September 5, 2025 • 35 mins
There’s no better first guest for this podcast than Danielle’s just announced professional partner: Pasha Pashkov!
Find out how rehearsals have been going for Topasha and if this new duo has high hopes for their future. And - can they successfully rope in Pasha’s wife and Dylan Efron to form a revolutionary DWTS alliance?
Plus, which one of Pasha’s past dance routines does he think will live on forever? Learn all about your new favorite team, on the first interview episode of Danielle with the Stars!
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
Thanks, Welcome to Danielle with the Stars. I am Danielle Fischl,
a TV director, a podcaster Forever Topanga, and a mom
of two. Currently, though I am learning how to ballroom
dance one step at a time. You will be seeing
(00:27):
me on season thirty four of Dancing with the Stars,
premiering September sixteenth on ABC and Disney Plus. And throughout
the process, I am recording this podcast chronicling my journey,
giving you the inside story of one celebrities quest for
a Mirror Ball Trophy. So I am in the mix
(00:48):
as we speak, practicing every day for the debut episode,
a night that will mark the first time I've danced
in front of an audience since I recited a poem
for Corey and applied lipstick across my face on Boy
Meets World at twelve years old. Not kidding, I am
so excited for my very first Danielle with the Stars guest.
He is one of the most beloved professional dancers from
(01:10):
the show, first appearing on season twenty eight in twenty nineteen,
and he is now paired with me for season thirty four.
Please welcome to the podcast, Pasha Pashkov, Thank.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
You, Hi.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
First so I just realized Danielle with the Stars is
still the DWTS. Correct, I see what she did?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Oh wow, yeah, See we're smart around here. We know
what we're doing. Okay. So my first question that I've
wanted to ask since day one, but I figured doing
it in the presence of thousands was probably a better idea.
When we met on last Tuesday a few days ago,
you had no idea who I was.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Did you I did? Oh?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You did?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I did? Okay. So this is the thing, right, You
have rumors obviously circulating around, you know, approximately who's going
to be on the cast. Nothing he's ever confirmed. Yeah,
but there are rumors.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
There are rumors circulators, right.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So of course you started to dig into everyone, yes,
doing your research. Yes. So when we had some people
who got announced a couple of months before, of course
you already know a little bit about them. We sat
down to watch a few episodes of Secret Lives of
Woman Wives when two cast members from that show.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Game Let Me Leave It and Jen Affleck had been
announced a few months ago from that show, Yes, Robert
Irwin had been announced, and Alex correct, Yes, yes, so
you did your research on that.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
We did the research, Yes, and then when we heard
that you might be on the show, my wife went
crazy because she's a huge fan and she's like every
boy wanted to be with her, every girl wanted to
be her. And she's like, you have to watch it
because you haven't seen it, and she goes, I would
love to watch it with you, because she's like it's
(02:52):
been a while since I watched, and she's like, I
would love to like relive that. So I literally binged
watch like several episodes right away. So for me, like
I knew exactly who you were when you walked into
the room.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Okay, so when I walked in, you were like expecting
what you got.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
You weren't like who no, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah
I knew exactly yeah yeah, and you exactly. And you're like,
you know, like your character is so iconic and I
don't know, I just like I can tell that you're
loved by millions, you know. And there's so many people
who were saying, oh my god, I literally grew up
with her. That's how they feel. So I'm like, it's
(03:31):
good to dance with someone you know that people can
connect to like that, you know, And I'm sure there
are things that we're going to use from the show
or can use from the show.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yes, I'm hoping so so many great things are gonna
be amazing, you know, little easter eggs or you know,
little throwbacks that will make people, you know, relive those
moments when they used to watch you on the a
TV's so many people who work as an actor or
in any sort of performer type thing, but especially actors
(04:01):
sometimes get really offended when they're only known for one
character and they're like, I've done more things. I just
have never felt that way. I feel so lucky that
Tapanga was the character I got to play. And even
if I'm never known for anything else, like, what a
massive blessing that I, at twelve years old, found a
(04:22):
role in a character that I'll be known for forever.
So anything we can do to lean into the nostalgia
of that or the Tapanga of it all, or the
boy meets World of it all, I am all four.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But also that one character. It's not like it's a
one two hour on movie. It's years and years and
years you know of that character and character development, you know,
and especially that that character starts at such a young
age and you go all the way to marriage. You
know what I mean. It's like it's your your whole chunk,
(04:53):
a huge chunk of your life over there.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And it's been on what's seven seven.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Seven years ninety three to two thousand and then when
we did the reboot Girl Meets World, we did that
for three years, so we even have you know, almost
we have a decade, a decade of to Panga lore.
I guess well, we are in New York right now,
in the absolute whirlwind that is the Good Morning America announcement.
How does this season or does this season feel any
(05:20):
different to you than your previous five or six seasons?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
You feel? Okay, this is one of those shows where,
no matter how many seasons you've been on, you can
never possibly be fully ready because every time it's brand new.
You have a brand new partner, with brand new personality, ability,
story and everything. Right, So every time it's a brand
(05:48):
new experience, right. And also the competition who are going
against is brand new. Right when we used to compete
in ballroom dancing. You know, we're the same partnership, We
know who we're competing against for years right here. Every
year it's a brand new show for us.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I don't even think about that. Yeah, when you're competing
in ballroom dancing, you're used to seeing the same faces
every weekend. You know what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Now on this show, like, you can do all the
prep you can do for your own physical body, but
by the time you arrive there, like depending on who
your celeb is and who the other celebs are, everything
changes exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, and what you know, like what makes sense for
us in terms of the song choices and the creative choices.
So it's one of those things where I think you
cannot possibly really prepare. But with every season, you feel
that you're gaining more experience, you know, and that gives
you more confidence going into a new season because you're like, Okay,
(06:45):
I've done a few I know what to expect, I
have my strategy, you know, So this helps I feel
like going with that good baggage is helping mentally for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
How important do you think song choices are?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I think they are vital.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Really, yeah, And do you think that's because the audience
needs to be able to connect to the song or like,
do you.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Think both the audience and us, because first of all,
we're the ones dancing, right, and if it is a
song that is hard to dance to, you just don't
feel like dancing to it, right, you know, you feel
like you're forcing a dance onto a specific song. That's
not a good start.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
No, it's not a good feeling.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
But then even if you find a song that you
feel good dancing to, the audience needs to relate to
it as well. Either they recognize it, or they just
feel the vibe of the song, or you make them
fall in love with the song that they've never heard.
You know, that's an option too, But definitely, definitely for
us and for the audience.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Okay, you have been on the show now for several seasons.
Does has this fan speculation and paparazzi gotten better or worse?
I was shocked by the amount of attention and effort
we had to put into maintaining a secret identity for
you know, about a week. Are you used to that
(08:07):
at this point that it feels crazy? Was it more
this year than usual?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
No? We we do this every year since the beginning.
