October 22, 2025 • 28 mins
It was pure magic in the ballroom as the stars danced to songs of Wicked, and Danielle landed her highest score of the season with FOUR NINES.
It was her breakthrough redemption moment with an Argentine Tango to “No Good Deed” that had everyone on the edge of their seats.
Find out what happened during dress rehearsal that could have been a bloody mess during the live show!
Danielle breaks down her week of training leading up to her mom exception by moment yet, on a brand new episode of Danielle with the Stars…
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Hello, Danielle with the Stars gang. It's Danielle Fishal podcaster,
TV director, mother of two and to Panga Lawrence, daughter
of Jedediah and Rhianna and Lawrence from the TV show
Boy Meets World.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
But if you're listening to.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Me right now, you are well aware that I am
also an aspiring ballroom dancer on season thirty four of
Dancing with the Stars and a student of shiz University.
Because it was wicked night, and despite having no prior
dance experience, I have now completely submitted my body and
(00:49):
well being to the art form and institution of dance
alongside my partner, the incredible Pasha Pashkov, and included in
this commitment has been a podcast set in motion to
share my first hand experience with you, and it's called
Danielle with the Stars. You'll write along as I avoid
total body breakdown, learn new dances every week, and stare
(01:12):
longingly at the Len Goodman Mirror Ball Trophy like a
dog at the window of Ruth's. Chris and I am
joining you now fresh off the press line of what
was a jam packed night of action, fancy footwork, incredible sets,
fantastic music, and it was Wicked night, I danced the
(01:35):
Argentine tango to the song No Good Deed, as featured
in both the musical Wicked and Part two for Good.
I was nine out of ten to perform tonight. I
really felt a lot of pressure for tonight's dance last week,
(01:57):
felt like getting that feedback, specifically from Carrie Anne that
she thought our dances looked the same, and I totally
knew what she meant, and I really wanted to have
exactly what she called tonight, which was my breakthrough dance
and my breakthrough night. I really wanted to have a
breakthrough week, and I knew that we were getting to
(02:21):
the point in the competition where if I didn't have one,
it was possible, it was just never going to happen.
And I knew it was possible, Like I knew it
was possible. I knew I could do it. I knew
I had it in me. I knew Pasha was capable of,
you know, doing some fantastic choreography to a number that
would really help me feel like I had a total breakthrough.
(02:43):
And so I just really wanted it to be this week,
and I felt a lot of pressure for it to
be this week. And when I saw Pasha's choreography and
I saw all the lifts, and I was like, I've
never done anything like this before. Nobody has ever picked
me up other than being, you know, a five foot
one woman who people sometimes will hug and then pick up.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And I'm like, okay, any want to be picked up?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I have never done lifts like that. Like, I didn't
know what to expect. I didn't know what my role
in it was supposed to be, Like, how do I
help you? Help you help me? How do I do that?
I didn't know. And I felt at the very beginning
of the week like I was just a sack of
potatoes and it was. None of the moves were looking good,
(03:26):
none of the lifts were looking great and truly full.
Two days into rehearsing the routine and I was like,
this doesn't look good. I'm not sure we have a
dance here. Pasha never gave up on me. He never
felt like there was something we couldn't do. He just
kept challenging me, and every day a new body part hurt.
(03:51):
I have like some very sore ribs and some sore
skin around my ribs from where he was, you know,
having to grip me for.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
All of the lifts.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
They realized very quickly that lifts, as much as they
are on the man to actually pick you up, so
much of a lift is actually in the woman and
being able to have your shoulders down and your lats
engaged and your chest engaged. And when you do that
and your one solid piece, it makes it significantly easier
(04:21):
for them to pick you up and move you instead
of being like a bunch of individual body parts.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
That requires a lot of strength.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And I told Jensen, my husband, on one of the
first days of this new week, I said, imagine that
feeling when you've gone to the gym or you've done
a really hard workout and one or two parts of
your body are just incredibly sore, like fatigued to one
hundred percent you have maxed them out. Then normally, if
(04:55):
you are just working out for health and wellness, you
move on to other body parts. Don't go back to
those same body parts. You don't do biceps on Wednesday
and then biceps on Thursday and then biceps on Friday.
You do in dance like we're doing these same moves
over and over again, seven days a week. So whatever
little sore spots you have, whether it's your ribs or
(05:16):
it's your hamstrings, or it's your neck or your shoulder.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Guess what.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
You get a night's rest and you get to take
some advil and you get to go to sleep and
maybe take an ep, some saltpath, maybe do a cold plunge.
But tomorrow you are back at it, hitting that body
part again with those same exact moves for four plus hours.
It is just I did not realize how much I
(05:42):
did not recognize what dancers put their bodies through.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It is a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And we had our share of struggles this week. Pasha's
his hamstrings were bothering him. We had the quick step
in the jive the two weeks prior to that, so
both of us were doing lots of little flicks and
kicks and la of runs, and then we have this stance,
which is, you know, he's doing a lot of lyfts,
so he's in a lot of squats, He's doing a
(06:07):
lot of squats, and everything was, everything was hurting, And
there was at one point on I think it was Sunday,
we went to do the routine full out one hundred
percent and my left peck muscle hurts so bad that
I had to stop, and I said, We're going to
(06:28):
have to be really strategic here, because right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Now I'm in so much pain.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
The thought of trying to do that move again is
making me shake, Like I'm so scared to feel the
pain that I'm going to feel. And I don't want
to do this because it's Sunday, and like I could
what if I really hurt myself right now and then
Monday camera blocking, I can't do it, or even worse,
Tuesday show day, I can't do it. And so Pasha said,
(06:56):
you're right, we need to be smart about this.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Stop.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Let's stop doing all the tricks. Let's not worry about
the tricks for the rest of the night. Let's just
clean and focus on everything that isn't a lyft.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Let's do the whole.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Routine top to bottoms, marking as much as you can
the lifts, and focus on everything else. And so we
spent the next like hour and a half just doing that,
and I actually took a leave during that time. It
took an hour to an hour and a half off
and by the time we got to that hour and
a half, I said, what time is it? And he said,
it's about eight thirty PM, and our rehearsal was over
(07:30):
at nine and I said, I think I feel okay
to try one all the way through with the tricks,
I think, and he said already sure, and I was like.
