Arts & Entertainment
Traveling with M-I-C-K-E-Y
Former competitive figure skater found home with Disney on Ice
Joshua Flores as Mowgli from ‘The Jungle Book’ in Disney on Ice, which opens at the Patriot Center next week. (Photo courtesy Disney on Ice)
When he was 10 years old, Joshua Flores laced up a pair of ice skates for the first time and knew skating was something he wanted to do for a long time.
“I always loved the music that came with figure skating as well as the movement and gracefulness,” he says. “I loved to jump and spin. I remember being little and pretending to skate with my socks on, on the living room floor when I first saw figure skating on TV.”
Almost two decades later, the out and proud young man continues to live his dream as part of the Disney on Ice tour.
“I competed in figure skating until I was 18 and then when it was over, I wanted to find something that would still let me do what I loved,” he says. “My coach suggested I send in a videotape to Disney on Ice and see what happens, and I filmed me doing all my tricks and a week later they called me.”
That was 10 years ago, and Flores has traveled the globe as he skates in productions all over the world. It’s more than the Rockford, Ill., resident ever imagined.
“I’ve been to Japan, Australia, Europe, South America … it’s hard to keep track of all the places I have been,” he says. “The traveling is awesome because I get to experience cultures around the world, and I’m a huge food person. I love tasting food from everywhere.”
Currently, Flores skates as “The Jungle Book’s” Mowgli in a Disney on Ice production entitled, “Let’s Celebrate!” but he’s also seen time playing John Darling from “Peter Pan,” a turtle in “Finding Nemo” and a student in “High School Musical.”
“At first, it was difficult to get used to skating with a mask or in costume, but you get used to it and learn more about your skills,” he says. “I love the rush of adrenaline when I skate out and see a huge audience screaming with smiles and laughter. I always like performing to a crowd.”
The best thing that’s come from being with Disney on Ice, he says, it that he met his boyfriend (Nicholas Kelly, also a skater in the show) five years ago and they’ve been able to travel the world together.
“We work together and are around each other 24/7 because of our jobs, and we learn so much about each other, nothing can really break us apart,” Flores says. “Touring the world together is amazing and I am very lucky, definitely.”
Being gay has never been a problem for Flores in his dealings with Disney or the other skaters. There are a number of ice skaters working for the company who are part of the LGBT community.
“We have a huge, diverse group with people from around the world so everyone gets used to each other, and I’ve never experienced any problems on tour,” he says. “We’re one big happy family.”
Flores calls Lady Gaga one of his role models because she is a constant reminder to him that you can be completely different in so many ways. “You should love yourself for who you are and enjoy and love life,” he says.
“Let’s Celebrate,” which plays the Patriot Center from Oct. 23-27 and the Baltimore Arena from Oct. 30-Nov. 3, features 50 Disney characters paying tribute to different holidays around the world.
“It’s kind of like walking into Disneyland and seeing all the characters on the ice right at the opening of the show,” Flores says. “We have a Tea Party with the Mad Hatter, Mickey and Minnie are there of course, and we all help to clean up the party with Fantasia Mickey. It’s so much fun.”
Flores is on the road 10-11 months each year, and while he misses his family, they understand that he’s doing something he loves.
When he finally does hang up the skates, Flores hopes to stay with the company and explore the wardrobe- and character development-side of productions.
“There are people who have been here almost 20 years, and I’m going to stick with it until my body gives out — to the very last piece of the music,” he says.
Tickets for Disney on Ice range from $20-$75 and can be purchased at all Ticketmaster outlets via charge by phone at 1-800-745-3000; via ticketmaster.com; and at the Patriot Center box office.
The Petal Release Party and Drag Show was held at Spark Social on Friday, July 31. Performers included Tiara-Missou, Labianna and Darcy de la Cuadra.
(Washington Blade photos by Landon Shackelford)
Celebrity News
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Kylie Minogue made surprise appearance alongside gay icon
AMSTERDAM — Madonna on Sunday headlined the final night of the World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam.
The gay icon took the stage shortly before 2:30 a.m. local time (8:30 p.m. ET on Saturday) during Club Confessions, a set that MISTR, a telehealth platform that offers free access to PrEP, Doxy PEP, STI testing, and long-term HIV care, organized.
“Mother is here and this is gay heaven,” said Madonna when she took the stage inside Amsterdam’s AFAS Live concert hall that can hold up to 6,000 people.
Stuart Price, who produced Madonna’s 2005 “Confessions on a Dance Floor” album and “Confessions II,” which debuted on July 2, DJed the set.
Kylie Minogue made a surprise appearance. She and Madonna performed a new remix of “Love Sensation” from “Confessions II.”
(Washington Blade video by Michael K. Lavers)
“Throughout my career, I’ve always supported efforts to fight HIV and AIDS, and that fight begins with education and access,” said Madonna in a MISTR press release. “With MISTR, (CEO) Tristan (Schukraft) is expanding access to HIV prevention and sexual healthcare for everyone. Through this work, he’s helping preserve and strengthen LGBTQ+ spaces while investing in the communities and culture that have long sustained us.”
