September 17, 2025 • 25 mins
There it was. Danielle has completed her first dance - the Tango to Kelly Clarkson’s “Stronger” - and she’s ready to talk about it. What was debuting in the ballroom like? Is she happy with her performance (and score)? And what can we expect moving forward?
It’s a brand new Donut in the Sky - with real time reactions from 1/2 of Team Topasha!!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hello. It's Danielle Fishl, podcaster, TV director and mom of two,
but forever known to most as Tapanga from the nostalgic
TGIA favorite Boy Meets World. Currently, though, I am competing
on season thirty four of Dancing with the Stars and
I am having the time of my life. As a reminder,
I have absolutely no experience in the field. I'm not
(00:36):
even sure I should be doing this, but one thing
I am sure of. I'll be keeping you updated in
the form of this podcast, Danielle with the Stars, chronicling
my entire journey to win a Mirror Ball. This is
immediately following the press line which immediately followed the premiere
(00:58):
of Dancing with the Stars in thirty four. First of all,
I would really like to say that I have only
been able to have this incredible of anexperience on Dancing
with the Stars so far because of all of the
people around me who have just made this possible for me.
(01:21):
From my husband, who has picked up one hundred percent
of the stuff that I normally do for our household
and the kids, which is a lot. He has taken
one hundred percent of that on my kids, who have
been really understanding about my hours and my schedule, and
knowing that sometimes I may only be able to see
(01:41):
them when they wake up in the morning, that I
may not be home before they are down for the night.
And you know, people who help our family, like my
incredible nanny who when my husband is overworked and overloaded
with things because I'm not there, she has picked up
the slack. It has been such like a team effort.
To Tara, our fantastic producer, who's coming to me here
(02:05):
late at night after a taping so that I can
do this podcast and bring all of this stuff to you,
my family, The words of support, the messages you guys
have been sending me, the amount of texts and love
and direct messages and comments on our Instagram and our tiktoks,
the love that I feel and the like the celebratory
(02:32):
nature of what I'm doing is just really really special,
and I want to thank you all so much. So
I didn't want to start on an emotional note, but
oh well, what are you gonna do? You know, a
girl's gotta cry once in a while. Man, what a
show I You know, I have done some show and
(02:55):
tells over the last couple of weeks with people who
were in rehearsal times at the same time as me.
But man, everybody came alive in that ballroom. The confetti,
the pyrotechnics, the lasers, the energy, our friends and our
family being there. It was Wow. It is it's so
(03:17):
fast paced. It's so busy. I have been here. I
left my house this morning at six forty five. It's
now eight thirty pm. I have been in hair and
makeup since seven forty five. I've been in my dress
since one pm. Actually a little bit before one pm,
like twelve thirty pm. It's and all day you're just going, going, going,
(03:39):
and you're doing hair, then you're doing makeup. Then they're
pulling you out. They're doing a camera blocking, and you
have to go all out for the camera blocking. They
want to like really make sure they see what the
performance is going to be, to make sure they capture
all the right moments. There's opening numbers, the pros are dancing.
The dressing rooms are kind of far from where the
stage is, and your feet hurt, so you like want
(03:59):
to bring your slippers that they bought you, which is
very nice. And we have beautiful robes also that we
can wear. But it's so hot outside. I didn't want
to wear a robe. By the way, I'm so smelly
right now. I stink. I've been truly running back and
forth dancing my behind off, and I'm just like, I
can't wait to go home and take a shower. I
(04:20):
also need to ice my hamstring. My leg is very swollen.
It was really starting to cramp up on me right
before we went out to do our dance. And something
I have realized I'm gonna have to get used to
if I'm going to be in this dance world is
that you have to go one hundred percent every time
(04:44):
you do your dance. As someone who started my career
as an actor at ten years old, actors don't do that.
We don't go one hundred percent until the camera is rolling,
until we're live. You don't want to like kill something
that's naturally there, and one of the ways you feel
like you do that is by doing it over and
(05:04):
over again. But in this dance world, you give one
hundred percent every time. Well also physically, I can only
kick my legs super high so many times before I'm like,
this little leg needs a break. So my hamstring actually
has a minor tear. I have been icing twice a
(05:26):
night epsom salt bath. In between, I'm taking an ibuprofen
to help. And right before I went out for the
live show, after having gone all out for five other
runs for dress rehearsal and practice, my legs started really
getting tight and I was like, what am I gonna do? Like,
(05:46):
this is the time when I have to go What
am I gonna do? And I kept trying to stretch
a little bit, wasn't really working. It was really cramping,
and then adrenaline just took over in the middle of
the dance and I was able to do it. I
still haven't been able to watch it, so I don't
know exactly what it looked like. I know it felt
really good. I trust Pasha implicitly. I trust him with everything,
(06:08):
and he swears that this was the best performance we've
ever done, and we've now done it over a thousand
times in the last couple of weeks, and he swears
that the live show was by far the best. So
I trust him. But I will also watch the tape
myself and critique myself, even though he says that's useless
because we don't do tango again. But you're seeing my
(06:28):
perfectionism come through so that is what we danced tonight.
