September 10, 2025 • 29 mins
We're just days away from the premiere of Dancing with the Stars Season 34 and Danielle is ready to move! Even if her hamstring isn’t.
We find out how her rehearsals with Pasha have been going, how she's taking care of her body and which ABC sitcom star she recently fangirled over.
Plus, we find out what familiar faces will be in the audience for her ballroom debut! It’s all coming together - for a new Danielle with the Stars!!
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hello. It is podcaster, TV director, and mom of two,
but forever known to most as Tapanga from the nostalgic
TGIA favorite Boy Meets World. Currently, though, I am deep
in the process of learning how to ballroom dance for
season thirty four of Dancing with the Stars, and still
I have absolutely no experience in the field. I'm not
(00:36):
even sure I should be doing this. But one thing
I am sure of. I will be keeping you updated
in the form of this podcast, Danielle with the Stars,
chronicling my entire journey to place a mirror ball on
my shelf and show it off to everyone whoever enters
my home. Wa. I have started week two of training
(00:59):
for Dancing with the Stars. I have so many updates
for you. We have been so busy. Before I started
the show, everyone said to me, Oh, just you wait,
this schedule is gonna be insane, and I thought I
had a pretty good understanding of how it was going
to be, and even hearing like, oh, you rehearse for
(01:19):
four hours a day, six days a week, and I thought, yeah,
that sounds like a long time. And I thought, but
you know, four hours a day is not that bad.
Let me tell you something. Four hours a day of
high physical exertion is so much time. And I get
(01:41):
to my practices early. Pasha and I stretch because boy,
if you are not warmed up, you could really do
some damage to your body. So, you know, we also
do like a lot of morning rehearsals we have. So
the way the rehearsal schedule is broken up is you
either pick nine am to one pm, or you pick
one pm to five pm, or you pick five pm
(02:03):
to nine pm. So when I first got that schedule
and they were like, let me know what your preferences
are for rehearsals, I was like, oh, I'm definitely a
nine to one or a one to five. As a
matter of fact, I can never do five to nine,
I said. And now that I'm looking back on it,
I'm like, ooh, maybe I need some five to nines
because at least, if you're working out and you're dancing
(02:24):
from five pm to nine pm, you have an entire
day to get warm. When you have a nine am rehearsal,
I'm waking up at my normal five thirty six o'clock,
making my kids lunches, getting my bag together that I
need to do, taking a shower, putting on my workout
clothes and then getting there and like trying to warm
up your body so that you're ready to dance is
(02:45):
not a quick process. So we get there early so
that we can stretch and make sure we're keeping our
bodies healthy, and then it's still just hard. Like I
have a cryotherapy appointment after I record this podcast. I've
never done cryotherapy. I ordered one thousand dollar compression boots
(03:10):
for my legs. I listen, that may sound insane. It
sounded insane to me when I went to go order them,
and I thought, You're only going to be doing this
for a couple of months. Is this a worthwhile investment?
And with the way my hamstrings feel right now, it
was an immediate yes, this is worth the investment. So
(03:33):
I have been going to get massages, not at like
nice spa places. I'm talking about places where it's someone
with an elbow and they're just jamming that elbow into
every muscle of your body, high up into my neck,
high into my hamstrings. Just an absolute painful experience. With
(03:57):
that said, I've never had so much fun in my
entire life. It is the best thing I've ever done.
I am already sad that this means it's going to
be over at some point. I'm completely obsessed with it.
I have already told Jensen that I'm not sure how
(04:19):
we're going to work this out, but I'm pretty sure
I have to be a full time dancer now. And guys,
when am I going to find time to record podcasts?
I don't know, but dance is my number one priority
next to my children. Uh. It's the greatest thing I've
ever done. I wake up every single day excited to
get into the studio. I'm so lucky that Pasha is
(04:44):
my pro dancer. When I tell you that, at this stage,
we're on like day eight of rehearsal and we've now
shown the dance to a couple of people, and everyone's like, wow,
you guys have done all of that in a week.
And Pasha is so quick to like give me a
compliment about that I'm a fast learner and that I'm
(05:07):
coordinated and that I am flexible. Like he's so fast
to give me the compliments. It has nothing to do
with me. He is so smart about the way he teaches.
He's told me right from day one. He's like, we're
going to learn in layers. You're going to learn the
space layer. Then once you have the space layer down,
(05:27):
I'm going to teach you another layer. And I told
him that my goal was for us to have one
day of tweaks. We've already had a few days of
just fine tweaking. And that doesn't mean I'm close to
perfection yet. I'm definitely not. I still have places to
grow and lots of things to get right. But he's
been so methodical about the way he has taught me.
(05:50):
I feel like it just all makes sense. I'm no longer.
