Ever since childhood, Archer has forged her own path in the dance world.
Growing up in Sydney's inner west, she started dancing at age four to help herself recover from a childhood illness.
"The major symptom was encephalitis and I had issues with my motor skills and my body wasn't walking to the proficiency that it should," she says.
"So the paediatrician was like, 'We should send them to do ballet classes to kind of regain that muscle control'."
It was here that Archer first fell in love with dance. Immediately.
"All my sisters did it with me; I have three sisters and one by one, they all dropped off. And I was the only one left dancing.
"And I was like, 'I am a star.'"
Today, Archer is one of a select group of students from Sydney's elite performing arts school Brent Street, whose final year is documented in the new docuseries, Dance Life on Prime Video.
Across five episodes, we watch as breathtakingly fit and talented young people put their bodies on the line in the hope of making it in the highly competitive world of dance.
Dance roles, not gender roles
Dance Life documents Archer's second and final year of full-time classes at Brent Street.
A significant part of her storyline is how she navigates the dance world as a feminine non-binary person.
"Dance is so deeply rooted in gender and gender roles," says Archer.
"It was a bit of a challenge navigating that."
This is particularly evident in a scene where the male dancers are encouraged to hit the gym to help them secure an agent.
"I'm not saying I need everyone to walk out of here looking like beefcakes," says Brent Street course coordinator Michael Corbett, "but I need to make sure we look developed and strong and that we can hold a lady above our shoulders."
In the next scene Archer reveals, "I've been told a lot of times that I need to act more masculine, or more a certain way to get any jobs, but I think that's so stupid."
Archer says she has gained more confidence in her identity over time.
"I think the first year I was like, I'll do all the things that the industry tells me to do. If you're not [cisgender and straight], you kind of have to pretend to be," she says.
"And then in the second, I was like, 'Fuck this.' I realised that I wasn't gonna get anywhere pretending. Especially because I already knew I was trans. I was like, this is a waste of time, and I don't want to bulk up."
Coming out on camera
"I realised in high school when I was 16, that I was genderqueer," Archer says.
"I remember being called a young man in school and my skin crawling because I just hated the idea of being called a young man. From there, I slowly came out to my friends as non- binary in 2019 and later came out publicly during my first year at Brent Street in 2021."
Since then, Archer has come out as trans femme and started hormone replacement therapy. While she previously used they/them pronouns, Archer has now embraced she/they.
Knowing that her appearance would eventually change through gender affirmation, she was at first reluctant to take part in the television series.
"If you talk to any trans person about looking at your younger self, it's quite an intense experience. Even now, I know one day I'm going to hate it even more. Just being so publicly out there kind of stressed me out as well," she explains.
"I'd just turned 19… so I was so anxious about everybody hating me. Or like just being completely rejected.
"I kind of had to be like, 'I'm non-binary.' And I just kept repeating a phrase that I said in the documentary, 'It is the absence of gender, it is the rejection of what gender means,'" she says.
Dance Life director and co-creator Luke Cornish says Archer captured his attention immediately.
"Archer is the very first person I filmed," says Cornish.
"They talked about finding a space in which they could belong in the commercial performing arts world. And when your subject is saying something like that to you, it just sparks a level of intrigue that I wanted to investigate."
Cornish, who is an award-winning queer filmmaker, also understands the power of sharing diverse stories on screen.
"Representation can be everything," he says. "As a filmmaker, it's important for me to do it in a way that is that is true to the story.
"From a personal perspective, I can remember being an incredibly lonely and isolated teenager, not knowing any gay person, trying to come to terms with my own sexuality. And as far as I knew, gay people were beaten up, humiliated and made to feel ashamed."
He says that changed when he was about 15 years old and he saw the Stonewall riots on TV late at night.
"I'd never heard of them … and seeing the queer community stand up and fight back was thrilling to me, because I thought, 'We actually can stand up for ourselves, we can do something.'
"And that made me feel that bit better about who I was."
What the future holds
Since graduating from Brent Street, Archer has also started a fashion degree — in between modelling, shooting music videos and training as much as she can.
But Archer says commercial dance has a long way to go when it comes to providing a career path for diverse performers.
"Being non-binary, being queer, is often romanticised more than it's actually usable in practice," she says.
"You don't watch musicals and see genderqueer characters, unless it's like a very recent musical. There are no roles that have already existed for non-binary people as there are for cis people."
She says a lot of genderqueer people and trans people have to make their own path.
"I think it would be so powerful if we tried to show what it could be because there's so much beauty, and so much magic," she says.
"I want to see a true celebration of diversity and dance in 2024, regardless of what is sellable. It is so important for the health of our youth and the survival of this industry."
While Archer says it hasn't been easy seeing herself on screen, she is overwhelmed by the audience's response to the show.
"I am just kind of blown away. I can't believe that this is real. I feel like a little famous," she says.
"I received a few messages on Instagram like, 'It was so beautiful to see you on the show and your storyline was amazing.' And wishing the best for you. And I was like, 'Wow, people can be so kind and so lovely.'"
Dance Life is streaming on Prime Video.