We danced a tango to Kelly Clarkson's Stronger because it
was Anthem week and when they asked me what my
anthem was, it was a really quick answer. I'm a
Kelly Clarkson fan. That song has always been a lot
to me, but it really took on a whole new
meeting for me last year when I had breast cancer
(06:50):
and I used to listen to it on my way
to radiation, and I used to listen to it before
my surgeries, and the minute they said we need an
anthem song, that was the one that just to me immediately.
So I have really enjoyed Pasha's choreography. There are some
really great moments where the part where she says stand
a little taller and I grow from a lunge, Like
(07:11):
he's so smart in the way he does his choreography,
and so it was it was really great. In between
when we're doing our runs and we're trying to stay warm,
we're doing a lot of walking, we're doing some slight stretching.
You don't want to sit for too long because you
just start to get achy and cramp up. But it's
a long day Like I said, I've been here now
(07:33):
for thirteen hours, and I have been on my feet
for most of it. I have also been dancing for
quite a lot of it. My costume, my hair, my
makeup is just spectacular. I love it so much. I'm
wearing like a one shouldered Greek goddess gown that also
kind of reminds me of Ariel, which is so fun.
(07:56):
My hair they wanted something very dramatic for Tanga, so
we've got four braids on the top of my head
into a high pony. My makeup is green and gold
and super sparkly, really really fun. And then my jewelry.
I'm wearing actually a vintage Paddock Philippe watch that is
(08:19):
absolutely amazing. Shout out to Eric Wynd who sent it
to me. I sent him a picture of my dress
and I said, what's a gold watch that'll go with
this dress? And he sent this one to me and
I am obsessed with it. I'm also wearing, as you
guys know, my friend Jamie Forever fine jewelry. I'm wearing
all of her jewels, and then I've got this nice
(08:39):
little turquoise number that I thought added some much needed color.
But I've also got these gorgeous earrings that are from
Jamie and my rehearsal shoes. These are not like special
night dance shoes. They are the shoes they give us
that we rehearse in all throughout the week. And you
would normally think like, oh, you're going to a fancy
event or your to perform, don't you want a new
(09:01):
pair of shoes. Not when you're dancing on them. You
have to like, our feet are blistered and disgusting. I've
always heard the dancers have ugly feet, and I can
attest dancers have hideous feet. They just do, and now
so do I because I am a dancer. So yeah,
we got our scores. Immediately came off the dance floor
(09:25):
and Alfonso was there, and he was such a nice,
comforting presence. I've known Alfonso for a long time. We
actually have similar career trajectories in the idea that we
were iconic characters who have now tried to make a
name for ourselves outside of just those characters. I'm so
proud of him. I just think the world of him.
(09:45):
So he was a really comforting face to see. Carrie
Anne was so missed. She was sick tonight she's never
missed a show, and she wasn't there tonight, So there
were only two judges, which means our scores were out
of twenty. I knew going into it that the judges
were going to be scoring lower than usual. Derek has
been very upfront about that. On his social media. He
(10:06):
was saying that last year they felt like they came
out of the gate swinging a little hot with high
scores like sevens and eights, and then two, three, four
weeks into the season when the audience can tell that
the celebrities are getting better every single week, but the
scores aren't getting better or they're still only getting sevens
and eights, because can we really give somebody a ten?
(10:28):
And week three, so they said they knew that the
mistake was that they weren't starting low enough that they
needed to be harsher. I honestly told myself going into it,
if you get two fours, just count that like a win. Well,
I actually was thinking it was gonna be three fours,
so I was thinking twelve, and then when I found
(10:49):
out it was two judges, I was like, oh wow,
getting an eight is going to feel really bad, even
though it's only out of twenty. So the fact that
I got two six's, that I got a twelve out
of twenty, I am. Honestly, I'm thrilled. I have no
dance experience. For someone who three weeks ago had never
taken a dance class, to come out and do a
tango and have Derek Cuff and Bruno give me two
(11:10):
sixes feels like an absolute win. So I'm happy about that.
I know they said some very nice compliments about my dancing,
and I love that Derek said it was like a
breath of fresh air. That really means a lot. Keeping
my shoulders down. Yeah, you're preaching to the choir friends.
I have been working on these darned shoulders for a
(11:31):
long time, and Pasha keep saying it too. And I
probably should have reminded myself of the shoulders right before
I went out. Right before I went out, I had
paid attention to my package, which, as you know, Sabrina
Bryan specifically told me, don't watch your package because you
never know what's going to be in there. And I
had watched my package and I saw that it was
about my cancer journey. And I looked over and I
(11:54):
saw that writer and Will and my husband and my kids,
and my mom and my dad and my dad's wife.
We're all sitting in the audience, and I started to
feel myself get emotional, and I was like, Serena told
you not to watch your package. You just watched your package.
Lock in with Pasha. Just lock in with Pasha and
pretend that no one else is here. And that's exactly
(12:15):
what I did. I pretended there was not a single
soul in the place. It was just me and Pasha,
and I was gonna be glued to him and locked
into him, and I was like, wow, Okay, that felt
really good. We finished, and then I felt this huge
surge of relief, like there it's done. And then I
could start feeling all of the feels, and so, yeah,
(12:37):
I was happy with I was happy with their scores.