I did some stretches and I was like, yeah, I
feel significantly better. My anxiety about the end, like about
hurting myself, is now gone. And when I touched the muscle,
I feel okay, let's try it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And we were able to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It was really good. We felt super confident about it
all of that time. That hour hour and a half
time we spent focusing on the stuff that wasn't the
lifts did not go to waste. The dance looked so
great after that one. We still had some things we
needed to fix, of course, but at least at nine
pm when we finished, we had done it top to bottom,
(08:13):
including the lifts, and I was really happy that we
spent all that downtime letting me heal and cleaning everything
that wasn't a lift. So anyway, this week was not
an easy week. It was especially not an easy week
for Pasha, and I'm really very very.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Proud of us.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
We had our highest scores of the season last week.
We had seven seven, seven, eight, and this week.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
We had four nines.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I did not go into tonight even really thinking about scores.
I really just went in thinking about feedback and like
what I wanted the feedback to be. And the one
thing that I feel like I really kept saying to
myself was like my goal was that I wanted someone
to say or to feel like this was a breakthrough dance,
(09:04):
because I had that in my mind and I had
that pressure on me all week. And so the minute
Carrie Anne said that she felt like this was a
breakthrough dance for me, I felt really very touched. And
then at the end of the night, something nobody got
to see is while we were standing on the floors
right before elimination, the judges were all standing at their tables,
(09:27):
and Carrie Anne looked at me and she smiled.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
At me, and she said, I'm really proud of you.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And it really meant a lot, Like it really really
really meant a lot, and I just want to keep
getting better every week. So the fact that she gave
me that note last week and then recognized how hard
we worked to get to this point is like just
the most satisfying feeling when people recognize your hard work
for what it is. This week, with hair, makeup, wardrobe,
(10:09):
everything was a sharp departure. We had completely slicked back hair,
tight bun.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
You know they actually sew our hair into itself. This
is not an exaggeration. And there's like a hook. It
looks like a fishing hook and you put the thread
in it and they just like curve it into your
bun and then into your scalp and out and they
sew it down so that it doesn't go anywhere. That's
how I'm able to be upside down and in the
(10:41):
splits and swung around in the air without that hair moving. Also,
as you can tell by my glorious look here, the
hair spray they use is not quite hair spray as
much as it is glue, just straight up glue, so
your hair is basically shellacked and glued to your head.
I thought the makeup this week was just I mean,
(11:02):
my makeup every week is so great. My makeup artist
is a woman named Lois on the show, and she
also works on Electric Bloom. She does some of the
makeup on Electric Bloom. So that's really fun because I
know her and I work with her she's used to
seeing me as a director. I think she killed it
this week. Kimmy is who did my hair, and she
did an upside down braid. So she started with me
in the chair. I tipped my head upside down. She
(11:24):
braided my hair upside down. Then they put that into
a ponytail. They had separated the crown of my hair
into a bunch of little sections, and then just like
peace at a time, they comb it back and spray
it down and make sure it's super sleek. I never
wear my hair like that. I never wear all my
hair pulled back, as you guys know because you see
me all the time. But I got so many compliments
(11:46):
on the hair and makeup and wardrobe tonight. Daniella the
head costumer here at Dancing with the Stars, Oh my gosh,
they are so amazing, and a thought who does the tailoring?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Ever?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Here in Nadej who does the body makeup. It is
a full hands on effort to make us look like
we look on Dancing with the Stars. It is all
hands on deck and it's so cool and it's so
fun and the process is great. Tonight, I wore fish
nets in my dance. Fish Nets were a last literally
(12:23):
a last second edition. I was going to be bare legged.
And then we did our dress rehearsal and Danny suggested
to Pasha that I wear fish nets. And also I
got a suggestion of fish nets from an executive on
the show, and the executive said, would you be open
to trying it for the dress rehearsal and I said, yeah,
(12:46):
why not, I'd love it. And so we put on
the fish nets that have like the seam down the back,
and it just really added to the whole look. And
I knew after then watching the dress rehearsal and seeing
what it looked like, I was like, Yeah, the fish
nets were the way to go. And I asked Danny tonight,
I said, I gotta be honest, I was a little
insecure when I heard that you also suggested that I.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Should wear fish nets.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Did you just think that my legs didn't look good?
And she goes, no, I know from myself that if
I'm having to do a lot of lifts and splits
and i feel like I'm showing too much skin, I
will hold back. And she said, and I didn't want
you to be holding anything back tonight, And She's right.
