Ruben dances his way to victory on "Dance Your Ass Off!"

The first season of Oxygen’s hit show Dance Your Ass Off has been a surprise pleasure and a surprise hit. A mixture of two popular and familiar reality TV genres – the weight loss show and the dance competition – the show featured not one, but two out gay contestants. And on Monday night’s episode, one of those gay men – Ruben – was named the winner.

A Las Vegas Cirque du Soleil wardrobe manager, Ruben entered the competition despite knowing John, his partner of 17 years, was in the midst of a battle with cancer, a storyline featured prominently on the show. Indeed, DYAO audiences saw something rarely shown on television – a same-sex couple showing love and affection for each other just like any other couple.

In episode 108: "We are Family" Ruben (center) is visited
by his brother (left) and partner John (right)

Throughout the season, 44-yeard-old Ruben was a strong competitor who frequently earned high scores for his dancing, then backing that up with big weight loss. By the time the competition ended, Ruben not only managed to take the top prize of $100,000, but also managed to earn the show’s first perfect score and lose more weight than anyone else competing.

We got the chance to talk with Ruben and discussed his partner’s health, the backstage dynamic’s of the show and what it meant to him to have his domestic worries to reach a national audience.

AfterElton: First off, congratulations on the win. I’m pretty sure those who’ve been watching are eager to find out how John is doing.
Ruben: He’s actually been up and down … in his recovery, we’ve been seeing a lot of different doctors. He just got out of the hospital on Friday, he had another operation and it didn’t go as good as we wanted it to. So we’re just looking at our other options and we may have to get a specialist in California … but we’re just being positive. The thing is he’s alive, he’s strong. We just have to live each day and if I’ve learned anything by being on this show, it would be that I’ve got to live for today and live for the moment we have right now.

AE: I know a lot of viewers were surprised to learn that you had gone on the competition with John being ill. What went into your decision to go on the show instead of spending time with him?
Ruben: He already had the cancer operation, so he was in recovery from it. He had just gotten out and I knew this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance. We had been dealing with his different illnesses, so it was another step in the path. We felt like he was recovering and my family stepped in, my sister came in to take care of him, his cousin and his sister. So he knew, I knew, when I got to be a part of this show that I would never get this chance again.

With all the pressure I had been going through, all the weight I put on and my job was getting to be too much, I just said, ‘I have to do this. I have to do this for me.’ And he said ‘Go.’ I would not have done it if he said ‘Ruben, don’t do it.’ I would have stayed home.