Minogue in an Instagram post thanked Madonna, Price, Schukraft, and MISTR.
Madonna appeared at The Abbey in West Hollywood, Calif., in April. Madonna in June celebrated Pride month with a pop-up performance in New York’s Times Square.
Jake Resnicow and Insomniac produced the World Pride Music Festival that also featured Bebe Rexha and Paris Hilton, among others.
“Pride has always been about bringing our community together,” said Resnicow. “At a moment when too many people are being told to hide or make themselves smaller, gathering openly, joyfully, and without apology matters more than ever. I couldn’t be prouder of what this festival brought to life in Amsterdam — one dance floor, completely free.”
Theater
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
First five shows a reminder that ‘pressure is a privilege’
Madly talented and preternaturally energetic, Reggie D. White, 38, is about to launch his first season as artistic director of D.C.’s boundary-pushing Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company.
White brings a lot to the job. As actor, playwright, and director, his varied resume includes a 2019 Broadway acting debut in Matthew López’s Tony Award–winning play “The Inheritance,” his semi-autobiographic play “Fremont Ave.” that opened to acclaim last season at Arena Stage, and a number of exciting regional directing credits.
A longtime admirer of Woolly, the out theater-maker was selected from a pool of candidates before receiving the offer last November and starting work in January. His season of five world premieres kicks off with gay playwright Steve Yockey’s “Venus” (Sept. 9-Oct. 4), a darkly funny study of modern relationships told through two lesbians looking back on their first encounter.
White was introduced to Woolly Mammoth as a pre-law student at Cal State Hayward in the San Francisco Bay Area, long before he foresaw a life in the arts. “As part of a random theater history course, I was assigned to write a paper on a counterculture company called Woolly Mammoth,” he recalls “Strange name. I was like what the hell is that?”
Nineteen-year-old White was intrigued. Research acquainted him with Howard Shalwitz who co-founded Woolly in 1980, and the company’s commitment to living playwrights and new work. He also learned how theater could be used as a tool for difficult conversations and shape the way people thought about social issues by employing imagination and rigor.
“Never in a million years did young me envision that one day I’d be Woolly’s third artistic director in its 46-year history,” says White. “It’s kind of serendipitously insane.”
WASHINGTON BLADE: Was there a moment when the enormity of the job hit you?
REGGIE D. WHITE: After I’d signed my contract and finished all the paperwork, I got my keys and sat in the theater by myself in the dark and thought about what an incredible honor it is to be trusted with what happens in this beautiful space [in D.C.’s Penn Quarter]. I might have cried. Sometimes I have to pinch myself to remember it’s real.
BLADE: Are you curating the upcoming 2026–2027 season?
WHITE: Yes, I am. It’s very rare that an incoming artistic director gets to program their first season, but I was lucky in terms of time. After being hired late last year, I asked Woolly’s managing director Kimberly E. Douglas, if she thought it would be crazy if I programmed the season. She warned me it would be hard.
I invoked tennis legend Billie Jean King’s maxim “pressure is a privilege” and got to work.
These plays [dubbed White’s “first five”] represent both the kind of theater that Woolly can do really well and speak directly to my voice as curator and how I want to contribute to the larger theatrical conversation in the DMV.
Getting here has meant a lot of late nights. But I knew the juice would be worth the squeeze.
BLADE: As a queer artistic director, what makes you unique?
WHITE: When I was playing in “Inheritance” on Broadway, after a performance, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Sotomayer came backstage to meet the cast. She spoke about how her lens on the world as a Puerto Rican woman shapes her decisions. Similarly, because I’m a queer Black man I see through a lens that shapes my work.
I know I’m not the only queer artistic director in town. For me, it influences how I make editorial decisions. Out of this season’s five plays there are explicitly queer characters in four [“Venus,” “Chanukkah Spectacular,” “Ten Grand,” and “Love I Awethu Further”] and I’m directing two [“Venus,” “Ten Grand”].
BLADE: Will we see familiar faces?
WHITE: Every show this season will feature a Woolly Mammoth company member in its cast. Our company also includes designers and directors who we’ll include. I’m invested in continuing to provide a showcase for their work.
BLADE: How do you think queer audiences will receive the season?
WHITE: Very well, I think. For queer people who’ve had to navigate the world subversively and solve problems in unique ways, I think it will be especially interesting. I find theater a potent place for questions.
Like all artistic directors. I’ll show up for the job in my own way. I’m just excited that I’ve been invited to bring the fullness of myself to the role.
PHOTOS: Petal Release Party
Madonna headlines World Pride Music Festival in Amsterdam
Reggie White relishing first season as artistic director of Woolly Mammoth
PHOTOS: Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade
Amsterdam Pride Canal Parade draws hundreds of thousands
Madonna to perform at World Pride in Amsterdam
BLADE ENDORSEMENT: Susan Stewart for mayor of Rehoboth Beach
PHOTOS: Lambda Legal in the Pines
Calendar: July 31-August 6