(13:34):
I didn't even think about it. But after I put
the fish nets on, I just felt more contained and
confident in what I was wearing, and I didn't feel
like I had to be concerned about any of the
tricks we were doing.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
So that was really great. I will say that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
During dress rehearsal, my nose in that last trick came millimeters.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Away from the ballroom floor.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
There was something about the momentum that we did during
dress rehearsal of the spin where I was up in
the air above, you know, on Pasha's shoulder, and he's
spinning around and.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
He had all that momentum. He didn't slow down at all.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
He went from full momentum to just rolling me forward
down toward my nose, and he did not have a
great grip on me. And I saw my life flash
before my eyes as the hardwood floor came, I'm not
kidding you, this close to my face. And at the
(14:40):
very last second when I was like, oh, I'm still
moving in my head because we've been practicing this move
all week and normally there's like a very hard stop,
and today I was like.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Oh gosh, Oh my gosh, I'm still getting closed to
the book.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Then the floor was like right here, at the very
last second, I put my hand down like this, and
then I realized I wasn't moving anymore so and then I
went back into position. And afterward Pashua I was like,
what happened? And Pasha was like, I'm sorry. Your back
wasn't as much to me as it needed to be
and I barely had a grip on you. And he's like,
but I promise you I will not drop you. So
(15:16):
no matter what happens tonight during the live show, do
not put your hands down, stick your landing, and I
will not drop you. And I said, I know you
won't drop me. I completely trust you. And he said, good,
worst case scenario, I'll pay for your nose job. And
I was like, well, nothing has filled me with more
(15:37):
confidence than that. So we got out there and we
did it. I'm really happy. I haven't been able to
read any comments, I haven't been able to watch to
watch our dance.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I don't even know what it looked like. I know
what it felt like.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I can tell you I have never felt more present
in my body than I did tonight. I would say
tonight is the first time I actually felt like a dancer,
like I really felt like a dance tonight. I felt
like a dancer who knew what she was doing and
who was in a place that I was supposed to be.
And that was very exciting and it was thrilling and
(16:15):
makes me just want to be even better week after
week after week. Having John m Two there Wicked, the
director of Wicked and Crazy Rich Asians.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I'm such a fan of his as a director. He
was so nice. I thought his.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Commentary and his critiques were so smart. His one of
his first comments being about transitions, and I was like,
oh my gosh, like, yes, he really knows what he's
talking about. That's super exciting. He's really smart. He was
really great guest judge. I thought he gave he tied
in the storyline of the movie really well into his critiques.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I just thought he added so much.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I really think tonight, as the themes go, you could
tell how excited everyone was for the Wicked theme. You
could tell that people from the moment they knew that
this was on the menu for a list of things
to do, people were thinking like, Oh, I just really
want to make it to Wicked night. I thought all
the dances were amazing. I thought everybody really leveled up.
(17:19):
I didn't get to see a ton of other dances
this week before leading up to ours. I had seen
bits and pieces of Ezra and Jordan's, which I knew
was great, and I'm so happy that they got tends tonight.
Jordan just really killed that rumba, and I know how
hard that dance is, and I know that she was
feeling nervous about that dance, and she and Ezra just
(17:44):
knocked it out of the park, and so I'm really
happy for them. I saw Robert's dance right before I
saw it during dress rehearsal, and then I saw him
right before we went out, and I said, how are
you feeling about tonight?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And he said, you know, I'm really nervous. I said more.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Nervous tonight, and He's like, yeah, I'm more nervous tonight
than usual. And I said why, what is it? And
he said, I just I'm not used to dealing with props.
And I said, but you did it so well. It
looked so seamless, and I knew that he was nervous
specifically about those props. So when John said it is
not easy for actors to work with props, they can
get lost in them. I know that note meant so
(18:24):
much to Robert because he had been nervous about it
and he'd been working on it so much. So I'm
really proud of him. He just did such a phenomenal job.
Of course, my alliance partner, Dylan and Danny, I thought
they did a fantastic, fantastic job tonight. I know somebody,
(18:46):
I think maybe Carrie Anne mentioned that Dylan's foot had
gotten a little stuck, and then sure enough, when Dylan
came off the dance water, he was like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
My foot got a little stuck over there.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
But I thought that dance was beautiful. Apparently a rumba
is very very hard. I don't know if we're even
gonna I don't even know if we get to do
it this season, but apparently it's a very hard dance.
But I thought the two of them tonight, both of
them were incredible rumbas. Ah Man, the elimination part of
(19:24):
the night, the part where we all lined up on
the dance floor, and I looked at Pasha and I said, man,
this part sucks.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It just you know all night.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Somehow you're really able to kind of put the fact
that there was an elimination behind you. Because I'm only
gonna speak for myself, I'm assuming it's the same for everybody,
But I cannot believe how in the moment I am
watching everybody else dance, I'm so excited genuinely to see
what they have been working on all week, because I
(19:54):
know now firsthand how hard what our days are like,
and how so little time we have for anything else,
for our families, for any sort of social life.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
There's just there's very little.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Time, and I know how difficult it is. And so
then to watch my friends, my new friends, completely come
to life in the most beautiful ballroom with incredible sets
and pyrotechnics and these incredible professional dancers. Can we talk
about Troop for a second. Can we talk about Hayley
(20:27):
and Anne and Jackson and Carter. I. I am mesmerized
by each and every one of them. Every week they
come out and they are pouring their souls out on
the dance floor. And here's a little BTS thing. We
(20:48):
have to film a wide which is like our full
dance from beginning to end, one hundred percent by Thursday.
The week starts on Wednesday, so within forty eight hours
they want us to be at a one hundred percent
both performance and the steps and the dance, so that
the director can start fill the director of Dancing with
the Stars can start working on his shots and figuring
(21:09):
out how he's going to shoot every person's dance. A
lot of times the celebrities are not at one hundred percent.