Would I have liked them to be higher, Sure, But honestly,
watching dance after dance after dance, it is a stacked season.
The competition is fierce. I have been a fan of
this show for a very long time, and without any
disrespect to any other contestants or any other seasons, I
(13:00):
don't remember ever watching a premiere where I'm like, oh, so,
just everybody's better than the next person. Like it's just
every single performance is stellar, and the pros are so
good at bringing out their personality trait, the celeb's personality
traits and letting them shine in their own unique ways.
And we're such a diverse group from all different facets
(13:21):
of the entertainment industry, and we all bring different things
to the table. So it really does just go to
show you how important the voting is, Like that's really
what separates who's going to win and who's going to
go forward the next week is like whether or not
your fans are connecting with you and are making sure
they vote every week. Pasha was really happy with our scores.
(13:55):
Pasha was really happy in general. I always assume he's
being nice to me and that he secretly has more notes,
but he really reiterated to me over and over again
tonight how much he thinks this was by far my
best performance. And the good news for him is that
he now knows for sure, even though he always suspected,
he knows for sure that I thrive under pressure, that
(14:20):
I don't buckle. And that's always the hardest part for
a pro dancer on the first night is you have
no idea how your celeb is going to react. You've
got moving cameras everywhere, pyrotechnics, confetti, their family, and the
audience noises happening at weird times. Everything just feels a
little different, and it's very easy for your knees to
buckle and for you to be like, what am I doing.
(14:40):
As a matter of fact, my dress rehearsal that did happen,
So yesterday we got to do three runs of it.
All three runs of my dance, while not perfect, definitely
things I was like, here are some things I want
to improve on. We're all pretty darn good, and I
had really no nerves. I felt really great. I felt
super locked in, I felt very channeled, I felt like
(15:00):
my energy was focused. I felt great. And then this
morning we came in and we did it two more
times and both of those went pretty well. But at
this point, like I mentioned, as an actor, I'm not
used to having to give it my all. Now I've
done it five times over two days at like almost
one hundred percent, I started to kind of feel that
(15:21):
my one hundred percent was now like an eighty percent
or maybe even a seventy percent, and that was like, okay,
I just need to get to this. I just need
to get to this live show. And then we did
a dress rehearsal. It's the first time, the only time,
you get to dance your dance in your costume, so
of course that feels different. You're now moving, not in
(15:43):
yoga pants or shorts or ten isshoes or socks. You're
in your heels, You're in your very fancy dress. You've
never done any of these steps in this way. And
I made a tiny little mistake that I have never
done before in our dance. I started my spin out
on one count too early. And once I started a
(16:05):
spin out one count too early, I caught up on time,
but that was in my head that I had just
made a mistake. And then that mistake turned into me
not whipping my head at the time that I was
supposed to, So then I'd made a second mistake. Then
that one was in my head, and the next thing
I knew, I was taking a step with the wrong foot.
And of all the rehearsals, the one you don't want
(16:27):
to go terribly is the dress rehearsal. It's like, all
systems go, here's your one last chance to nail it.
And it was the first one that wasn't great, and
then I thought, again, is that gonna be in my head?
Like am I going to be able to overcome this?
That this is? I just had a bad one, and
Pasha was like, let's get it out of our system,
(16:48):
like come over here, let's practice. We practiced again. I
got it and I was like, Okay, I feel pretty good.
So I was super relieved that the live show. Although
if I were to watch back, I'm sure I would
find flow and what I did, but I was super
happy that, like I didn't take a wrong step, I
didn't hit something at the wrong time at least, you know,
my shoulders may have been up, but everything else was
(17:10):
pretty darn good. The amount of dances, I mean, Hilaria
Baldwin's salsa is she could be a pro, Like she
could easily be out there as a professional dancer. It's unbelievable.
And today was Gleb's birthday, Happy Birthday, Clob, so we
celebrated him. I think tomorrow is Scott's birthday, so we
(17:32):
celebrated him as well. We have lots of birthdays. The
Sunday is BRIT's birthday. We got to seeing Happy Birthday
and there were some cakes and it was really nice.
But yeah, I mean Ezra and Jordan, I mean starting
off the night is no easy feat. I feel like
their scores were definitely lower than they should have been.
They got two fives, and I mean she's just spectacular,
(17:57):
so that in performance was incredible. I am still yet
to see Robert's dance, which just feels like such a shame.
How have I not seen it? I heard it was amazing,
I heard the feedback, I heard the scores. I'm desperate
to see it. I can't wait to go home and
watch the tape and see what everybody's dances look like
on camera. Elaine Hendrix so inspiring, so beautiful, moves so well.
(18:22):
I just absolutely love her. Whitney Levitt, are you kidding me?
With that grace and that elegance and that long, beautiful neck.
Nobody told her to keep her shoulders down because she's
just so graceful. And I love that song. Choice Golden
is obviously everyone's favorite song right now, so I thought
that was really smart. Andy Richter his booty slapping, he's
(18:45):
so funny. Baron Davis, his personality's got that big smile.