We've been hiding all the time, you know, leading up
to the premiere. But I gotta say that I think
in the past few seasons the show I feel like
it had a rebirth, you know, and it got like this,
new demographics, new audience, new fans, and there are definitely
(08:32):
more eyes on us and definitely more attention, and it's
closer attention. And that's why I think there were so
many speculations and leagues online because people are really paying attention,
and they are paying attention to every detail. You know,
you pass by, they catch a photo you fully covered,
but they see your ring and they know who's ring
it is, you know, or they see bracelets and I
(08:54):
mean minor obvious. They say, yeah, yeah, it's hard to
hide this one, but yes, like so becoming more away
and hiding, you know, onto the sleeve so people don't
see you bracelets or something else.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
So I am very, very very sore.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I'm extremely achy.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
My neck is killing me. I feel a little better
today than I did yesterday, but I've had to go
get regular massages. I've had to be stretching. How how
do you do this all the time? How do you
stay in this kind of shape to be working this
hard day after day, week after week.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Well, I think when we used to compete, we were
in this kind of like mold three hundred and sixty
five this a year, So once you're in it, it
feels like it's a norm, and I think you kind
of get used to it. On Dancing with the Stars,
you know, we have a three month season, then we
(10:07):
have tour prep, then four months or three months tour,
and then we have this huge gap between the tour
and the season, right And of course everybody does the
own thing. Somebody does something dance related, somebody does something
not dance related. Personally, me, I do stuff that is
not dance related. So for me right now, going back
(10:29):
into the season, our first three or four rehearsals that
we had so far, you know, I felt sore, like
I was like, oh my god, I need to stretch,
I need to warm up, I need to get back
into I mean, I was trying to get back into shape,
you know, to get ready. But no matter how much
you work out, you know, you still building like big
(10:50):
muscle groups, you know, like at the gym or whatever.
Dancing is different because it's like you use these small
little muscle groups that you don't really usually use at
the gym, you know, and it's a brand new workout
and I know it, and I go through this every time,
but you do need a couple of weeks of adjustment
to get back into it, just simply by dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I told Jensen, I said, the the little fibers at
the base of my skull, all the way down to
the little tendons in between my toes, all of the
body parts in between their hurt. But yes, it's like
it's like muscle groups I didn't even really know existed.
So we've been practicing for one week, which is actually
only meant four days of rehearsal. At this point, I
(11:33):
need you to be very honest here, how am I doing?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
You're doing great? Okay, I was. You know, usually when
we're starting, you know, we're starting with a two three
week prep for the premiere, which is a lot longer
than you know it will be during the season when
we're going to have only a few days in between
each show. So I kind of was going in like, okay,
we're not going to rush. We'll take it slowly. You know,
(11:58):
I'll get to know you see how you learn the choreo,
and we'll go from there because we have some time.
So I prepped the choreo, and what I was very
happy about is that you picked it up and learned
very fast. So for me, I was like, okay, that's
a good sign. You know, if you can learn the coreer,
you know in a couple of days, that means going
into the season will be able to you know, learn
(12:18):
the career and then still have time to clean and
improve and work on our performance aspect, because I think
the hardest thing is when you have someone as a
partner who cannot remember the courrier, because then you know
you're going into the performance first of all, really stressed
out because you don't know if if they will remember. Yeah,
(12:42):
you know, that's one thing, but also if it takes
the entire week just to learn the choreo, then obviously
you have no time to improve it, you know, to
work on the performance aspect, on the some maybe technical
things you know, to make it look sharper and cleaner
and more exciting, because.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Just remembering the steps is actually like twenty percent of
what ends up coming through with the dance, Like just
knowing the moves is not enough. So I know, I
said to you and are like on our first day
that my goal was that every week we had at
least one day where you got to be super nitpicky
that we felt like we knew it, You knew that
(13:20):
I knew it so well that you could be like
that pinky is not where it should be. Like, I
wanted at least a full day for you to just
nitpick me. So that's still my goal. I'm still going
to maintain that, even though we're not going to have
three weeks every time, I still want to have at
least half a day where you can be nitpicky with me.
So anyone who's watched the show over the last several
(13:43):
years will know that you have maybe been given some
challenging partners. How do you stay positive when you are
maybe showing up every week knowing that your partner isn't
as fully invested in it as you would like them
to be.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Well, the thing is, and I realized that pretty quickly,
is that we as pros. Yes we're not guaranteed that
we're going to be back next season, but if we are,
there is a chance for us to do the show
for several seasons, right, and like this is my seventh
season for example, Right, so I got a chance to
(14:23):
always redo if, like you know, if I have a
not a good experience or not a good result or
whatever it is, right, But if you look from the
celebs perspective, there's only one chance you do the show
once and that's it, right. So the inspiration behind it
is that when they leave the competition, no matter the result,
(14:45):
no matter what, I want them to look back at
it and say, I had the best experience. I had
the time of my life, and I will remember this
as a positive experience no matter what. Yeah, you know,
and I'll have something to look back on, you know
that's live online probably forever, and be proud of it.
So that's what motivates you, because you understand that this
(15:07):
is their only chance to do specific I mean they
do other things, but specifically this. Yeah, there's only one
time you get to do this, So I just want
them to have the best time.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Oh well, you're really good at that because you do
make it very fun. I was telling Jensen how much
I laughed when I said, you said very good after
I did a dance and I said, oh no, it
was mid. I could definitely do better, and you said,
then stop giving me this mediocre and do better.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And then you said, what if that's the only thing
we started diagnosing?
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I thought, because you are not that way at all.
It was so funny to me though you have a
very you have such a great personality. You make learning
very easy, You make learning very fun. So it's so
nice that to hear that you make sure everybody has
a great experience, because of course they do. So season
thirty two with Ariontomatics, you have your best finish in
(16:00):
your first perfect thirty and getting to the finals and
then you guys placed third. How did that season feel
different to you? Did it feel good from the very beginning?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
It did feel good from the very beginning. Yes, I
think we had a good connection from the start. I
think Arianna came in from obviously a very public and
you know, huge sandal. Yeah and you say sandal scandal, yes,
so like did you say sandal? So what happened is
(16:34):
I felt like she came in with this fighter energy,
you know, there was like fire underneath her feet, and
I felt like she had something to prove, you know,
and that like showed up in her work ethic and
how she showed up you know, like every day. So
for me, I felt from the beginning like she's here
for the right reason. She's here you know, with some
(16:55):
kind of an intention and we're going to use that
to fuel the entire season.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Great, ooh, I love that. If you had to give
just one routine as an example something of yours, someone
wants to see your favorite dance front to back, what
would you suggest? And is it one where you're dressed
like a tiger with Carol Baskin?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Is it a two part question? Answer? Well, you know what,
let's put it this way. It's a definitely a very
recognizable moment, and it's definitely an icebreaker in a lot
of my conversations. When people start talking to me at
the restaurants or something, they're like, hey, because guess what
(17:40):
that thing Tiger king was so huge at the moment. Yeah,
it was. That was the COVID year, right, Yeah, so
I feel like everybody knew about it. Everybody tweeted about
it when we danced. I remember Lady Gaga posting a
story and saying welcome to twenty twenty. So so yeah,
(18:01):
so yes, what, I would not change a thing?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Okay, great, I love that.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
But is that the routine that I'm super proud of? Well,
let's put it in the top three.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Okay, do you have a top one?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yes? Top one was a fox trut with Arihanna in
the semi final. Okay, and that was the perfect thirty,
the first perfect thirty, But that was not the reason
it was not. It's just like one of those where
everything aligned, where it looked good, it felt good, we
had time, good time practicing it, choreographing, we had a
(18:39):
good song, there were a lot of musical things that
were able to show off that like choreographically, really enjoyed it.