Forty eight hours later, we're just not. We may know
some of the steps, but we can't perform all of them,
and you don't get a lot of opportunities. You don't
get to shoot your wide a bunch of times. You
really need to be able to.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Pretty much maybe two times max.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Be able to go beginning to end on your first
or second take, and that's pretty much it. So because
of that, because I may not be ready to shoot
my wide, Pasha will say I'm going to go teach
the dance to Anye or I'm going to go teach
the dance to Haley, and then they're going to record
a wide for the director, and then I just get
to go back into my rehearsal. When I tell you,
(21:51):
it takes them like thirty minutes to learn the entire routine,
to learn the entire dance, and then I get to
have that video on my phone and I just get
to watch them and they're beautiful dancer bodies and the
things that they do, and I get to go.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Oh, I should be doing more of that.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
I have learned so much from all these pros and
this troop. I just can't say enough wonderful things about them.
They are incredible and I just am so inspired by
them every week. I think they're one of the best
troops I've ever seen. For me, in the audience tonight,
I had my husband, of course, Jensen, there to support me.
(22:33):
I also had my long time hairdresser Lori Heaps and
my longtime makeup artist Julie Cuomo in the audience for me.
And then I had some of my parent friends, some
friends of ours that we know because our kids are
friends and our friendship has now transcended the kid relationships.
(22:54):
They're just people that I love and adore. So Daniel
and Erica were there, my friends Michelle and Poria were there.
And then I know that in order to win a
championship myself, I must be surrounded by champions, So I
invited my friend WWE legend Charlotte Flair to come and
(23:16):
visit me in the ballroom and she came tonight and
she had a really good time, and I, boy, I
tell you, I think she would be pretty darn incredible
on Dancing with the Stars. Trying to think should probably
be Really, she'd be great paired with Brandon. Brandon's tall,
he's super strong. I think Brandon and Charlotte would make
(23:39):
an incredible pair. I really love Charlotte. I think she's
so smart, she's really vulnerable. She wrote an article about
her life and her brother and her dad and her
own wrestling legacy and career recently that was very touching
and very moving to me, and I reached out to
her to tell her how special I thought it was,
(24:01):
and it sparked up a friendship in us and we
started communicating back and forth. And so this week I thought,
I wonder if she happens to be in town, and
it turns out she was. So she came tonight and
it really meant a lot to have her there, and
I think she had a lot of fun, which means
a lot. So the jewelry I'm wearing this week, well,
I was supposed to be wearing some jade green beautiful
(24:23):
rings from my friend Jamie at Forever Fine Jewels, but
they stayed in Jensen's backpack and I never got to
put them on. But I am wearing her ear crawler,
this mixed ear crawler that you guys have seen me
wear before. I'm also wearing.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
The same earring I wore last week from the lou Collective,
which you guys know.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I decided for this week. I didn't wear a watch
during the dance because I had so many times where
I had to wrap my arm around Pasha's neck and
I didn't want like a heavy watch digging into him.
But my watch of the week, because it's so perfect
for Wicked, I broke out my personal collection Rolex Cosmograph Daytona,
(25:11):
lovingly known as the John Mayer one point zero. It
has an iconic green dial and a yellow gold case,
and I thought it was perfect in honor of Wicked.
So I hope there's another opportunity for me to bust
that watch out and wear it actually on the ballroom floor.
But it is the watch I chose for this Wicked week. Also,
(25:33):
I am wearing this ring designed by the one and
only Dolly at XO, the Biju Box XO. It is
a over two hundred year old old mine cut diamond
surrounded by over two hundred year old rose cut diamonds.
(25:55):
They were all taken out of a brooch she hand
forged this. She has a line called her xod so
XO Dolly so her xod line. If you can see
the detail on this, it's just absolutely stunning. Was really
excited to bust this one out. Felt extra special for
Wicked Night, and now I'm looking onward to Halloween. Pasha
(26:16):
and I have a really great creative idea that we're
putting into play for next week. And next week guest
judge Cheryl Burke. So excited to see her back in
the ballroom. Can't wait to hear what her critiques and
thoughts are on all of the performances. And I have
a big announcement. Cheryl will be joining me on Danielle
(26:41):
with the Stars this Friday as she preps for her
big night. She is a legend in the ballroom and
I am honored to not only talk to her, but
to have her watch me dance dream come true. Can't
wait to hear her thoughts and remember that another legend,
former pro Sharna Burgess, will share her Wicked Night thoughts
and score Thursday Morning from what we're calling the fourth
(27:04):
Chair even I'm excited to hear that. Just find the
dedicated Danielle with the Stars podcast feed and subscribe so
you can get that as soon as it is released.
I really, I so appreciate your support. I've read so
many of your comments. I saw so many of you
just rooting for me and really hoping that tonight and
(27:26):
Tonight's dance was going to be that breakthrough moment we
all knew that I really needed. And I feel very
proud that I feel like I had that moment, and
I hope I made all of you proud as well.
And I hope that all of you who have been
supporting me felt victorious tonight, and I want you to
know that you had a hand in it, your support,
(27:49):
your votes, your encouragement, your just really I can feel it.
I can feel it around me, and so thank you.
This is we were able to do what we did
tonight in part because of you. So thank you to
all of you who listen and who vote and who
are on team Topasha. I really appreciate you all. So
(28:13):
next week got a hard act to follow after this one,
but for now I will just revel in these four
nines and tomorrow I'll get back to work. I'll see
you guys next time.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
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 Sudbosch.
Theme song by Justin Siegel. Follow us on Instagram at
Danielle with Stars and vote for me
Hello, Danielle with the Stars gang. It's Danielle Fishal podcaster,
TV director, mother of two and to Panga Lawrence, daughter
of Jedediah and Rhianna and Lawrence from the TV show
Boy Meets World.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
But if you're listening to.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
Me right now, you are well aware that I am
also an aspiring ballroom dancer on season thirty four of
Dancing with the Stars and a student of shiz University.
