doing shows for my family,” she recalls. “My mother and my aunts loved it.” For Juicy's father, however, there was a caveat: dance, but dance like a boy. “Behind closed doors,” she says, “I was dancing very feminine.” Eventually, Juicy's mother embraced it; her father did not.

When an older teammate on the same high school dance squad in Hialeah started performing as drag queen Morphine Love Dion, Juicy recalls reaching out to ask if she could come watch. The rest, she says, is history. “It was just like, ‘There’s this whole other world out here where everyone’s just free,’” she recalls. I was like, ‘Where did this come from? And why am I not doing it?’”

Morphine became Juicy’s drag mother—an established drag performer who takes a prospective queen under her wing. By drag lineage, Juicy also scored Athena Dion as her drag grandmother, adding “Love Dion” to her stage name. “A lot of people who start drag don’t have that,” she admits. “I came up in this with a really strong support system.”

Four years later, Juicy is known as “Miami’s

Dariel Rodriguez

Afro-Cuban dancing doll,” performing primarily at R House—the spot where she got her big break on a day when a downpour flooded the building. The regular show couldn’t go on, but Juicy volunteered to dance. “I was like, I’m gonna get this job. Press play.” She was hired on the spot.

And who is Juicy? “My wild side, just free and outgoing,” she says. “I’m that person when I’m not in drag too, but the look is all different.”

It’s a look that takes between 30 minutes to an hour and a half to achieve—from wig to shaving, from makeup to lashes, from costume to shoes. She eschews padding (except for a bra) and prefers to snatch her waist with layers of duct tape instead of a corset. And don’t forget the “tuck,” which completes the illusion of a womanly shape down below. “Have you heard about Cuban men?” Juicy teases. “Well, I have to wear two pocket panties pulled very, very tight.”

Being Juicy “is like a superpower,” she says. “Everything is so elevated. No one can tell me anything. No one can touch me. My body is my tool. I can finally control it the way I want to.” (@thejuicylove)