He's dancing, he looked so great. Honestly, I'm also not
I'm impressed with all of the celebrities, but what this
experience has really shown me these professional dancers who take
those of us who some of us have experienced, some
(19:07):
of us don't, but they just find ways to make
us shine every single week, and they take a back seat.
I think the biggest compliment Pasha has ever given me
is the last couple of days, while we were rehearsing,
he'd be like watching video and he'd be zooming in
and I'd be looking at him, like, Wow, you're really
(19:28):
really trying to find something wrong. Huh, Like what are
you looking at? And he said, oh, no, no, I'm sorry,
I'm not looking at you. Right now, I actually get
to dance with you, like I get to do a
performance because I don't have to worry about you. He said,
you're balanced, You're on your own foot. He's like, and
so now I'm judging my own performance and I'm finding
(19:48):
ways to make what I do better. And I like
knowing he felt comfortable and he felt that he was
able to do. That was the biggest compliment and made
me so happy. I really just wanted to make him proud. Tonight,
I think I did. It was a really great night
my kids. I can't believe my six and my four
(20:09):
year old were able to make it the whole two hours.
I did see them plugging their ears a couple of
times because boy, those confetti cannons are loud, but it
was fun. They got on the floor, they were picking
up confetti and tossing it. And then when they left,
I said goodbye to them, and my youngest Keaton said, Mommy,
two things, One I love you and two I really
(20:31):
like your dancing, which just made my heart burst. So
I can't wait to keep doing this. Next week is
a double elimination, which makes me very nervous. I don't
want two people to go home. I don't want one
of those people to be me. I hope one of
those people is not me. Tomorrow, I'm back at the
(20:53):
rehearsal space Bright and Early Tango is in my rearview mirror.
I have to let go anything I didn't nail with
that one and try to tackle a new dance, which
I'm very much looking forward to. We're going to do
a Latin dance, so it's going to be spicy. Pasha
really wants to bring out like a different side of
my personality every week. So today was a little intense tango.
(21:18):
Next week, I think we want to be a little spicy,
a little hot, and we'll see, we'll see what we
have in store for tonight. I am nursing some injuries.
My leg is extremely swollen. My hamstring is battered, like
truly battered. I am going to go home. I'm going
(21:40):
to ice for twenty minutes. Then I'm going to take
a lukewarm epsom salt bath for twenty minutes, and then
I'm going to ice again for twenty minutes, and I'm
going to take an ibuprofen before bed. And then tomorrow
I will wake up and I will put back on
my compression leggings to help with my swelling, and I
will start dancing my second week dance in my compression leggings,
(22:01):
which have become my best friend and also my mortal enemy.
I feel really ready for week two. I'm excited about it.
I'm ready to like wake up and be like, okay,
starting from scratch, show me something else. I think We've
got a couple of tricks up our sleeve. I'm mostly
just hoping that my right hamstring is not a main
(22:22):
player in next week's dance. I already know some tricks
that we're going to do for next week, and it
seems as though my right hamstring will get a little
bit of a break, which is all I'm asking for
right now. My back will not though. I think we're uh.
I think we're going to incorporate another big dip. We
had a big dip at the end of tonight's dance,
which was really fun. I think we're going to incorporate
(22:44):
another big dip into next week's dance too, So we'll see.
Next time you hear from me, I will be sitting
with the one and only Maxim Schmerkovski. I cannot wait
to talk to him. He will have watched my performance.
I want to hear what his thoughts are. I can't
(23:05):
wait for him to give me some notes. Yeah, so
that'll be really fun. I'm looking forward to seeing you
all next time. Thank you for watching. If you've voted,
thank you, Thank you so much. It's a little wonky
the way the voting system works. It's only live on
the East Coast, so it is live on the East
Coast from eight pm to ten pm East Coast time.
(23:26):
On the West Coast, voting is only open five to
seven pm, but yet you cannot watch the show anywhere
from five to seven pm, so you have to vote
without seeing the dances, which is weird. It really then
does just become you voting for your favorites, and maybe
(23:46):
you're voting from their previous week's dance, and you know,
it's very interesting, but that's how it works. I hope
you guys voted for me. I really appreciate all your support.
I have loved every single second of this. Loved doing
this podcast and sharing behind the scenes stuff with you.
I can't wait to do more of it as these
weeks go on. Hopefully I stick around for a really
(24:08):
long time. I don't know if you guys can tell,
but I have been delivered the most gorgeous flower arrangements
and I haven't had a chance to open them, so
I don't even know who they're from. I haven't been
able to send any thank yous. I've barely had time
to respond to things on social media. Thank you so
much for all the feedback on the social media too.
We have been on Faija. We have been doing so
(24:31):
many tiktoks, so many reels. I didn't know I had
it in me to be to be so present in
the social media world, but boy, has it ever been fun?
And I give so much credit to that to Pasha
because he's also a genius at that. Like, is there
anything the guy can't do? Please have a flaw? Oh God, seriously,
(24:52):
don't be so perfect all the time. All Right, thank
you all for listening to this episode of Danielle with
the Stars. I will see you next time with Maxim Schmerkovsky.
Danielle with the Stars produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel.
Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge
of production Danielle Romo, Producer, editor and engineer Tara Sudbasch.
(25:13):
Theme song by Justin Siegel. Follow us on Instagram at
Danielle with Stars and vote for me
Hello. It's Danielle Fishl, podcaster, TV director and mom of two,
but forever known to most as Tapanga from the nostalgic
TGIA favorite Boy Meets World. Currently, though, I am competing
on season thirty four of Dancing with the Stars and
I am having the time of my life. As a reminder,
I have absolutely no experience in the field. I'm not
(00:36):
even sure I should be doing this, but one thing
I am sure of. I'll be keeping you updated in
the form of this podcast, Danielle with the Stars, chronicling
my entire journey to win a Mirror Ball. This is
immediately following the press line which immediately followed the premiere
(00:58):
of Dancing with the Stars in thirty four. First of all,
I would really like to say that I have only
been able to have this incredible of anexperience on Dancing
with the Stars so far because of all of the
people around me who have just made this possible for me.
(01:21):
From my husband, who has picked up one hundred percent
of the stuff that I normally do for our household
and the kids, which is a lot. He has taken
one hundred percent of that on my kids, who have
been really understanding about my hours and my schedule, and
knowing that sometimes I may only be able to see
(01:41):
them when they wake up in the morning, that I
may not be home before they are down for the night.
And you know, people who help our family, like my
incredible nanny who when my husband is overworked and overloaded
with things because I'm not there, she has picked up
the slack. It has been such like a team effort.
To Tara, our fantastic producer, who's coming to me here
(02:05):
late at night after a taping so that I can
do this podcast and bring all of this stuff to you,
my family, The words of support, the messages you guys
have been sending me, the amount of texts and love
and direct messages and comments on our Instagram and our tiktoks,
the love that I feel and the like the celebratory
(02:32):
nature of what I'm doing is just really really special,
and I want to thank you all so much. So
I didn't want to start on an emotional note, but
oh well, what are you gonna do? You know, a
girl's gotta cry once in a while. Man, what a
show I You know, I have done some show and
(02:55):
tells over the last couple of weeks with people who
were in rehearsal times at the same time as me.
But man, everybody came alive in that ballroom. The confetti,
the pyrotechnics, the lasers, the energy, our friends and our
family being there. It was Wow. It is it's so
(03:17):
fast paced. It's so busy. I have been here. I
left my house this morning at six forty five. It's
now eight thirty pm. I have been in hair and
makeup since seven forty five. I've been in my dress
since one pm. Actually a little bit before one pm,
like twelve thirty pm. It's and all day you're just going, going, going,
(03:39):
and you're doing hair, then you're doing makeup. Then they're
pulling you out. They're doing a camera blocking, and you
have to go all out for the camera blocking. They
want to like really make sure they see what the
performance is going to be, to make sure they capture
all the right moments. There's opening numbers, the pros are dancing.
The dressing rooms are kind of far from where the
stage is, and your feet hurt, so you like want
(03:59):
to bring your slippers that they bought you, which is
very nice. And we have beautiful robes also that we
can wear. But it's so hot outside. I didn't want
to wear a robe. By the way, I'm so smelly
right now. I stink. I've been truly running back and
forth dancing my behind off, and I'm just like, I
can't wait to go home and take a shower. I
(04:20):
also need to ice my hamstring. My leg is very swollen.
It was really starting to cramp up on me right
before we went out to do our dance. And something
I have realized I'm gonna have to get used to
if I'm going to be in this dance world is
that you have to go one hundred percent every time
(04:44):
you do your dance. As someone who started my career
as an actor at ten years old, actors don't do that.
We don't go one hundred percent until the camera is rolling,
until we're live. You don't want to like kill something
that's naturally there, and one of the ways you feel
like you do that is by doing it over and
(05:04):
over again. But in this dance world, you give one
hundred percent every time. Well also physically, I can only
kick my legs super high so many times before I'm like,
this little leg needs a break. So my hamstring actually
has a minor tear. I have been icing twice a
(05:26):
night epsom salt bath. In between, I'm taking an ibuprofen
to help. And right before I went out for the
live show, after having gone all out for five other
runs for dress rehearsal and practice, my legs started really
getting tight and I was like, what am I gonna do? Like,
(05:46):
this is the time when I have to go What
am I gonna do? And I kept trying to stretch
a little bit, wasn't really working. It was really cramping,
and then adrenaline just took over in the middle of
the dance and I was able to do it. I
still haven't been able to watch it, so I don't
know exactly what it looked like. I know it felt
really good. I trust Pasha implicitly. I trust him with everything,
(06:08):
and he swears that this was the best performance we've
ever done, and we've now done it over a thousand
times in the last couple of weeks, and he swears
that the live show was by far the best. So
I trust him. But I will also watch the tape
myself and critique myself, even though he says that's useless
because we don't do tango again. But you're seeing my
(06:28):
perfectionism come through so that is what we danced tonight.
We danced a tango to Kelly Clarkson's Stronger because it
was Anthem week and when they asked me what my
anthem was, it was a really quick answer. I'm a
Kelly Clarkson fan. That song has always been a lot
to me, but it really took on a whole new
meeting for me last year when I had breast cancer
(06:50):
and I used to listen to it on my way
to radiation, and I used to listen to it before
my surgeries, and the minute they said we need an
anthem song, that was the one that just to me immediately.
