There’s so much to look forward to now that I’m back in the swing of college. We’re back in the -ber months: September, October, November, and December, the air is getting crisp, and Dancing with the Stars is back for Season 35. A whole new cast of 16 stars is tied for the largest cast they’ve put on the dance floor, only matched by Season 9 and Season 31. Something I’ve always loved about the series is that while the stars, some of the theme nights, or audience shift and grow, the core of the show remains the same.
I didn’t write at all last year about DWTS so I wanted to preface that this first article is going to be a doozy because I want to take the first part to share some of my thoughts about last season that I feel as though I finally can put words to.
I was thrilled to see that all the judges, Bruno Tonioli, Derek Hough, and Carrie Ann Inaba, and the announcers, Julianne Hough and Alfonso Ribeiro, were making a triumphant return to the ballroom. Prior to the cast announcement, I was genuinely worried about whether or not Carrie Ann would be returning.
Since the show began, our digital world has grown immensely. People can share their opinions as quickly as they want, and with traction these opinions can get very loud, and last season they became deafening—and at times silencing—in the ballroom. I’m not trying to sound dramatic, or as though this is something that cannot be changed. However, I do think that there has to be an understanding among new viewers, or even those who are jumping back into DWTS, of where this show began.
Booing has always been a part of DWTS. Giving people the opportunity to control half—50%—of a star’s fate with votes is huge. With social media, and I want to point at TikTok specifically, there exists a strange juxtaposition where people both feed off of cancel culture and simultaneously have parasocial relationships. To expand my thoughts a little further, I want to speak directly about the treatment Carrie Ann Inaba received last season that had been snowballing from the season prior–Season 33.
In simplest terms, the job of a judge is to judge. I understand and can agree that sometimes the judges’ personal bias can heavily cloud or soften comments. Scoring from Carrie Ann, who openly shares that she suffers with chronic pain, tends to occasionally jump if and when a particular comment in a package makes her see a less than perfect dance through a different lens. She has stated on the show that she has a different scale for each contestant, and she feels that she hands out scores appropriately based on that scale. I have no doubt that some dances are scored with slightly more emotion, but she has been able to retain her spot on the show for over the last 21 years, and I think to boo her at every given opportunity is entirely inappropriate.
I will say that she acknowledges the booing in a way that Derek and Bruno do not. She also has the most difficult time with the compliment sandwich. If you don’t know what the compliment sandwich is, it’s when you begin a critique with a compliment, then add something that wasn’t done as well or could be improved in the middle, and end your whole statement with a compliment. That was super long to write, is even longer to say, and is increasingly difficult on a show that constantly is cutting you off because they are short for time. Case in point, Carrie Ann on DWTS.
I want to end this by saying that I’m not blaming production, the other judges, or contestant reactions for the treatment she receives. I ask that we check and acknowledge other biases — I literally couldn’t watch Derek and Robert Irwin last season, but I can’t even get started on that — while judging the judges this season. I will say that even when they began getting rushed for time during the premiere, she already seemed to be doing a better job at the sandwich and not responding to crowd behavior. And as she says, you can boo her, but you better be voting.
My last note is that with social media comes parasocial relationships. Whether it stems from relatability with a star’s character or public persona, if you feel a parasocial relationship towards a contestant — I know I experience this every season — think critically about the dance you actually saw and the comments made. We all want to see our favorites take home the mirrorball, and we get our say, but so do the judges. With a show that’s about personal growth and betterment, I hope this season is more positive and uplifting for everyone.
I included this in my first DWTS article two years ago, but I wanted to bring back, for viewer pleasure and to really drive my point home, a video to truly illustrate the unfiltered comments the show used to have.
Now that I’ve said my piece on the judging and crowd dynamics, the premiere! There were a lot of elements that worked well and others — the online voting — that didn’t. Broken into two nights by gender, the massive cast had their chance to dance to a song from the year they were born. I really enjoyed this theme; there’s a diverse age range within the cast, and I felt there was some individuality with the song choices which gave the viewer a brief insight into the stars.
I will say, I don’t know if gender was the most effective way to divide them. It makes sense that because they had an even number of both men and women, that they wanted to eliminate one male couple and one female couple. I wonder if they could have separated the nights by dance style. DWTS is a mix of traditional ballroom styles and Latin styles. It could have been more interesting to have all the ballroom dancers on one night and Latin on the other. However, what happened happened, or didn’t — still talking about the voting — and we are heading into week two down two couples. Here are my thoughts on the premiere nights.
