The world wasn’t ready for Josie Totah’s dancing … at least when she was 12. In a discussion during Vulture Festival 2023, Totah revealed she was fired from a lead role in a Nickelodeon pilot for her dance moves. “I just twerked too much, I guess,” she explained. “They felt it was too overtly sexual for the show.” She confirmed with her family in the audience to make sure she was remembering the incident correctly. “They just called my mom and were like, ‘We don’t have to have your kid back tomorrow.’ It was only because I twerked, right, Mom?” (Her mother nodded.) Totah explained that she “did a lot of gyrating on the floor” and that Nickelodeon must have “thought [she] was a liability.” Nickelodeon’s loss. Totah would later be gyrating during the final season of Glee in New Directions’ performance of “Chandelier,” and would land leading roles in Saved by the Bell and The Buccaneers. We guess the only way to Sia her moves is as Maddie Ziegler in an Ohio high-school show choir.