So it was one of those where like, you know,
everything in line and it felt good, looked good, and
got a good score. So it's like perfect thirty across
the board.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
You can't touch that now.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I am very vocal in.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Admitting that I have no real dances experience going into
the show. Does that put us at a total disadvantage?
Who's the partner you've had who's had the most experience.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I don't think I had anyone who had a dance experience. Okay, yes,
I don't think I had anyone. Everybody had something different
to offer. Kate Flannery, she came from like she's an actress,
but I think she did like theater and yeah something
(19:36):
in college, so she had a little bit of like
that you know, she was good, very musical, so we
use that and Arianna again musical theater. So there was
a some sum but it's not really dance experience, you know.
But the good thing about it that I do like now,
it's always challenging, right when you go against someone who
(19:59):
does have dance experience. But at the same time, I
always say, you know, if we have to look at things,
you know, glass half full, when you're coming in with
no dance experience, we can start fresh. There are no
bad habits. Yeah, right, so we can like start fresh
and learn things the right way. That's a good thing.
(20:22):
But as long as they're at least some basic things
in place, like having some rhythm, having rhythm, you know,
being able to hear the beat and the music, being balanced,
being coordinated, because things like, yes, you can teach the
dance steps, but it's very hard to teach coordination if
somebody is not coordinated right, or like if you're not balanced.
(20:43):
Balance is not something you can teach in a week, right,
Coordination is not something you can teach in a week.
So I feel like as long as there are some
like basic fundamental things that are there, then the rest
the rest you can work with.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I found that there are like there's really two camps
when it comes to thoughts on dance experience, one who
think it's totally fine for people with years of dance
experience to compete on Dancing with the Stars, and then
the other camp that really thinks celebrity should come in
not really knowing much of anything and learn how to dance.
Do you think it's fair to come in with dance experience?
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I think that those camps why they're like that is
because I think originally when the show started, I feel
like majority of celebs that were on the show where
without any dances, okay, And I think like the whole
point and all the stories were about how they're learning
(21:41):
from scratch, right, and I'm talking like a big majority
of the celebs didn't have the dance experience, and then
it became a mix, right, And then that's when I think,
like the there was like a little division, and I
think that it's I think it's impossible, you know, to
(22:02):
have like a great cast, you know, for a season,
and have fourteen couples and make sure that everybody has
zero of any experience, you know, because even if it's
not dance experience, I feel like there are still things
that already different from the get go, Like, for example,
an athlete is coming in with a different set of
(22:24):
skills than an actor, right, or somebody who is used
to performing in front of the live audience versus somebody
who's used to where you can do several takes, or
let's say even like if we compare the athletes, like
if you compare football players versus basketball players, right, Like,
there are a lot of football players on the show,
(22:45):
and you could tell that they were very, very light
and quick on their fead, right, so when they were
doing the jives and quick steps, they were always phenomenal, Right,
And then I don't know, like I feel like, you know,
everybody comes in already, not really even because everybody comes
in with different set of skills from different fields of life.
(23:07):
But on top of that, now we also have like
some people who actually come with dance experience. So yes,
but at the same time, we have to remember that
at the end of the day, it's not just the judges,
is the audience exactly, And then if the audience wants
to see a non dancer improve, then you will have
(23:28):
the advantage.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
That's right, exactly, It's up to them to decide. A
big story this year is the return of Mark ballas
a prior champion and a bit of an icon on
the show. What are your strategic feelings about this big
news this season? Are you and Mark close?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Mark and I have very close So he's like our brother.
His mom was mine and Denny's teacher main teacher. So
a lot of people on the show, Derek, Julianne, Mark,
Danny and I we were all trained by Mark's mom. Yeah,
(24:08):
she's a legend in the Bordern world. She goes by
a nickname the Latin Queen. Oh, sorry, the Queen of Latin.
My bad. I think the Queen of Latin because Latin dancing.
And yeah, so she's uh, she's incredible and because of that,
we have very very close connection with Mark.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Oh, that's so great.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And our kids have play dates tois Oh how many
kids does he have one?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
And his name is Banksy and he's I think half
a year younger than Nikita.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Nikita so cute. So based on the partnerships that we
know for this season thirty four, who are you you
considering to be our biggest competition ourselves?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Is this a very is this a very politically correct answer,
Yes it is no, but honestly, yeah, it's honestly ourselves,
you know. I think the biggest thing is the distraction
by the competition, not keeping your eyes on your own
paper are the biggest mistakes we can do, you know,
because every week is going to be different. Every week
(25:26):
people will have different dance styles, you know, and one
week you have room, but somebody has a quick step,
next week you have a quick time, somebody has a
positive doubles. So it's hard to compare directly to begin
with because of different styles and everything. And yeah, you
can get carried away and get too much in your head.
So I think the biggest competition is ourselves and just
(25:48):
like staying focused on doing our personal best and then
the rest is going to be up to the universe
and the audience.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yes, judges, now to a very important question. Is your
life going to be easier or harder for you now
that you are partnered with Danielle and married to Daniella.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Well, I think it's you said that you don't go
like your your short is either Danielle, so sorry your
d or you just go by the full name Danielle. Well,
the fun fact is my wife's name in passport actually
spelled with an ead as well. Yes, yes, so she
(26:32):
was supposed to be Daniella from the get go. That's
what her mom wanted and they misspelled it and she
has never changed it. So everywhere and to everyone, she's Daniella,
and no one ever calls her by the full name. Ever.
She always goes by Danny. So, but her passport name
is exactly like yours. You have double l yeah, yeah,
(26:55):
so it's spelled exactly the same. Yeah, everything the same. Yeah,
but it's so so you go as d or Danielle
and she's Danny so yeah, so at.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Least no matter where you go, whether you're at work
or a yeah, yes.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Like someone, Yeah, you don't even hear like I thought,
but this we have we have two weekneys.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yes, we have a Jenna and a Jenna, yes, and
we have Danielle and Danielle.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yes. Yes, So it's like a lot of close names.
But I think, because you know, I never haven't I
haven't heard this year yet somebody, you know, like say
the name and I'm like, who are they talking to?