🪩 NIGHT ONE: THE MEN 🪩
All of the stars and dancers returned to the ballroom on Tuesday, but only the men were judged tonight. Trying to keep an open mind for every contestant this season, I tried not to rule anyone out and kept expectations low. I feel like the larger conversation heading into the night was that newer viewers are having a hard time finding it fair that the cast is a combination of people with and without dance experience.
In their press interviews, the cast has been trying their best to explain that, when it comes to this show, having previous dance experience isn’t always better. It’s a new experience and for anyone — athletes, actors, singers, and dancers — old habits die hard. If you’re a figure skater like Amber Glenn, she’s going to glide rather than connect into the dance floor. For Harry Shum Jr., he found himself accentuating the wrong movements, but with his previous hip hop background, accentuating what he thought were the right beats, actually worked against him.
Julianne and Bruno said it best, “It’s not dancing with the non-dancers, it’s Dancing with the Stars”[and]”Inclusivity means allowing everyone.” This show is inclusive and we are inclusive on both ends of the spectrum: if you don’t have dance experience and if you do.
Overall, the two nights felt as though it was the premiere. It had beautiful group dances, relatively low scores, and the nerves of the first time dancing on the floor. A problem that the judges have had for the last few seasons is giving extremely high scores too early on. This has kept them from being able to backtrack and score a later dance lower, because they have already set a precedent that the dancer is really good.
For the contestants, I’m going to give rapid fire thoughts, feelings, and opinions for each. As the season goes on and the number of contestants remaining becomes smaller, I’ll give more elaborate thoughts, but for now, we’ll keep it quick.
Jackson Olson and Emma Slater
Very good and very surprising. I’m happy that after 17 years on the show, Emma has been given someone in their twenties. Jackson’s athleticism has allowed her to create choreography that is significantly more complex this season. I respect that we are nodding to his career as a Savannah Banana baseball player and how the first episode usually introduces a star to the new audience, in their form that is familiar to their already established fanbase. But this was their one. And I mean their ONE, all yellow themed dance. While I enjoy banana’s, I don’t want to see that much banana themed anything again during his run on the show.
Tyler Cameron and Sharna Burgess
He’s gorg and athletic. Watching this show after three classes and a club meeting, when I heard Derek call him Dylan I thought I was just losing it, but no. Probably reminded of the similarly gorg Dylan Efron from last season, Derek accidently called Tyler Dylan.
Tyler (Dylan) has the potential to refine his movements and become a really strong leading man. With his background in football, Sharna — welcome back diva — is going to have to be really intentional with his technical training. In future dances she is going to have the ability to utilize his strength for lifts, and I’m excited to see those. I felt he had a very solid start to his run with his dance.
Guillermo Rodriguez and Witney Carson
Derek put into words what everyone was thinking: “Was the technique there. No. Was the effort there. Absolutely”. Guillermo is Jimmy Kimmel’s comedian sidekick and, similarly to Connor Wood, that could be one of his biggest weaknesses, especially in dances where their persona is supposed to be serious. In his package I felt that production cut him to look afraid and as though he wasn’t trying. I hope that’s not the case because with Whitney’s coaching and his personality, I believe they could earn fan votes while also improving scores week by week.
Conner Leavitt and Adele Zaikman
After watching Adele win DWTS The Next Pro and the way Conner supported his wife Whitney Leavitt last season on DWTS, I was sad to see them be the first eliminated. We all know that the dance was not his best. There are clips that prove Conner has some dancing ability, but this dance was not his friend. It was also my least favorite costume of the night.
I would like to postulate that there could have been voting issues for him specifically. Early in the night Julianne shared that their online voting platform had crashed. For whatever reason, it couldn’t be fixed and production decided they were going to throw out any votes made on this platform before it crashed. Additionally, there are two Connors, Leavitt and Wood. If voters wanted to text Conner — to 21523 — to vote for him, they had to specify L or W. I wonder if there is any way that these circumstances could have impacted him specifically. Maybe not, but something to chew on.
I would like to pause to compliment Conner on how he handled being eliminated. He took it with grace and as an opportunity to uplift others around him. He reflected that no one wants to be sent home, but he is happy that he pushed himself to try something new.
Taylor Hanson and Britt Stewart
I love Britt and I love seeing her with someone who wants to put their foot into their training. I wasn’t familiar with Taylor before his appearance on the show, but I have to commend him for the effort he is putting in. While there were some mistakes in the dance, he recovered well. She said in her post-dance interview that she was coming out swinging and pulling out all the stops. I’m excited to see Taylor channel his effort into new styles.
Connor Wood and Rylee Arnold
So cutie. Every year on DWTS I look at casts and most of the time I cannot imagine stars being paired up with different pros. For the vast majority of pairings, production does a really good job of matching coaching styles with celebrities. Rylee and Connor are a great pair and I hope their partnership will take them far. Their dance was decent and it’s evident when Connor feels comfortable in a dance.