So I have really enjoyed Pasha's choreography. There are some
really great moments where the part where she says stand
a little taller and I grow from a lunge, Like
(07:11):
he's so smart in the way he does his choreography,
and so it was it was really great. In between
when we're doing our runs and we're trying to stay warm,
we're doing a lot of walking, we're doing some slight stretching.
You don't want to sit for too long because you
just start to get achy and cramp up. But it's
a long day Like I said, I've been here now
(07:33):
for thirteen hours, and I have been on my feet
for most of it. I have also been dancing for
quite a lot of it. My costume, my hair, my
makeup is just spectacular. I love it so much. I'm
wearing like a one shouldered Greek goddess gown that also
kind of reminds me of Ariel, which is so fun.
(07:56):
My hair they wanted something very dramatic for Tanga, so
we've got four braids on the top of my head
into a high pony. My makeup is green and gold
and super sparkly, really really fun. And then my jewelry.
I'm wearing actually a vintage Paddock Philippe watch that is
(08:19):
absolutely amazing. Shout out to Eric Wynd who sent it
to me. I sent him a picture of my dress
and I said, what's a gold watch that'll go with
this dress? And he sent this one to me and
I am obsessed with it. I'm also wearing, as you
guys know, my friend Jamie Forever fine jewelry. I'm wearing
all of her jewels, and then I've got this nice
(08:39):
little turquoise number that I thought added some much needed color.
But I've also got these gorgeous earrings that are from
Jamie and my rehearsal shoes. These are not like special
night dance shoes. They are the shoes they give us
that we rehearse in all throughout the week. And you
would normally think like, oh, you're going to a fancy
event or your to perform, don't you want a new
(09:01):
pair of shoes. Not when you're dancing on them. You
have to like, our feet are blistered and disgusting. I've
always heard the dancers have ugly feet, and I can
attest dancers have hideous feet. They just do, and now
so do I because I am a dancer. So yeah,
we got our scores. Immediately came off the dance floor
(09:25):
and Alfonso was there, and he was such a nice,
comforting presence. I've known Alfonso for a long time. We
actually have similar career trajectories in the idea that we
were iconic characters who have now tried to make a
name for ourselves outside of just those characters. I'm so
proud of him. I just think the world of him.
(09:45):
So he was a really comforting face to see. Carrie
Anne was so missed. She was sick tonight she's never
missed a show, and she wasn't there tonight, So there
were only two judges, which means our scores were out
of twenty. I knew going into it that the judges
were going to be scoring lower than usual. Derek has
been very upfront about that. On his social media. He
(10:06):
was saying that last year they felt like they came
out of the gate swinging a little hot with high
scores like sevens and eights, and then two, three, four
weeks into the season when the audience can tell that
the celebrities are getting better every single week, but the
scores aren't getting better or they're still only getting sevens
and eights, because can we really give somebody a ten?
(10:28):
And week three, so they said they knew that the
mistake was that they weren't starting low enough that they
needed to be harsher. I honestly told myself going into it,
if you get two fours, just count that like a win. Well,
I actually was thinking it was gonna be three fours,
so I was thinking twelve, and then when I found
(10:49):
out it was two judges, I was like, oh wow,
getting an eight is going to feel really bad, even
though it's only out of twenty. So the fact that
I got two six's, that I got a twelve out
of twenty, I am. Honestly, I'm thrilled. I have no
dance experience. For someone who three weeks ago had never
taken a dance class, to come out and do a
tango and have Derek Cuff and Bruno give me two
(11:10):
sixes feels like an absolute win. So I'm happy about that.
I know they said some very nice compliments about my dancing,
and I love that Derek said it was like a
breath of fresh air. That really means a lot. Keeping
my shoulders down. Yeah, you're preaching to the choir friends.
I have been working on these darned shoulders for a
(11:31):
long time, and Pasha keep saying it too. And I
probably should have reminded myself of the shoulders right before
I went out. Right before I went out, I had
paid attention to my package, which, as you know, Sabrina
Bryan specifically told me, don't watch your package because you
never know what's going to be in there. And I
had watched my package and I saw that it was
about my cancer journey. And I looked over and I
(11:54):
saw that writer and Will and my husband and my kids,
and my mom and my dad and my dad's wife.
We're all sitting in the audience, and I started to
feel myself get emotional, and I was like, Serena told
you not to watch your package. You just watched your package.
Lock in with Pasha. Just lock in with Pasha and
pretend that no one else is here. And that's exactly
(12:15):
what I did. I pretended there was not a single
soul in the place. It was just me and Pasha,
and I was gonna be glued to him and locked
into him, and I was like, wow, Okay, that felt
really good. We finished, and then I felt this huge
surge of relief, like there it's done. And then I
could start feeling all of the feels, and so, yeah,
(12:37):
I was happy with I was happy with their scores.
Would I have liked them to be higher, Sure, But honestly,
watching dance after dance after dance, it is a stacked season.
