Hailey Bills and Sarah Jane Nader are now paired on season 35 of Dancing With the Stars, making them the third same-sex couple in the show’s 35-season run. Bills is a first-time pro partner, and the pairing also stands as the second all-female duo in the franchise’s history.
Jojo Siwa and Jenna Johnson were the first same-sex duo in 2021, followed by Shangela and Gleb Savchenko in 2022. That history puts Nader and Bills into a small club, not a broad trend, which is why every rehearsal clip around them carries outsized attention for viewers tracking representation on TV.
September 10 to 14 on Instagram
On September 10, Bills posted a video on Instagram of the two in a rehearsal space and wrote, “When you officially met 2 weeks ago and know everything ab[out] each other.” On September 13, Nader posted a video showing Bills and Amber Glenn on the DWTS stage, and on September 14 the pair posted another clip of them attempting “The Cup Song.”
Those posts do more than tease chemistry. They show how the partnership is being introduced before the live debut, with Nader and Bills using social video to build a clear on-ramp for the audience before the competition performance itself arrives.
Nader’s TikTok account also included a video of the trio dancing and lip syncing to “The Room Where It Happens” from Hamilton, and the pair has been using the team name Estrogenz. The branding is blunt: it signals that the duo is leaning into the rarity of an all-female pairing rather than treating it like a side note.
Female contestants on September 16
The live test still sits ahead of them. The female contestants were set to perform on September 16, and Nader and Bills had not yet debuted together live on Dancing With the Stars when those rehearsal posts circulated.
That is the real watch item for season 35: whether the social-media momentum turns into a polished live routine once the pair steps onto the floor. For viewers following the history of same-sex pairings on DWTS, the milestone is already set; the performance is what will decide how far it travels.
