Raised in western and south-western Sydney, taught how to dance professionally at NAISDA in the Central Coast and now living her best life in inner city Sydney, the 26-year-old model and showgirl tells STUN: “There’s like a pre-Glee and a post Glee-life. Pre-Glee there was a lot more racism and a lot more discrimination. I’m not saying that there is none today but statistically there has never been a better time to be queer, black and/or trans. There are a lot more pathways for queer, black and trans artists to grow and to reach new heights that we’ve never reached before.. and I want to do it all.”
Blessed with a Wiradjuri, Gamilaroi and Noongar background, Tynga is in demand as a model, appearing for the fourth time this year at Australian Fashion Week, where she modelled for designers Jordan Gogos and Nicol & Ford and appearing in a Vogue feature.
She’s been a professional dancer for around the same amount of time and draws upon the idols of her youth when she’s on stage.
“I’ve always been into performing,” she says. “I grew up in the CDs era so we would listen to Whitney Houston or Celine Dion CDs in the car and I always wanted to be like them. Then it was Paula Abdul. When I saw the music video for Cold Hearted Snake for the first time, the singing and the dancing at the same time, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I wanna do that’.”
The special guest at STUN’s Electric Disco party, Tynga says: “I like to think you come for the pretty and you stay for the crazy! When people see me and the song starts and I do my first backflip, my first split or my first high kick, they go, ‘Oh, shit!’ Then I do another one and then another one and then I’m standing on my head. They definitely don’t expect to see that much happen at once!”
Tynga Williams will be performing at STUN’s Electric Disco party at Shadows, Canberra on Friday 5 December. Tickets at https://events.humanitix.com/electric-disco-k87uh6aq
-Danny Corvini
