The Film Summary

Bright disco beats, sparkling costumes, and electrifying movement set the stage for a feature documentary about waacking—a hypnotic street dance nearly lost to history.

Born in 1970s underground clubs for gay Black and brown men in Los Angeles, waacking offered a bold, expressive language of identity and freedom. After briefly breaking into the mainstream through performances on Soul Train and alongside Diana Ross, the dance faded during the AIDS crisis, taking many of its pioneers with it. Today, waacking is experiencing a powerful revival, spreading across the globe as a symbol of resilience and queer expression, particularly in places where freedom of identity remains constrained.

At the heart of the film is Princess Lockeroo (Samara Cohen), a New York–based dancer and leader of the modern waacking movement. Mentored by original waacking icon Tyrone Proctor, Lockeroo found healing and purpose through the dance and now carries his legacy forward after his passing in 2020. Her mission: to build the first American waacking company in decades, The Fabulous Waack Dancers, and train them for one of the world’s largest street dance competitions,
The Queen of Disco in Guangzhou, China.

The film follows a diverse group of dancers, each with a powerful personal story, as they transform through their waacking alter egos. From overcoming discrimination and disability to navigating immigration and identity, their journeys reveal how this vibrant dance form becomes a tool for empowerment, self-expression, and community. Guided by one of waacking’s original pioneers, Billy Goodson, the group prepares for a high-stakes international showdown, while honoring the roots of a dance that has always been more than performance, it’s activism in motion.

Blending competition, culture, and deeply personal storytelling, the documentary invites audiences into a world of resilience, identity, and joy—where movement becomes liberation, and a once-forgotten dance reclaims its place on the global stage.