Because everybody nobody calls Danny by.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Her full name exactly, So that'll be easy for you.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
In twenty twenty three, you and Danny were in the
finals together, and you guys were the first married couple
to ever make it to the finals.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Right, Yes, to the finals together?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yes, okay, what was that like competing against your beautiful wife?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
It was interesting because leading up to the final, in
every single package and every single OTF, in every single
interview that we did, press everything, that was the question.
You know, everybody's like, oh, you guys are going to
go against each other, and how do you feel and everything. Well,
the thing is, we choreograph everything together. Yeah, we choreograph
and we help each other. Right, We come from rehearsals
(28:10):
and we show each other the videos from the rehearsals,
and we want to hear each other's feedback. So we
bet we've been like that right entire time. So it
doesn't again, it doesn't feel like a competition. And again
this is sounds like a politically correct answer, but it's
truly how it is, Like we just truly support each other,
you know, unconditionally, and the goal is for both to
(28:34):
do their personal best with their partners in that finale
and then the rest again is already not up to us. Yeah, right,
So it didn't feel like a competition maybe because the
last second we're helping each other. You know, quick, what
do we do here? Oh? I want to know.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
I want to hear all of Danny's feedback. Just give
her my number, just have her text me be like
Pasture just showed me the video. Here are my notes.
What do you two do after a live show? To
wind down?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
We eat burgers, pizza, pasta, ice cream, a way footies.
We love to eat. And of course, you know, throughout
the season you want to fit into your costumes nicely,
and so you kind of like have to watch what
you eat. But then this is our because you know,
like the live show day is long. You know, we
(29:21):
have early cold times. I mean you'll experience it very soon.
You know. We have camera blocking, we have dress rehearsal.
It's nonstout the whole day. So by the time you
actually do the live show, you already danced several times,
and you've been there the whole day, and you've been
in your hair and makeup and costume and everything. So
(29:41):
once that show is done, we have the press line
and then this is when you can finally without and
relaxed and we feel like it's a reset to go
into the next week, so we need to like go
and do something where we don't think about the show.
We don't think about out the corrio for the you know,
(30:01):
I mean, the core is down for the next dance,
but like we don't, we don't think about anything show related,
and we we just go and we grab you know,
our favorite food, whatever we in a mood for that night,
and yeah, we just enjoy ourselves.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Good for you.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I mean, there's I honestly, having just done four days
of rehearsal, there's nothing could sound worse than trying to
dance on like a full stomach. So on those show days,
I can only imagine that, like, not only are you
working such long hours, you're just kind of grazing. You're
like a couple of nuts here a banana, because like
all the bouncing around on a full stomach sounds terrible.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
And you also, you on one hand, you want to
be hydrated, but on the other hand, with those costumes,
you know, it's not so easy to jump in and
out of them. We need to go to the bathroom.
So it's a it's got to be balanced.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
What do you think your strength is as a partner.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
My strength as a partner, I think I can pull
out the best of war what you have to offer.
And I think I come from a very old school
training bottom dancing, where the belief is that the leader
(31:14):
is the frame and the follower is the picture, right right,
So you present, you gotta be there for her, and
you present her and you make her shine. So since
this show is obviously about the celebrity, you know, learning
how to dance, so for me, I feel like because
(31:35):
I was trained like that and that was my mentality
instead of like look at me, you know, and I'm
the solo beautiful dancer. For me, it was always about
framing my partner, even when I used to compete back
in the day and with dancing with Danielle Denny. He's
gonna say Danielle full name. Wow. Really, I'm even myself
already losing track over here. But so for me, I
(32:00):
feel like I can frame my partner beautifully and make
her shine. So hopefully that's gonna be the case.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Do you think you have any weaknesses?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
A lot of them. But I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna tell no, I'm not gonna tell anybody,
you know what I mean, giving away like open an
open book over here, giving up all my cards.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
What would you say? My strength as a partner.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Is your strength? You're oh, actually a lot of strength
right away. First of all, in terms of physicality, you
are in great shape, great flexibility, great balance, very strong,
very strong. In terms of mental you're coming in with
(32:44):
the right focus. So far, we had four days of rehearsals.
You were in that room for four hours working NonStop,
super focused and memorizing things very well. So you know,
very very focused. That's mental. And then personality wise, I
think you are just a joy to be around. I
love your you know, like your eyes are shining, big
(33:07):
smile all the time. So I think your strength is
going to be everybody falling in love with just with
that spark.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
That you have.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Now you can tell everyone my weaknesses because it's their
mind and so you don't have to worry about protecting me.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
What are my weaknesses? Okay, you said that your neck
is stiff. Stiff neck. So and we have week one. Oh, actually,
hold on, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to reveal.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
We'll just that.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, we have deep week one and for that dance,
which can be several dances, you need very sharp head movements.
So therefore we need to make sure that that stiff
neck is not stiff anymore. There's another weakness that you
told me yourself, that you said every time like you
(34:00):
get tenseled something and goes into the shoulders. And of
course in dancing, we have to have long neck and posture.
So that is one thing that we're definitely gonna have
to improve and work on, but I have no doubt
we'll get there pretty fast.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Okay, all right, final question, what are your goals for
us this season? I may not have dance experience, but
you know I'm in it with the goal of trying
to win it. Yes, So what are your goals for
us this season?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I want to create as many memorial dances as possible
because I think, and when I say as many, the
more weeks obviously including the finality, the more dances. So
as many many memorial dances as possible, and I hope
that we get to do a freestyle. Yeah. So fun.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Pasha, thank you so much for being here for being
my first guest. I'm so excited that this news is
out now and we can share it with everybody because
I know it was really art secret.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Yeah, it was not fun, hiding, not fun at all.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Well, now the world knows, so thank you for being
here with us, and I'll see you at the party
in a little bit.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Yes, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Danielle with the Stars Produced and hosted by Danielle Fischell.
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
Thanks, Welcome to Danielle with the Stars. I am Danielle Fischl,
a TV director, a podcaster Forever Topanga, and a mom
of two. Currently, though I am learning how to ballroom
dance one step at a time. You will be seeing
(00:27):
me on season thirty four of Dancing with the Stars,
premiering September sixteenth on ABC and Disney Plus. And throughout
the process, I am recording this podcast chronicling my journey,
giving you the inside story of one celebrities quest for
a Mirror Ball Trophy. So I am in the mix
(00:48):
as we speak, practicing every day for the debut episode,
a night that will mark the first time I've danced
in front of an audience since I recited a poem
for Corey and applied lipstick across my face on Boy
Meets World at twelve years old. Not kidding, I am
so excited for my very first Danielle with the Stars guest.
He is one of the most beloved professional dancers from
(01:10):
the show, first appearing on season twenty eight in twenty nineteen,
and he is now paired with me for season thirty four.
Please welcome to the podcast, Pasha Pashkov, Thank.