Because it was wicked night, and despite having no prior
dance experience, I have now completely submitted my body and
(00:49):
well being to the art form and institution of dance
alongside my partner, the incredible Pasha Pashkov, and included in
this commitment has been a podcast set in motion to
share my first hand experience with you, and it's called
Danielle with the Stars. You'll write along as I avoid
total body breakdown, learn new dances every week, and stare
(01:12):
longingly at the Len Goodman Mirror Ball Trophy like a
dog at the window of Ruth's. Chris and I am
joining you now fresh off the press line of what
was a jam packed night of action, fancy footwork, incredible sets,
fantastic music, and it was Wicked night, I danced the
(01:35):
Argentine tango to the song No Good Deed, as featured
in both the musical Wicked and Part two for Good.
I was nine out of ten to perform tonight. I
really felt a lot of pressure for tonight's dance last week,
(01:57):
felt like getting that feedback, specifically from Carrie Anne that
she thought our dances looked the same, and I totally
knew what she meant, and I really wanted to have
exactly what she called tonight, which was my breakthrough dance
and my breakthrough night. I really wanted to have a
breakthrough week, and I knew that we were getting to
(02:21):
the point in the competition where if I didn't have one,
it was possible, it was just never going to happen.
And I knew it was possible, Like I knew it
was possible. I knew I could do it. I knew
I had it in me. I knew Pasha was capable of,
you know, doing some fantastic choreography to a number that
would really help me feel like I had a total breakthrough.
(02:43):
And so I just really wanted it to be this week,
and I felt a lot of pressure for it to
be this week. And when I saw Pasha's choreography and
I saw all the lifts, and I was like, I've
never done anything like this before. Nobody has ever picked
me up other than being, you know, a five foot
one woman who people sometimes will hug and then pick up.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
And I'm like, okay, any want to be picked up?
Speaker 1 (03:04):
I have never done lifts like that. Like, I didn't
know what to expect. I didn't know what my role
in it was supposed to be, Like, how do I
help you? Help you help me? How do I do that?
I didn't know. And I felt at the very beginning
of the week like I was just a sack of
potatoes and it was. None of the moves were looking good,
(03:26):
none of the lifts were looking great and truly full.
Two days into rehearsing the routine and I was like,
this doesn't look good. I'm not sure we have a
dance here. Pasha never gave up on me. He never
felt like there was something we couldn't do. He just
kept challenging me, and every day a new body part hurt.
(03:51):
I have like some very sore ribs and some sore
skin around my ribs from where he was, you know,
having to grip me for.
Speaker 2 (03:58):
All of the lifts.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
They realized very quickly that lifts, as much as they
are on the man to actually pick you up, so
much of a lift is actually in the woman and
being able to have your shoulders down and your lats
engaged and your chest engaged. And when you do that
and your one solid piece, it makes it significantly easier
(04:21):
for them to pick you up and move you instead
of being like a bunch of individual body parts.
Speaker 2 (04:28):
That requires a lot of strength.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
And I told Jensen, my husband, on one of the
first days of this new week, I said, imagine that
feeling when you've gone to the gym or you've done
a really hard workout and one or two parts of
your body are just incredibly sore, like fatigued to one
hundred percent you have maxed them out. Then normally, if
(04:55):
you are just working out for health and wellness, you
move on to other body parts. Don't go back to
those same body parts. You don't do biceps on Wednesday
and then biceps on Thursday and then biceps on Friday.
You do in dance like we're doing these same moves
over and over again, seven days a week. So whatever
little sore spots you have, whether it's your ribs or
(05:16):
it's your hamstrings, or it's your neck or your shoulder.
Speaker 2 (05:19):
Guess what.
Speaker 1 (05:20):
You get a night's rest and you get to take
some advil and you get to go to sleep and
maybe take an ep, some saltpath, maybe do a cold plunge.
But tomorrow you are back at it, hitting that body
part again with those same exact moves for four plus hours.
It is just I did not realize how much I
(05:42):
did not recognize what dancers put their bodies through.
Speaker 2 (05:44):
It is a lot.
Speaker 1 (05:46):
And we had our share of struggles this week. Pasha's
his hamstrings were bothering him. We had the quick step
in the jive the two weeks prior to that, so
both of us were doing lots of little flicks and
kicks and la of runs, and then we have this stance,
which is, you know, he's doing a lot of lyfts,
so he's in a lot of squats, He's doing a
(06:07):
lot of squats, and everything was, everything was hurting, And
there was at one point on I think it was Sunday,
we went to do the routine full out one hundred
percent and my left peck muscle hurts so bad that
I had to stop, and I said, We're going to
(06:28):
have to be really strategic here, because right.
Speaker 2 (06:30):
Now I'm in so much pain.
Speaker 1 (06:33):
The thought of trying to do that move again is
making me shake, Like I'm so scared to feel the
pain that I'm going to feel. And I don't want
to do this because it's Sunday, and like I could
what if I really hurt myself right now and then
Monday camera blocking, I can't do it, or even worse,
Tuesday show day, I can't do it. And so Pasha said,
(06:56):
you're right, we need to be smart about this.
Speaker 2 (06:59):
Stop.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Let's stop doing all the tricks. Let's not worry about
the tricks for the rest of the night. Let's just
clean and focus on everything that isn't a lyft.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Let's do the whole.
Speaker 1 (07:10):
Routine top to bottoms, marking as much as you can
the lifts, and focus on everything else. And so we
spent the next like hour and a half just doing that,
and I actually took a leave during that time. It
took an hour to an hour and a half off
and by the time we got to that hour and
a half, I said, what time is it? And he said,
it's about eight thirty PM, and our rehearsal was over
(07:30):
at nine and I said, I think I feel okay
to try one all the way through with the tricks,
I think, and he said already sure, and I was like.