Harry Shum Jr. and Jenna Johnson
This season, I enjoy that they’re not restricting filming to the standard studios we see ad nauseam. Watching Jenna meet Harry on the set of Grey’s Anatomy and Pasha Pashkov meet Amber at an ice rink, it allows us to see more into the star’s lives. The dance was amazing, but similar to Jackson, I don’t want another medical costume. Jenna said that she wants us to see Harry as himself and not as a character, and I look forward to seeing more of him.
Ezra Frech and Daniella Karagach
Every year, all I hope and wish is that Dani makes it to Halloween Night, iykyk. So far this partnership seems very promising and I can’t believe how talented Ezra is. Similarly to many contestants, as an Olympian, his effort level is off the charts. I also give Dani props on finding solutions every season to modify any movement that cannot be traditionally executed.
I had no real background or understanding on his particular prosthetic, so when I saw creator, @alex1leg on Instagram explain the type of prosthetic Ezra uses and how it compares to the one Alex himself uses, I only gained more respect for him.
🪩 NIGHT TWO: THE WOMEN 🪩
There was so much to learn about the stars from night one, and to think, it was only half of their cast. Night two, their voting platform was back up and the women had their first dance on the ballroom floor.
Tatyana Ali and Jan Ravnik
I was upset. I was not familiar with Tatyana or her acting history, but after watching her package I immediately liked her. She seems very grounded and receptive to learning from Jan. I cannot even imagine the environment of the ballroom, and being the first to dance must have been indescribable. She unfortunately messed up the beginning of her dance and had consequent mistakes throughout the routine. The judges said, and I agree, that a ballroom style would suit her much better. I am hopeful that with Jan’s coaching and now knowing the environment of the ballroom, she will come out stronger in week two.
Ciara Miller and Brandon Armstrong
Many people said that her facial expressions made her seem as though she didn’t want to be there, but as someone who has been and reacted similarly in anxiety inducing situations, I felt that I saw where she was at. Coming out of major drama and placing herself into an environment that’s wildly different from the other shows she’s done, similarly to Tatyana, I cannot imagine how Ciara was feeling. I do think that she shows promise and Brandon’s capability of storytelling through dance could help her feel more involved in a dance.
Maura Higgins and Mark Ballas
I haven’t watched The Traitors, but I think that I know enough of the lore to appreciate this pairing. With Mark’s coaching, Maura presented as one of the strongest dancers and I look forward to seeing more of them.
Jenna Dewan and Val Chmerkovskiy
The Rookie is another show I have not gotten around to watching yet. I’m enjoying this pairing because Jenna is a different kind of partner to Val than his previous few. Jenna has a dance background and Val is using it as a tool to elevate his choreography. There was a comment from Carrie Ann about lifts — the same she makes every season. Similarly to her line of thinking, I don’t think they have to rely on lifts for shock and awe factor. Jenna is a good dancer and Val’s choreography is enough to make them a stand out couple.
Julia Stiles and Ezra Sosa
From face value, they were the couple I was most excited to see. I loved Julia in 10 Things I Hate About You and I love the partnership dynamics that Ezra cultivates. In her package, she talked about Andy Cohen’s comments which not only gave her a reason to show up and out in her dance, but it led to Cohen having to confront what he said.
Giada De Laurentiis and Alan Bersten
Growing up watching the Food Network channel, I’m shocked how few chefs have participated on DWTS. I was excited to see how excited Giada was to be on the show, and I honestly teared up while she was crying in her post-dance interview. While this show is fun and glittery, there is a lot of pain and work that goes into it. Doing this for her daughter, I found it beautiful that she is pushing herself out of her comfort zone. I do think everyone can cool it with the cooking puns.
Amber Glenn and Pasha Pashkov
Amber and Pasha’s dynamic is one that is worth watching. Although she is athletic and aware of her movements, she is used to being only with herself. I am interested to see how dancing with someone will shift her approach to dancing.
Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills
Sadly the second couple eliminated at the end of the season premiere was Sarah Jane Nader and Hailey Bills. This was Hailey’s first season as a pro — similarly to Adele — after being a part of the troupe. Their dance was out of sync and the judges said that especially with the style they had, the jive, that the mistakes were evident when they were dancing side by side. In her exit interview, she said that she was upset to be leaving, but happy that she was able to be a part of queer representation on the show.
The premiere in the books, and a whole season awaits. With theme nights yet to be revealed, shocking eliminations yet to come, and so much more, I cannot wait to see how season 35 unfolds.