Speaker 2 (01:22):
You, Hi.
Speaker 3 (01:23):
First so I just realized Danielle with the Stars is
still the DWTS. Correct, I see what she did?
Speaker 1 (01:29):
Oh wow, yeah, See we're smart around here. We know
what we're doing. Okay. So my first question that I've
wanted to ask since day one, but I figured doing
it in the presence of thousands was probably a better idea.
When we met on last Tuesday a few days ago,
you had no idea who I was.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
Did you I did? Oh?
Speaker 1 (01:49):
You did?
Speaker 3 (01:49):
I did? Okay. So this is the thing, right, You
have rumors obviously circulating around, you know, approximately who's going
to be on the cast. Nothing he's ever confirmed. Yeah,
but there are rumors.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
There are rumors circulators, right.
Speaker 3 (02:02):
So of course you started to dig into everyone, yes,
doing your research. Yes. So when we had some people
who got announced a couple of months before, of course
you already know a little bit about them. We sat
down to watch a few episodes of Secret Lives of
Woman Wives when two cast members from that show.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Game Let Me Leave It and Jen Affleck had been
announced a few months ago from that show, Yes, Robert
Irwin had been announced, and Alex correct, Yes, yes, so
you did your research on that.
Speaker 3 (02:31):
We did the research, Yes, and then when we heard
that you might be on the show, my wife went
crazy because she's a huge fan and she's like every
boy wanted to be with her, every girl wanted to
be her. And she's like, you have to watch it
because you haven't seen it, and she goes, I would
love to watch it with you, because she's like it's
(02:52):
been a while since I watched, and she's like, I
would love to like relive that. So I literally binged
watch like several episodes right away. So for me, like
I knew exactly who you were when you walked into
the room.
Speaker 1 (03:04):
Okay, so when I walked in, you were like expecting
what you got.
Speaker 3 (03:07):
You weren't like who no, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah
I knew exactly yeah yeah, and you exactly. And you're like,
you know, like your character is so iconic and I
don't know, I just like I can tell that you're
loved by millions, you know. And there's so many people
who were saying, oh my god, I literally grew up
with her. That's how they feel. So I'm like, it's
(03:31):
good to dance with someone you know that people can
connect to like that, you know, And I'm sure there
are things that we're going to use from the show
or can use from the show.
Speaker 1 (03:40):
Yes, I'm hoping so so many great things are gonna
be amazing, you know, little easter eggs or you know,
little throwbacks that will make people, you know, relive those
moments when they used to watch you on the a
TV's so many people who work as an actor or
in any sort of performer type thing, but especially actors
(04:01):
sometimes get really offended when they're only known for one
character and they're like, I've done more things. I just
have never felt that way. I feel so lucky that
Tapanga was the character I got to play. And even
if I'm never known for anything else, like, what a
massive blessing that I, at twelve years old, found a
(04:22):
role in a character that I'll be known for forever.
So anything we can do to lean into the nostalgia
of that or the Tapanga of it all, or the
boy meets World of it all, I am all four.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
But also that one character. It's not like it's a
one two hour on movie. It's years and years and
years you know of that character and character development, you know,
and especially that that character starts at such a young
age and you go all the way to marriage. You
know what I mean. It's like it's your your whole chunk,
(04:53):
a huge chunk of your life over there.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (04:55):
And it's been on what's seven seven.
Speaker 1 (04:58):
Seven years ninety three to two thousand and then when
we did the reboot Girl Meets World, we did that
for three years, so we even have you know, almost
we have a decade, a decade of to Panga lore.
I guess well, we are in New York right now,
in the absolute whirlwind that is the Good Morning America announcement.
How does this season or does this season feel any
(05:20):
different to you than your previous five or six seasons?
Speaker 3 (05:26):
You feel? Okay, this is one of those shows where,
no matter how many seasons you've been on, you can
never possibly be fully ready because every time it's brand new.
You have a brand new partner, with brand new personality, ability,
story and everything. Right, So every time it's a brand
(05:48):
new experience, right. And also the competition who are going
against is brand new. Right when we used to compete
in ballroom dancing. You know, we're the same partnership, We
know who we're competing against for years right here. Every
year it's a brand new show for us.
Speaker 1 (06:05):
I don't even think about that. Yeah, when you're competing
in ballroom dancing, you're used to seeing the same faces
every weekend. You know what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Now on this show, like, you can do all the
prep you can do for your own physical body, but
by the time you arrive there, like depending on who
your celeb is and who the other celebs are, everything
changes exactly.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
Yeah, and what you know, like what makes sense for
us in terms of the song choices and the creative choices.
So it's one of those things where I think you
cannot possibly really prepare. But with every season, you feel
that you're gaining more experience, you know, and that gives
you more confidence going into a new season because you're like, Okay,
(06:45):
I've done a few I know what to expect, I
have my strategy, you know, So this helps I feel
like going with that good baggage is helping mentally for sure.
Speaker 1 (06:58):
How important do you think song choices are?
Speaker 3 (07:01):
I think they are vital.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Really, yeah, And do you think that's because the audience
needs to be able to connect to the song or like,
do you.
Speaker 3 (07:09):
Think both the audience and us, because first of all,
we're the ones dancing, right, and if it is a
song that is hard to dance to, you just don't
feel like dancing to it, right, you know, you feel
like you're forcing a dance onto a specific song. That's
not a good start.
Speaker 1 (07:24):
No, it's not a good feeling.
Speaker 3 (07:25):
But then even if you find a song that you
feel good dancing to, the audience needs to relate to
it as well. Either they recognize it, or they just
feel the vibe of the song, or you make them
fall in love with the song that they've never heard.
You know, that's an option too, But definitely, definitely for
us and for the audience.
Speaker 1 (07:45):
Okay, you have been on the show now for several seasons.
Does has this fan speculation and paparazzi gotten better or worse?
I was shocked by the amount of attention and effort
we had to put into maintaining a secret identity for
you know, about a week. Are you used to that
(08:07):
at this point that it feels crazy? Was it more
this year than usual?
Speaker 3 (08:10):
No? We we do this every year since the beginning.
We've been hiding all the time, you know, leading up
to the premiere. But I gotta say that I think
in the past few seasons the show I feel like
it had a rebirth, you know, and it got like this,
new demographics, new audience, new fans, and there are definitely
(08:32):
more eyes on us and definitely more attention, and it's
closer attention. And that's why I think there were so
many speculations and leagues online because people are really paying attention,
and they are paying attention to every detail. You know,
you pass by, they catch a photo you fully covered,
but they see your ring and they know who's ring
it is, you know, or they see bracelets and I
(08:54):
mean minor obvious. They say, yeah, yeah, it's hard to
hide this one, but yes, like so becoming more away
and hiding, you know, onto the sleeve so people don't
see you bracelets or something else.
Speaker 2 (09:08):
It's so crazy.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
So I am very, very very sore.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
I'm extremely achy.