I did some stretches and I was like, yeah, I
feel significantly better. My anxiety about the end, like about
hurting myself, is now gone. And when I touched the muscle,
I feel okay, let's try it.
Speaker 2 (07:51):
And we were able to do it.
Speaker 1 (07:53):
It was really good. We felt super confident about it
all of that time. That hour hour and a half
time we spent focusing on the stuff that wasn't the
lifts did not go to waste. The dance looked so
great after that one. We still had some things we
needed to fix, of course, but at least at nine
pm when we finished, we had done it top to bottom,
(08:13):
including the lifts, and I was really happy that we
spent all that downtime letting me heal and cleaning everything
that wasn't a lift. So anyway, this week was not
an easy week. It was especially not an easy week
for Pasha, and I'm really very very.
Speaker 2 (08:29):
Proud of us.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
We had our highest scores of the season last week.
We had seven seven, seven, eight, and this week.
Speaker 2 (08:40):
We had four nines.
Speaker 1 (08:44):
I did not go into tonight even really thinking about scores.
I really just went in thinking about feedback and like
what I wanted the feedback to be. And the one
thing that I feel like I really kept saying to
myself was like my goal was that I wanted someone
to say or to feel like this was a breakthrough dance,
(09:04):
because I had that in my mind and I had
that pressure on me all week. And so the minute
Carrie Anne said that she felt like this was a
breakthrough dance for me, I felt really very touched. And
then at the end of the night, something nobody got
to see is while we were standing on the floors
right before elimination, the judges were all standing at their tables,
(09:27):
and Carrie Anne looked at me and she smiled.
Speaker 2 (09:30):
At me, and she said, I'm really proud of you.
Speaker 1 (09:33):
And it really meant a lot, Like it really really
really meant a lot, and I just want to keep
getting better every week. So the fact that she gave
me that note last week and then recognized how hard
we worked to get to this point is like just
the most satisfying feeling when people recognize your hard work
for what it is. This week, with hair, makeup, wardrobe,
(10:09):
everything was a sharp departure. We had completely slicked back hair,
tight bun.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1 (10:19):
You know they actually sew our hair into itself. This
is not an exaggeration. And there's like a hook. It
looks like a fishing hook and you put the thread
in it and they just like curve it into your
bun and then into your scalp and out and they
sew it down so that it doesn't go anywhere. That's
how I'm able to be upside down and in the
(10:41):
splits and swung around in the air without that hair moving. Also,
as you can tell by my glorious look here, the
hair spray they use is not quite hair spray as
much as it is glue, just straight up glue, so
your hair is basically shellacked and glued to your head.
I thought the makeup this week was just I mean,
(11:02):
my makeup every week is so great. My makeup artist
is a woman named Lois on the show, and she
also works on Electric Bloom. She does some of the
makeup on Electric Bloom. So that's really fun because I
know her and I work with her she's used to
seeing me as a director. I think she killed it
this week. Kimmy is who did my hair, and she
did an upside down braid. So she started with me
in the chair. I tipped my head upside down. She
(11:24):
braided my hair upside down. Then they put that into
a ponytail. They had separated the crown of my hair
into a bunch of little sections, and then just like
peace at a time, they comb it back and spray
it down and make sure it's super sleek. I never
wear my hair like that. I never wear all my
hair pulled back, as you guys know because you see
me all the time. But I got so many compliments
(11:46):
on the hair and makeup and wardrobe tonight. Daniella the
head costumer here at Dancing with the Stars, Oh my gosh,
they are so amazing, and a thought who does the tailoring?
Speaker 2 (12:00):
Ever?
Speaker 1 (12:00):
Here in Nadej who does the body makeup. It is
a full hands on effort to make us look like
we look on Dancing with the Stars. It is all
hands on deck and it's so cool and it's so
fun and the process is great. Tonight, I wore fish
nets in my dance. Fish Nets were a last literally
(12:23):
a last second edition. I was going to be bare legged.
And then we did our dress rehearsal and Danny suggested
to Pasha that I wear fish nets. And also I
got a suggestion of fish nets from an executive on
the show, and the executive said, would you be open
to trying it for the dress rehearsal and I said, yeah,
(12:46):
why not, I'd love it. And so we put on
the fish nets that have like the seam down the back,
and it just really added to the whole look. And
I knew after then watching the dress rehearsal and seeing
what it looked like, I was like, Yeah, the fish
nets were the way to go. And I asked Danny tonight,
I said, I gotta be honest, I was a little
insecure when I heard that you also suggested that I.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Should wear fish nets.
Speaker 1 (13:11):
Did you just think that my legs didn't look good?
And she goes, no, I know from myself that if
I'm having to do a lot of lifts and splits
and i feel like I'm showing too much skin, I
will hold back. And she said, and I didn't want
you to be holding anything back tonight, And She's right.
(13:34):
I didn't even think about it. But after I put
the fish nets on, I just felt more contained and
confident in what I was wearing, and I didn't feel
like I had to be concerned about any of the
tricks we were doing.
Speaker 2 (13:48):
So that was really great. I will say that.
Speaker 1 (13:53):
During dress rehearsal, my nose in that last trick came millimeters.
Speaker 2 (14:02):
Away from the ballroom floor.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
There was something about the momentum that we did during
dress rehearsal of the spin where I was up in
the air above, you know, on Pasha's shoulder, and he's
spinning around and.
Speaker 2 (14:15):
He had all that momentum. He didn't slow down at all.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
He went from full momentum to just rolling me forward
down toward my nose, and he did not have a
great grip on me. And I saw my life flash
before my eyes as the hardwood floor came, I'm not
kidding you, this close to my face. And at the
(14:40):
very last second when I was like, oh, I'm still
moving in my head because we've been practicing this move
all week and normally there's like a very hard stop,
and today I was like.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Oh gosh, Oh my gosh, I'm still getting closed to
the book.