The competition is fierce. I have been a fan of
this show for a very long time, and without any
disrespect to any other contestants or any other seasons, I
(13:00):
don't remember ever watching a premiere where I'm like, oh, so,
just everybody's better than the next person. Like it's just
every single performance is stellar, and the pros are so
good at bringing out their personality trait, the celeb's personality
traits and letting them shine in their own unique ways.
And we're such a diverse group from all different facets
(13:21):
of the entertainment industry, and we all bring different things
to the table. So it really does just go to
show you how important the voting is, Like that's really
what separates who's going to win and who's going to
go forward the next week is like whether or not
your fans are connecting with you and are making sure
they vote every week. Pasha was really happy with our scores.
(13:55):
Pasha was really happy in general. I always assume he's
being nice to me and that he secretly has more notes,
but he really reiterated to me over and over again
tonight how much he thinks this was by far my
best performance. And the good news for him is that
he now knows for sure, even though he always suspected,
he knows for sure that I thrive under pressure, that
(14:20):
I don't buckle. And that's always the hardest part for
a pro dancer on the first night is you have
no idea how your celeb is going to react. You've
got moving cameras everywhere, pyrotechnics, confetti, their family, and the
audience noises happening at weird times. Everything just feels a
little different, and it's very easy for your knees to
buckle and for you to be like, what am I doing.
(14:40):
As a matter of fact, my dress rehearsal that did happen,
So yesterday we got to do three runs of it.
All three runs of my dance, while not perfect, definitely
things I was like, here are some things I want
to improve on. We're all pretty darn good, and I
had really no nerves. I felt really great. I felt
super locked in, I felt very channeled, I felt like
(15:00):
my energy was focused. I felt great. And then this
morning we came in and we did it two more
times and both of those went pretty well. But at
this point, like I mentioned, as an actor, I'm not
used to having to give it my all. Now I've
done it five times over two days at like almost
one hundred percent, I started to kind of feel that
(15:21):
my one hundred percent was now like an eighty percent
or maybe even a seventy percent, and that was like, okay,
I just need to get to this. I just need
to get to this live show. And then we did
a dress rehearsal. It's the first time, the only time,
you get to dance your dance in your costume, so
of course that feels different. You're now moving, not in
(15:43):
yoga pants or shorts or ten isshoes or socks. You're
in your heels, You're in your very fancy dress. You've
never done any of these steps in this way. And
I made a tiny little mistake that I have never
done before in our dance. I started my spin out
on one count too early. And once I started a
(16:05):
spin out one count too early, I caught up on time,
but that was in my head that I had just
made a mistake. And then that mistake turned into me
not whipping my head at the time that I was
supposed to, So then I'd made a second mistake. Then
that one was in my head, and the next thing
I knew, I was taking a step with the wrong foot.
And of all the rehearsals, the one you don't want
(16:27):
to go terribly is the dress rehearsal. It's like, all
systems go, here's your one last chance to nail it.
And it was the first one that wasn't great, and
then I thought, again, is that gonna be in my head?
Like am I going to be able to overcome this?
That this is? I just had a bad one, and
Pasha was like, let's get it out of our system,
(16:48):
like come over here, let's practice. We practiced again. I
got it and I was like, Okay, I feel pretty good.
So I was super relieved that the live show. Although
if I were to watch back, I'm sure I would
find flow and what I did, but I was super
happy that, like I didn't take a wrong step, I
didn't hit something at the wrong time at least, you know,
my shoulders may have been up, but everything else was
(17:10):
pretty darn good. The amount of dances, I mean, Hilaria
Baldwin's salsa is she could be a pro, Like she
could easily be out there as a professional dancer. It's unbelievable.
And today was Gleb's birthday, Happy Birthday, Clob, so we
celebrated him. I think tomorrow is Scott's birthday, so we
(17:32):
celebrated him as well. We have lots of birthdays. The
Sunday is BRIT's birthday. We got to seeing Happy Birthday
and there were some cakes and it was really nice.
But yeah, I mean Ezra and Jordan, I mean starting
off the night is no easy feat. I feel like
their scores were definitely lower than they should have been.
They got two fives, and I mean she's just spectacular,
(17:57):
so that in performance was incredible. I am still yet
to see Robert's dance, which just feels like such a shame.
How have I not seen it? I heard it was amazing,
I heard the feedback, I heard the scores. I'm desperate
to see it. I can't wait to go home and
watch the tape and see what everybody's dances look like
on camera. Elaine Hendrix so inspiring, so beautiful, moves so well.
(18:22):
I just absolutely love her. Whitney Levitt, are you kidding me?
With that grace and that elegance and that long, beautiful neck.
Nobody told her to keep her shoulders down because she's
just so graceful. And I love that song. Choice Golden
is obviously everyone's favorite song right now, so I thought
that was really smart. Andy Richter his booty slapping, he's
(18:45):
so funny. Baron Davis, his personality's got that big smile.
He's dancing, he looked so great. Honestly, I'm also not
I'm impressed with all of the celebrities, but what this
experience has really shown me these professional dancers who take
those of us who some of us have experienced, some
(19:07):
of us don't, but they just find ways to make
us shine every single week, and they take a back seat.