Speaker 1 (09:29):
My neck is killing me. I feel a little better
today than I did yesterday, but I've had to go
get regular massages. I've had to be stretching. How how
do you do this all the time? How do you
stay in this kind of shape to be working this
hard day after day, week after week.
Speaker 3 (09:46):
Well, I think when we used to compete, we were
in this kind of like mold three hundred and sixty
five this a year, So once you're in it, it
feels like it's a norm, and I think you kind
of get used to it. On Dancing with the Stars,
you know, we have a three month season, then we
(10:07):
have tour prep, then four months or three months tour,
and then we have this huge gap between the tour
and the season, right And of course everybody does the
own thing. Somebody does something dance related, somebody does something
not dance related. Personally, me, I do stuff that is
not dance related. So for me right now, going back
(10:29):
into the season, our first three or four rehearsals that
we had so far, you know, I felt sore, like
I was like, oh my god, I need to stretch,
I need to warm up, I need to get back
into I mean, I was trying to get back into shape,
you know, to get ready. But no matter how much
you work out, you know, you still building like big
(10:50):
muscle groups, you know, like at the gym or whatever.
Dancing is different because it's like you use these small
little muscle groups that you don't really usually use at
the gym, you know, and it's a brand new workout
and I know it, and I go through this every time,
but you do need a couple of weeks of adjustment
to get back into it, just simply by dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
I told Jensen, I said, the the little fibers at
the base of my skull, all the way down to
the little tendons in between my toes, all of the
body parts in between their hurt. But yes, it's like
it's like muscle groups I didn't even really know existed.
So we've been practicing for one week, which is actually
only meant four days of rehearsal. At this point, I
(11:33):
need you to be very honest here, how am I doing?
Speaker 3 (11:36):
You're doing great? Okay, I was. You know, usually when
we're starting, you know, we're starting with a two three
week prep for the premiere, which is a lot longer
than you know it will be during the season when
we're going to have only a few days in between
each show. So I kind of was going in like, okay,
we're not going to rush. We'll take it slowly. You know,
(11:58):
I'll get to know you see how you learn the choreo,
and we'll go from there because we have some time.
So I prepped the choreo, and what I was very
happy about is that you picked it up and learned
very fast. So for me, I was like, okay, that's
a good sign. You know, if you can learn the coreer,
you know in a couple of days, that means going
into the season will be able to you know, learn
(12:18):
the career and then still have time to clean and
improve and work on our performance aspect, because I think
the hardest thing is when you have someone as a
partner who cannot remember the courrier, because then you know
you're going into the performance first of all, really stressed
out because you don't know if if they will remember. Yeah,
(12:42):
you know, that's one thing, but also if it takes
the entire week just to learn the choreo, then obviously
you have no time to improve it, you know, to
work on the performance aspect, on the some maybe technical
things you know, to make it look sharper and cleaner
and more exciting, because.
Speaker 1 (12:59):
Just remembering the steps is actually like twenty percent of
what ends up coming through with the dance, Like just
knowing the moves is not enough. So I know, I
said to you and are like on our first day
that my goal was that every week we had at
least one day where you got to be super nitpicky
that we felt like we knew it, You knew that
(13:20):
I knew it so well that you could be like
that pinky is not where it should be. Like, I
wanted at least a full day for you to just
nitpick me. So that's still my goal. I'm still going
to maintain that, even though we're not going to have
three weeks every time, I still want to have at
least half a day where you can be nitpicky with me.
So anyone who's watched the show over the last several
(13:43):
years will know that you have maybe been given some
challenging partners. How do you stay positive when you are
maybe showing up every week knowing that your partner isn't
as fully invested in it as you would like them
to be.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
Well, the thing is, and I realized that pretty quickly,
is that we as pros. Yes we're not guaranteed that
we're going to be back next season, but if we are,
there is a chance for us to do the show
for several seasons, right, and like this is my seventh
season for example, Right, so I got a chance to
(14:23):
always redo if, like you know, if I have a
not a good experience or not a good result or
whatever it is, right, But if you look from the
celebs perspective, there's only one chance you do the show
once and that's it, right. So the inspiration behind it
is that when they leave the competition, no matter the result,
(14:45):
no matter what, I want them to look back at
it and say, I had the best experience. I had
the time of my life, and I will remember this
as a positive experience no matter what. Yeah, you know,
and I'll have something to look back on, you know
that's live online probably forever, and be proud of it.
So that's what motivates you, because you understand that this
(15:07):
is their only chance to do specific I mean they
do other things, but specifically this. Yeah, there's only one
time you get to do this, So I just want
them to have the best time.
Speaker 1 (15:16):
Oh well, you're really good at that because you do
make it very fun. I was telling Jensen how much
I laughed when I said, you said very good after
I did a dance and I said, oh no, it
was mid. I could definitely do better, and you said,
then stop giving me this mediocre and do better.
Speaker 2 (15:33):
And then you said, what if that's the only thing
we started diagnosing?
Speaker 1 (15:39):
I thought, because you are not that way at all.
It was so funny to me though you have a
very you have such a great personality. You make learning
very easy, You make learning very fun. So it's so
nice that to hear that you make sure everybody has
a great experience, because of course they do. So season
thirty two with Ariontomatics, you have your best finish in
(16:00):
your first perfect thirty and getting to the finals and
then you guys placed third. How did that season feel
different to you? Did it feel good from the very beginning?
Speaker 3 (16:11):
It did feel good from the very beginning. Yes, I
think we had a good connection from the start. I
think Arianna came in from obviously a very public and
you know, huge sandal. Yeah and you say sandal scandal, yes,
so like did you say sandal? So what happened is
(16:34):
I felt like she came in with this fighter energy,
you know, there was like fire underneath her feet, and
I felt like she had something to prove, you know,
and that like showed up in her work ethic and
how she showed up you know, like every day. So
for me, I felt from the beginning like she's here
for the right reason. She's here you know, with some
(16:55):
kind of an intention and we're going to use that
to fuel the entire season.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
Great, ooh, I love that. If you had to give
just one routine as an example something of yours, someone
wants to see your favorite dance front to back, what
would you suggest? And is it one where you're dressed
like a tiger with Carol Baskin?
Speaker 3 (17:18):
Is it a two part question? Answer? Well, you know what,
let's put it this way. It's a definitely a very
recognizable moment, and it's definitely an icebreaker in a lot
of my conversations. When people start talking to me at
the restaurants or something, they're like, hey, because guess what
(17:40):
that thing Tiger king was so huge at the moment. Yeah,
it was. That was the COVID year, right, Yeah, so
I feel like everybody knew about it. Everybody tweeted about
it when we danced. I remember Lady Gaga posting a
story and saying welcome to twenty twenty. So so yeah,
(18:01):
so yes, what, I would not change a thing?
Speaker 1 (18:04):
Okay, great, I love that.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
But is that the routine that I'm super proud of? Well,
let's put it in the top three.