Speaker 1 (14:52):
Then the floor was like right here, at the very
last second, I put my hand down like this, and
then I realized I wasn't moving anymore so and then I
went back into position. And afterward Pashua I was like,
what happened? And Pasha was like, I'm sorry. Your back
wasn't as much to me as it needed to be
and I barely had a grip on you. And he's like,
but I promise you I will not drop you. So
(15:16):
no matter what happens tonight during the live show, do
not put your hands down, stick your landing, and I
will not drop you. And I said, I know you
won't drop me. I completely trust you. And he said, good,
worst case scenario, I'll pay for your nose job. And
I was like, well, nothing has filled me with more
(15:37):
confidence than that. So we got out there and we
did it. I'm really happy. I haven't been able to
read any comments, I haven't been able to watch to
watch our dance.
Speaker 2 (15:50):
I don't even know what it looked like. I know
what it felt like.
Speaker 1 (15:52):
I can tell you I have never felt more present
in my body than I did tonight. I would say
tonight is the first time I actually felt like a dancer,
like I really felt like a dance tonight. I felt
like a dancer who knew what she was doing and
who was in a place that I was supposed to be.
And that was very exciting and it was thrilling and
(16:15):
makes me just want to be even better week after
week after week. Having John m Two there Wicked, the
director of Wicked and Crazy Rich Asians.
Speaker 2 (16:26):
I'm such a fan of his as a director. He
was so nice. I thought his.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Commentary and his critiques were so smart. His one of
his first comments being about transitions, and I was like,
oh my gosh, like, yes, he really knows what he's
talking about. That's super exciting. He's really smart. He was
really great guest judge. I thought he gave he tied
in the storyline of the movie really well into his critiques.
Speaker 2 (16:56):
I just thought he added so much.
Speaker 1 (16:57):
I really think tonight, as the themes go, you could
tell how excited everyone was for the Wicked theme. You
could tell that people from the moment they knew that
this was on the menu for a list of things
to do, people were thinking like, Oh, I just really
want to make it to Wicked night. I thought all
the dances were amazing. I thought everybody really leveled up.
(17:19):
I didn't get to see a ton of other dances
this week before leading up to ours. I had seen
bits and pieces of Ezra and Jordan's, which I knew
was great, and I'm so happy that they got tends tonight.
Jordan just really killed that rumba, and I know how
hard that dance is, and I know that she was
feeling nervous about that dance, and she and Ezra just
(17:44):
knocked it out of the park, and so I'm really
happy for them. I saw Robert's dance right before I
saw it during dress rehearsal, and then I saw him
right before we went out, and I said, how are
you feeling about tonight?
Speaker 2 (17:58):
And he said, you know, I'm really nervous. I said more.
Speaker 1 (18:01):
Nervous tonight, and He's like, yeah, I'm more nervous tonight
than usual. And I said why, what is it? And
he said, I just I'm not used to dealing with props.
And I said, but you did it so well. It
looked so seamless, and I knew that he was nervous
specifically about those props. So when John said it is
not easy for actors to work with props, they can
get lost in them. I know that note meant so
(18:24):
much to Robert because he had been nervous about it
and he'd been working on it so much. So I'm
really proud of him. He just did such a phenomenal job.
Of course, my alliance partner, Dylan and Danny, I thought
they did a fantastic, fantastic job tonight. I know somebody,
(18:46):
I think maybe Carrie Anne mentioned that Dylan's foot had
gotten a little stuck, and then sure enough, when Dylan
came off the dance water, he was like, yeah.
Speaker 2 (18:52):
My foot got a little stuck over there.
Speaker 1 (18:54):
But I thought that dance was beautiful. Apparently a rumba
is very very hard. I don't know if we're even
gonna I don't even know if we get to do
it this season, but apparently it's a very hard dance.
But I thought the two of them tonight, both of
them were incredible rumbas. Ah Man, the elimination part of
(19:24):
the night, the part where we all lined up on
the dance floor, and I looked at Pasha and I said, man,
this part sucks.
Speaker 2 (19:31):
It just you know all night.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Somehow you're really able to kind of put the fact
that there was an elimination behind you. Because I'm only
gonna speak for myself, I'm assuming it's the same for everybody,
But I cannot believe how in the moment I am
watching everybody else dance, I'm so excited genuinely to see
what they have been working on all week, because I
(19:54):
know now firsthand how hard what our days are like,
and how so little time we have for anything else,
for our families, for any sort of social life.
Speaker 2 (20:04):
There's just there's very little.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Time, and I know how difficult it is. And so
then to watch my friends, my new friends, completely come
to life in the most beautiful ballroom with incredible sets
and pyrotechnics and these incredible professional dancers. Can we talk
about Troop for a second. Can we talk about Hayley
(20:27):
and Anne and Jackson and Carter. I. I am mesmerized
by each and every one of them. Every week they
come out and they are pouring their souls out on
the dance floor. And here's a little BTS thing. We
(20:48):
have to film a wide which is like our full
dance from beginning to end, one hundred percent by Thursday.
The week starts on Wednesday, so within forty eight hours
they want us to be at a one hundred percent
both performance and the steps and the dance, so that
the director can start fill the director of Dancing with
the Stars can start working on his shots and figuring
(21:09):
out how he's going to shoot every person's dance. A
lot of times the celebrities are not at one hundred percent.