I think the biggest compliment Pasha has ever given me
is the last couple of days, while we were rehearsing,
he'd be like watching video and he'd be zooming in
and I'd be looking at him, like, Wow, you're really
(19:28):
really trying to find something wrong. Huh, Like what are
you looking at? And he said, oh, no, no, I'm sorry,
I'm not looking at you. Right now, I actually get
to dance with you, like I get to do a
performance because I don't have to worry about you. He said,
you're balanced, You're on your own foot. He's like, and
so now I'm judging my own performance and I'm finding
(19:48):
ways to make what I do better. And I like
knowing he felt comfortable and he felt that he was
able to do. That was the biggest compliment and made
me so happy. I really just wanted to make him proud. Tonight,
I think I did. It was a really great night
my kids. I can't believe my six and my four
(20:09):
year old were able to make it the whole two hours.
I did see them plugging their ears a couple of
times because boy, those confetti cannons are loud, but it
was fun. They got on the floor, they were picking
up confetti and tossing it. And then when they left,
I said goodbye to them, and my youngest Keaton said, Mommy,
two things, One I love you and two I really
(20:31):
like your dancing, which just made my heart burst. So
I can't wait to keep doing this. Next week is
a double elimination, which makes me very nervous. I don't
want two people to go home. I don't want one
of those people to be me. I hope one of
those people is not me. Tomorrow, I'm back at the
(20:53):
rehearsal space Bright and Early Tango is in my rearview mirror.
I have to let go anything I didn't nail with
that one and try to tackle a new dance, which
I'm very much looking forward to. We're going to do
a Latin dance, so it's going to be spicy. Pasha
really wants to bring out like a different side of
my personality every week. So today was a little intense tango.
(21:18):
Next week, I think we want to be a little spicy,
a little hot, and we'll see, we'll see what we
have in store for tonight. I am nursing some injuries.
My leg is extremely swollen. My hamstring is battered, like
truly battered. I am going to go home. I'm going
(21:40):
to ice for twenty minutes. Then I'm going to take
a lukewarm epsom salt bath for twenty minutes, and then
I'm going to ice again for twenty minutes, and I'm
going to take an ibuprofen before bed. And then tomorrow
I will wake up and I will put back on
my compression leggings to help with my swelling, and I
will start dancing my second week dance in my compression leggings,
(22:01):
which have become my best friend and also my mortal enemy.
I feel really ready for week two. I'm excited about it.
I'm ready to like wake up and be like, okay,
starting from scratch, show me something else. I think We've
got a couple of tricks up our sleeve. I'm mostly
just hoping that my right hamstring is not a main
(22:22):
player in next week's dance. I already know some tricks
that we're going to do for next week, and it
seems as though my right hamstring will get a little
bit of a break, which is all I'm asking for
right now. My back will not though. I think we're uh.
I think we're going to incorporate another big dip. We
had a big dip at the end of tonight's dance,
which was really fun. I think we're going to incorporate
(22:44):
another big dip into next week's dance too, So we'll see.
Next time you hear from me, I will be sitting
with the one and only Maxim Schmerkovski. I cannot wait
to talk to him. He will have watched my performance.
I want to hear what his thoughts are. I can't
(23:05):
wait for him to give me some notes. Yeah, so
that'll be really fun. I'm looking forward to seeing you
all next time. Thank you for watching. If you've voted,
thank you, Thank you so much. It's a little wonky
the way the voting system works. It's only live on
the East Coast, so it is live on the East
Coast from eight pm to ten pm East Coast time.
(23:26):
On the West Coast, voting is only open five to
seven pm, but yet you cannot watch the show anywhere
from five to seven pm, so you have to vote
without seeing the dances, which is weird. It really then
does just become you voting for your favorites, and maybe
(23:46):
you're voting from their previous week's dance, and you know,
it's very interesting, but that's how it works. I hope
you guys voted for me. I really appreciate all your support.
I have loved every single second of this. Loved doing
this podcast and sharing behind the scenes stuff with you.
I can't wait to do more of it as these
weeks go on. Hopefully I stick around for a really
(24:08):
long time. I don't know if you guys can tell,
but I have been delivered the most gorgeous flower arrangements
and I haven't had a chance to open them, so
I don't even know who they're from. I haven't been
able to send any thank yous. I've barely had time
to respond to things on social media. Thank you so
much for all the feedback on the social media too.
We have been on Faija. We have been doing so
(24:31):
many tiktoks, so many reels. I didn't know I had
it in me to be to be so present in
the social media world, but boy, has it ever been fun?
And I give so much credit to that to Pasha
because he's also a genius at that. Like, is there
anything the guy can't do? Please have a flaw? Oh God, seriously,
(24:52):
don't be so perfect all the time. All Right, thank
you all for listening to this episode of Danielle with
the Stars. I will see you next time with Maxim Schmerkovsky.
Danielle with the Stars produced and hosted by Danielle Fischel.
Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge
of production Danielle Romo, Producer, editor and engineer Tara Sudbasch.
(25:13):
Theme song by Justin Siegel. Follow us on Instagram at
Danielle with Stars and vote for me
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