Speaker 1 (18:13):
Okay, do you have a top one?
Speaker 3 (18:17):
Yes? Top one was a fox trut with Arihanna in
the semi final. Okay, and that was the perfect thirty,
the first perfect thirty, But that was not the reason
it was not. It's just like one of those where
everything aligned, where it looked good, it felt good, we
had time, good time practicing it, choreographing, we had a
(18:39):
good song, there were a lot of musical things that
were able to show off that like choreographically, really enjoyed it.
So it was one of those where like, you know,
everything in line and it felt good, looked good, and
got a good score. So it's like perfect thirty across
the board.
Speaker 1 (18:53):
You can't touch that now.
Speaker 2 (18:55):
I am very vocal in.
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Admitting that I have no real dances experience going into
the show. Does that put us at a total disadvantage?
Who's the partner you've had who's had the most experience.
Speaker 3 (19:12):
I don't think I had anyone who had a dance experience. Okay, yes,
I don't think I had anyone. Everybody had something different
to offer. Kate Flannery, she came from like she's an actress,
but I think she did like theater and yeah something
(19:36):
in college, so she had a little bit of like
that you know, she was good, very musical, so we
use that and Arianna again musical theater. So there was
a some sum but it's not really dance experience, you know.
But the good thing about it that I do like now,
it's always challenging, right when you go against someone who
(19:59):
does have dance experience. But at the same time, I
always say, you know, if we have to look at things,
you know, glass half full, when you're coming in with
no dance experience, we can start fresh. There are no
bad habits. Yeah, right, so we can like start fresh
and learn things the right way. That's a good thing.
(20:22):
But as long as they're at least some basic things
in place, like having some rhythm, having rhythm, you know,
being able to hear the beat and the music, being balanced,
being coordinated, because things like, yes, you can teach the
dance steps, but it's very hard to teach coordination if
somebody is not coordinated right, or like if you're not balanced.
(20:43):
Balance is not something you can teach in a week, right,
Coordination is not something you can teach in a week.
So I feel like as long as there are some
like basic fundamental things that are there, then the rest
the rest you can work with.
Speaker 1 (20:58):
I found that there are like there's really two camps
when it comes to thoughts on dance experience, one who
think it's totally fine for people with years of dance
experience to compete on Dancing with the Stars, and then
the other camp that really thinks celebrity should come in
not really knowing much of anything and learn how to dance.
Do you think it's fair to come in with dance experience?
Speaker 3 (21:20):
I think that those camps why they're like that is
because I think originally when the show started, I feel
like majority of celebs that were on the show where
without any dances, okay, And I think like the whole
point and all the stories were about how they're learning
(21:41):
from scratch, right, and I'm talking like a big majority
of the celebs didn't have the dance experience, and then
it became a mix, right, And then that's when I think,
like the there was like a little division, and I
think that it's I think it's impossible, you know, to
(22:02):
have like a great cast, you know, for a season,
and have fourteen couples and make sure that everybody has
zero of any experience, you know, because even if it's
not dance experience, I feel like there are still things
that already different from the get go, Like, for example,
an athlete is coming in with a different set of
(22:24):
skills than an actor, right, or somebody who is used
to performing in front of the live audience versus somebody
who's used to where you can do several takes, or
let's say even like if we compare the athletes, like
if you compare football players versus basketball players, right, Like,
there are a lot of football players on the show,
(22:45):
and you could tell that they were very, very light
and quick on their fead, right, so when they were
doing the jives and quick steps, they were always phenomenal, Right,
And then I don't know, like I feel like, you know,
everybody comes in already, not really even because everybody comes
in with different set of skills from different fields of life.
(23:07):
But on top of that, now we also have like
some people who actually come with dance experience. So yes,
but at the same time, we have to remember that
at the end of the day, it's not just the judges,
is the audience exactly, And then if the audience wants
to see a non dancer improve, then you will have
(23:28):
the advantage.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
That's right, exactly, It's up to them to decide. A
big story this year is the return of Mark ballas
a prior champion and a bit of an icon on
the show. What are your strategic feelings about this big
news this season? Are you and Mark close?
Speaker 3 (23:45):
Mark and I have very close So he's like our brother.
His mom was mine and Denny's teacher main teacher. So
a lot of people on the show, Derek, Julianne, Mark,
Danny and I we were all trained by Mark's mom. Yeah,
(24:08):
she's a legend in the Bordern world. She goes by
a nickname the Latin Queen. Oh, sorry, the Queen of Latin.
My bad. I think the Queen of Latin because Latin dancing.
And yeah, so she's uh, she's incredible and because of that,
we have very very close connection with Mark.
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Oh, that's so great.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
And our kids have play dates tois Oh how many
kids does he have one?
Speaker 2 (24:35):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (24:35):
And his name is Banksy and he's I think half
a year younger than Nikita.
Speaker 1 (24:40):
Nikita so cute. So based on the partnerships that we
know for this season thirty four, who are you you
considering to be our biggest competition ourselves?
Speaker 3 (25:04):
Is this a very is this a very politically correct answer,
Yes it is no, but honestly, yeah, it's honestly ourselves,
you know. I think the biggest thing is the distraction
by the competition, not keeping your eyes on your own
paper are the biggest mistakes we can do, you know,
because every week is going to be different. Every week
(25:26):
people will have different dance styles, you know, and one
week you have room, but somebody has a quick step,
next week you have a quick time, somebody has a
positive doubles. So it's hard to compare directly to begin
with because of different styles and everything. And yeah, you
can get carried away and get too much in your head.
So I think the biggest competition is ourselves and just
(25:48):
like staying focused on doing our personal best and then
the rest is going to be up to the universe
and the audience.
Speaker 1 (25:59):
Yes, judges, now to a very important question. Is your
life going to be easier or harder for you now
that you are partnered with Danielle and married to Daniella.
Speaker 3 (26:11):
Well, I think it's you said that you don't go
like your your short is either Danielle, so sorry your
d or you just go by the full name Danielle. Well,
the fun fact is my wife's name in passport actually
spelled with an ead as well. Yes, yes, so she
(26:32):
was supposed to be Daniella from the get go. That's
what her mom wanted and they misspelled it and she
has never changed it. So everywhere and to everyone, she's Daniella,
and no one ever calls her by the full name. Ever.
She always goes by Danny. So, but her passport name
is exactly like yours. You have double l yeah, yeah,
(26:55):
so it's spelled exactly the same. Yeah, everything the same. Yeah,
but it's so so you go as d or Danielle
and she's Danny so yeah, so at.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
Least no matter where you go, whether you're at work
or a yeah, yes.
Speaker 3 (27:07):
Like someone, Yeah, you don't even hear like I thought,
but this we have we have two weekneys.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
Yes, we have a Jenna and a Jenna, yes, and
we have Danielle and Danielle.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
Yes. Yes, So it's like a lot of close names.