Forty eight hours later, we're just not. We may know
some of the steps, but we can't perform all of them,
and you don't get a lot of opportunities. You don't
get to shoot your wide a bunch of times. You
really need to be able to.
Speaker 2 (21:26):
Pretty much maybe two times max.
Speaker 1 (21:29):
Be able to go beginning to end on your first
or second take, and that's pretty much it. So because
of that, because I may not be ready to shoot
my wide, Pasha will say I'm going to go teach
the dance to Anye or I'm going to go teach
the dance to Haley, and then they're going to record
a wide for the director, and then I just get
to go back into my rehearsal. When I tell you,
(21:51):
it takes them like thirty minutes to learn the entire routine,
to learn the entire dance, and then I get to
have that video on my phone and I just get
to watch them and they're beautiful dancer bodies and the
things that they do, and I get to go.
Speaker 2 (22:08):
Oh, I should be doing more of that.
Speaker 1 (22:10):
I have learned so much from all these pros and
this troop. I just can't say enough wonderful things about them.
They are incredible and I just am so inspired by
them every week. I think they're one of the best
troops I've ever seen. For me, in the audience tonight,
I had my husband, of course, Jensen, there to support me.
(22:33):
I also had my long time hairdresser Lori Heaps and
my longtime makeup artist Julie Cuomo in the audience for me.
And then I had some of my parent friends, some
friends of ours that we know because our kids are
friends and our friendship has now transcended the kid relationships.
(22:54):
They're just people that I love and adore. So Daniel
and Erica were there, my friends Michelle and Poria were there.
And then I know that in order to win a
championship myself, I must be surrounded by champions, So I
invited my friend WWE legend Charlotte Flair to come and
(23:16):
visit me in the ballroom and she came tonight and
she had a really good time, and I, boy, I
tell you, I think she would be pretty darn incredible
on Dancing with the Stars. Trying to think should probably
be Really, she'd be great paired with Brandon. Brandon's tall,
he's super strong. I think Brandon and Charlotte would make
(23:39):
an incredible pair. I really love Charlotte. I think she's
so smart, she's really vulnerable. She wrote an article about
her life and her brother and her dad and her
own wrestling legacy and career recently that was very touching
and very moving to me, and I reached out to
her to tell her how special I thought it was,
(24:01):
and it sparked up a friendship in us and we
started communicating back and forth. And so this week I thought,
I wonder if she happens to be in town, and
it turns out she was. So she came tonight and
it really meant a lot to have her there, and
I think she had a lot of fun, which means
a lot. So the jewelry I'm wearing this week, well,
I was supposed to be wearing some jade green beautiful
(24:23):
rings from my friend Jamie at Forever Fine Jewels, but
they stayed in Jensen's backpack and I never got to
put them on. But I am wearing her ear crawler,
this mixed ear crawler that you guys have seen me
wear before. I'm also wearing.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
The same earring I wore last week from the lou Collective,
which you guys know.
Speaker 1 (24:48):
I decided for this week. I didn't wear a watch
during the dance because I had so many times where
I had to wrap my arm around Pasha's neck and
I didn't want like a heavy watch digging into him.
But my watch of the week, because it's so perfect
for Wicked, I broke out my personal collection Rolex Cosmograph Daytona,
(25:11):
lovingly known as the John Mayer one point zero. It
has an iconic green dial and a yellow gold case,
and I thought it was perfect in honor of Wicked.
So I hope there's another opportunity for me to bust
that watch out and wear it actually on the ballroom floor.
But it is the watch I chose for this Wicked week. Also,
(25:33):
I am wearing this ring designed by the one and
only Dolly at XO, the Biju Box XO. It is
a over two hundred year old old mine cut diamond
surrounded by over two hundred year old rose cut diamonds.
(25:55):
They were all taken out of a brooch she hand
forged this. She has a line called her xod so
XO Dolly so her xod line. If you can see
the detail on this, it's just absolutely stunning. Was really
excited to bust this one out. Felt extra special for
Wicked Night, and now I'm looking onward to Halloween. Pasha
(26:16):
and I have a really great creative idea that we're
putting into play for next week. And next week guest
judge Cheryl Burke. So excited to see her back in
the ballroom. Can't wait to hear what her critiques and
thoughts are on all of the performances. And I have
a big announcement. Cheryl will be joining me on Danielle
(26:41):
with the Stars this Friday as she preps for her
big night. She is a legend in the ballroom and
I am honored to not only talk to her, but
to have her watch me dance dream come true. Can't
wait to hear her thoughts and remember that another legend,
former pro Sharna Burgess, will share her Wicked Night thoughts
and score Thursday Morning from what we're calling the fourth
(27:04):
Chair even I'm excited to hear that. Just find the
dedicated Danielle with the Stars podcast feed and subscribe so
you can get that as soon as it is released.
I really, I so appreciate your support. I've read so
many of your comments. I saw so many of you
just rooting for me and really hoping that tonight and
(27:26):
Tonight's dance was going to be that breakthrough moment we
all knew that I really needed. And I feel very
proud that I feel like I had that moment, and
I hope I made all of you proud as well.
And I hope that all of you who have been
supporting me felt victorious tonight, and I want you to
know that you had a hand in it, your support,
(27:49):
your votes, your encouragement, your just really I can feel it.
I can feel it around me, and so thank you.
This is we were able to do what we did
tonight in part because of you. So thank you to
all of you who listen and who vote and who
are on team Topasha. I really appreciate you all. So
(28:13):
next week got a hard act to follow after this one,
but for now I will just revel in these four
nines and tomorrow I'll get back to work. I'll see
you guys next time.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Bye.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
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 Sudbosch.
Theme song by Justin Siegel. Follow us on Instagram at
Danielle with Stars and vote for me
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