EAGLE EXCLUSIVE: Meet the Twitter User Behind Ocasio-Cortez Dance Account
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Valentina is the creator of @aoc_dances, the Twitter account dedicated to clips of U.S. Rep Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez dancing to myriad songs that is quickly going viral. Photo courtesy of Valentina @leftistthot420.
By Christina Carrega
A now-defunct anonymous Twitter account’s attempt to smear U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for a video that shows her dancing on a rooftop with her college friends has inspired an Arizona teenager to create her own account dedicated to the newly sworn-in Democrat.
“I went to bed with 2,500 followers, woke up at 6 to 8,300 followers, and now I have over 9,300,” said Valentina, the woman behind @aoc_dances, the viral Twitter account dedicated to dubbing over clips of the congresswoman dancing with a seemingly endless playlist of songs.
As of the time this article was published, that number had risen to 13,500 — and rapidly growing.
Valentina told the Eagle that she saw a tweet on Thursday linking to a video of Ocasio-Cortez as a college student at Boston University, performing The Breakfast Club dance scene choreography to the 2009 Phoenix song “Lisztomania.” The text accompanying the video called the Democrat a “know-it-all” and a “clueless nitwit.”
“If the worst thing you can pull out on a candidate is that she’s a dancer — over the Republicans, who are accused of sexual harassment, racism and promoting policies that kill people — then her dancing… it’s not bad,” Valentina told the Eagle in a phone interview.
The username of the now-disappeared Twitter account that posted the original video on Thursday, @AnonoymousQ1776, suggests a connection to the far-right conspiracy theory group QAnon.
In response to the original insulting tweet, Ocasio-Cortez posted an 11-second video of herself dancing outside her new office in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
AP Photo/Susan Walsh.
Ocasio-Cortez, 29, is the youngest woman elected to serve in Congress and represents portions of the Bronx and Queens.
“I kept close tabs on her campaign, and if I lived in New York I would have campaigned for her. I’d definitely knock on doors for a Democratic Socialist,” said Valentina.
Far away from Ocasio-Cortez’s district, Valentina took the opportunity to show her support for the congresswoman by turning the bad joke into an appreciative one: @aoc_dances.
So far, Valentina has created 30-second videos of Ocasio-Cortez dancing to songs like ABBA’s “Dancing Queen,” Lorde’s “Green Light” and M.I.A’s “Paper Planes,” as well as a special dedication to this newspaper: Steve Miller Band’s “Fly Like An Eagle.”
The requests from her followers keep rolling in.
Request for comment from Ocasio-Cortez was not immediately received.