But I think, because you know, I never haven't I
haven't heard this year yet somebody, you know, like say
the name and I'm like, who are they talking to?
Because everybody nobody calls Danny by.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
Her full name exactly, So that'll be easy for you.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Okay.
Speaker 1 (27:34):
In twenty twenty three, you and Danny were in the
finals together, and you guys were the first married couple
to ever make it to the finals.
Speaker 3 (27:42):
Right, Yes, to the finals together?
Speaker 1 (27:44):
Yes, okay, what was that like competing against your beautiful wife?
Speaker 3 (27:48):
It was interesting because leading up to the final, in
every single package and every single OTF, in every single
interview that we did, press everything, that was the question.
You know, everybody's like, oh, you guys are going to
go against each other, and how do you feel and everything. Well,
the thing is, we choreograph everything together. Yeah, we choreograph
and we help each other. Right, We come from rehearsals
(28:10):
and we show each other the videos from the rehearsals,
and we want to hear each other's feedback. So we
bet we've been like that right entire time. So it
doesn't again, it doesn't feel like a competition. And again
this is sounds like a politically correct answer, but it's
truly how it is, Like we just truly support each other,
you know, unconditionally, and the goal is for both to
(28:34):
do their personal best with their partners in that finale
and then the rest again is already not up to us. Yeah, right,
So it didn't feel like a competition maybe because the
last second we're helping each other. You know, quick, what
do we do here? Oh? I want to know.
Speaker 1 (28:49):
I want to hear all of Danny's feedback. Just give
her my number, just have her text me be like
Pasture just showed me the video. Here are my notes.
What do you two do after a live show? To
wind down?
Speaker 3 (29:00):
We eat burgers, pizza, pasta, ice cream, a way footies.
We love to eat. And of course, you know, throughout
the season you want to fit into your costumes nicely,
and so you kind of like have to watch what
you eat. But then this is our because you know,
like the live show day is long. You know, we
(29:21):
have early cold times. I mean you'll experience it very soon.
You know. We have camera blocking, we have dress rehearsal.
It's nonstout the whole day. So by the time you
actually do the live show, you already danced several times,
and you've been there the whole day, and you've been
in your hair and makeup and costume and everything. So
(29:41):
once that show is done, we have the press line
and then this is when you can finally without and
relaxed and we feel like it's a reset to go
into the next week, so we need to like go
and do something where we don't think about the show.
We don't think about out the corrio for the you know,
(30:01):
I mean, the core is down for the next dance,
but like we don't, we don't think about anything show related,
and we we just go and we grab you know,
our favorite food, whatever we in a mood for that night,
and yeah, we just enjoy ourselves.
Speaker 2 (30:15):
Good for you.
Speaker 1 (30:16):
I mean, there's I honestly, having just done four days
of rehearsal, there's nothing could sound worse than trying to
dance on like a full stomach. So on those show days,
I can only imagine that, like, not only are you
working such long hours, you're just kind of grazing. You're
like a couple of nuts here a banana, because like
all the bouncing around on a full stomach sounds terrible.
Speaker 3 (30:36):
And you also, you on one hand, you want to
be hydrated, but on the other hand, with those costumes,
you know, it's not so easy to jump in and
out of them. We need to go to the bathroom.
So it's a it's got to be balanced.
Speaker 1 (30:50):
What do you think your strength is as a partner.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
My strength as a partner, I think I can pull
out the best of war what you have to offer.
And I think I come from a very old school
training bottom dancing, where the belief is that the leader
(31:14):
is the frame and the follower is the picture, right right,
So you present, you gotta be there for her, and
you present her and you make her shine. So since
this show is obviously about the celebrity, you know, learning
how to dance, so for me, I feel like because
(31:35):
I was trained like that and that was my mentality
instead of like look at me, you know, and I'm
the solo beautiful dancer. For me, it was always about
framing my partner, even when I used to compete back
in the day and with dancing with Danielle Denny. He's
gonna say Danielle full name. Wow. Really, I'm even myself
already losing track over here. But so for me, I
(32:00):
feel like I can frame my partner beautifully and make
her shine. So hopefully that's gonna be the case.
Speaker 1 (32:07):
Do you think you have any weaknesses?
Speaker 3 (32:09):
A lot of them. But I'm not gonna I'm not
gonna I'm not gonna tell no, I'm not gonna tell anybody,
you know what I mean, giving away like open an
open book over here, giving up all my cards.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
What would you say? My strength as a partner.
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Is your strength? You're oh, actually a lot of strength
right away. First of all, in terms of physicality, you
are in great shape, great flexibility, great balance, very strong,
very strong. In terms of mental you're coming in with
(32:44):
the right focus. So far, we had four days of rehearsals.
You were in that room for four hours working NonStop,
super focused and memorizing things very well. So you know,
very very focused. That's mental. And then personality wise, I
think you are just a joy to be around. I
love your you know, like your eyes are shining, big
(33:07):
smile all the time. So I think your strength is
going to be everybody falling in love with just with
that spark.
Speaker 1 (33:16):
That you have.
Speaker 2 (33:16):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (33:17):
Now you can tell everyone my weaknesses because it's their
mind and so you don't have to worry about protecting me.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
What are my weaknesses? Okay, you said that your neck
is stiff. Stiff neck. So and we have week one. Oh, actually,
hold on, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to reveal.
Speaker 1 (33:38):
We'll just that.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Yeah, we have deep week one and for that dance,
which can be several dances, you need very sharp head movements.
So therefore we need to make sure that that stiff
neck is not stiff anymore. There's another weakness that you
told me yourself, that you said every time like you
(34:00):
get tenseled something and goes into the shoulders. And of
course in dancing, we have to have long neck and posture.
So that is one thing that we're definitely gonna have
to improve and work on, but I have no doubt
we'll get there pretty fast.
Speaker 1 (34:13):
Okay, all right, final question, what are your goals for
us this season? I may not have dance experience, but
you know I'm in it with the goal of trying
to win it. Yes, So what are your goals for
us this season?
Speaker 3 (34:29):
I want to create as many memorial dances as possible
because I think, and when I say as many, the
more weeks obviously including the finality, the more dances. So
as many many memorial dances as possible, and I hope
that we get to do a freestyle. Yeah. So fun.
Speaker 1 (34:51):
Pasha, thank you so much for being here for being
my first guest. I'm so excited that this news is
out now and we can share it with everybody because
I know it was really art secret.
Speaker 3 (35:01):
Yeah, it was not fun, hiding, not fun at all.
Speaker 1 (35:04):
Well, now the world knows, so thank you for being
here with us, and I'll see you at the party
in a little bit.
Speaker 3 (35:08):
Yes, bye bye.
Speaker 1 (35:12):
Danielle with the Stars Produced and hosted by Danielle Fischell.
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
Hosts And Creators
Will Friedle
Danielle Fishel
Rider Strong
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