There are things that when I first started remembering the
steps was all I could think about. But then I
would have this look on my face that was, you know,
kind of like RBF. But that's because I was thinking
so much. I was just like and then I'm like
day three. He said, all right, now, you're gonna count
(06:13):
and I went what He said, Yeah, I've been doing
the counts all this time out loud, one, two, three,
and four, and I was like, wait, no, no, I've been
listening to you, but I haven't been paying attention enough
for me to do it out loud. And he said,
then I'll do it with you, and he did it
with me a few times. Through the whole dance. Then
the next day he was like, it's on you all
by yourself, and I got that down. By the time
(06:36):
that day was over, I felt really confident with that,
which was great because then that night when I go
to bed, I was able to close my eyes and
without having to watch the video of our dance, just
by the counts, I was able to close my eyes
and imagine every step of the dance. And then if
there was a moment where I was like, wait, what
(06:56):
do I do there? Then I could go look at
the tape and be like, ah, that's that one. I
need to remember that to that step. So by the
time we like then we accomplished that goal, I could
count the whole thing. And then the next thing he
said was now I need you to show it on
your face and to like let go of your brain.
Stop dancing with your brain, start dancing with your heart.
(07:18):
And I was like, okay. And you'd think, having been
an actor for the majority of my life that that
would be super easy for me, but my little acting
chops needed to be dusted off. They had been on
a shelf for a long time. I was still also
just in my head thinking about the steps thinking about
(07:39):
having a long neck, which does not come naturally to me.
I am a typing shoulders up in my ears like
this type of person, and I've had to learn to
elongate my neck. So I'm still I was still a
little bit in my head. But after a full day
of him telling me I need more intensity, I need
to see more intensity, yesterday was a day that I
(08:01):
was like, I got it now. And then today he
brought in an audience, our troop members who are incredible
and amazing. I got to meet all of them today.
So he brought in the troop, and it was his
goal was to see whether or not having an audience
threw me off, because when you're doing the live show
(08:23):
and there's a five hundred people in the audience watching you,
they clap in weird places, they hoot and holler, somebody
goes whoa, and like, if you've only been doing your
dance in a quiet room with you and your pro,
that could really throw you off. So he brought in
the Troop, who were very vocal. And when I tell you,
I came alive in front of that audience. It felt different,
(08:46):
it looked different. We recorded it. Pasha was so happy
like he had a huge smile on his face. He
was like, that was your best performance yet, which felt
really good, and I feel very proud. I'm still very achy.
(09:15):
Like I said, I can't wait to get to cryotherapy.
But it's also been a very exciting week. We have
had a lot of events. This past Friday, we had
the Hulu End of Summer Soiree, which was so much fun.
Pasha and I got to walk the red carpet. I
got to meet Quinta Brunson, who if you guys understood
(09:37):
what a fan I was of hers, it was There've
only been like a couple times, truly, like a handful
of times in my life where I have lost my
cool around someone. One was Michael Keaton to j Cole three.
Quinta Bronson, I like fully saw her. I was like,
I grabbed Pasha's arm. I was like, before we leave tonight,
I have to get a picture with Quinta. Then I
(09:59):
got to talk to her on the red carpet. Was
very excited. She is apparently a fan of mine, which
blew my mind. She is lovely and smart and kind
and cool and calm, and I was none of those things.
We had a great time at that party. The red
carpet was wonderful. We got to talk to a lot
of different outlets, and then when we were done with
(10:21):
the red carpet, we were all very sweaty because don't
ask me why they did this, but they set the
red carpet up directly in the sun and we were
all just melting. But it was still great, great interviews,
great people. And then we turned the corner and we
went inside and the Shifting Gears cast and producers were
(10:44):
standing there taking a group picture and I waited for
their picture to be done, and then I wiggled my
way in there and we all just screamed upon seeing
each other. They had asked me to direct one of
their episodes for season two and I had said yes,
and then I ended up agreeing to do Dancing with
the Stars, and so I had to back out of
(11:04):
my episode of Shifting Gears for the time being. And
so they understood. They knew why they're so supportive. They
were so excited to see me, and I was so
excited to see them. So I got to talk to
everybody about what this experience has been like. Kat Dennings
is just a true gem of a human being. And
(11:24):
she's so excited for me, so I'm really hoping that
she'll come and watch me in the ballroom one week,
along with a bunch of the other cast as well.
So that was great. Then we took a really beautiful
Dancing with the Stars portrait in the People Portrait room
and it's a very cute picture. It looks like a
(11:45):
family portrait, looks like the two people in the middle
or the matriarch and the patriarch, and then there's like
a bunch of grandkids around. It was really nice. So
we took that group picture with all the pros and
all the celebs that were there, and then also Dina
Katz and Conrad from the BBC, so that was incredibly fun.
(12:06):
The food was really good there. There was carmel gelato
at the end of the night, which I hope Pasha
doesn't mind that I'm blowing up a spot, but I
will tell you that Pasha ate three bowls of carmel gelato.
He offered me one every time he had one, and
I was like, I'm good with the one, and if
I'm being honest, I probably would have definitely had a second,
(12:28):
but I chose not to because boy, I'm getting into
dancer shape. It's happened very quickly. I'm not trying to
lose weight. I'm not opposed to it. I was looking
forward to getting into good shape. But I did not
come into this going I'm going to lose pounds. I
(12:49):
just was like, I'm going to work as hard as
I possibly can, and whatever happens to my body happens
to my body. But I know I'll be fitter and
stronger by the time this is over. I have lost
five pounds in eight days now. A lot of that
is probably water weight. I'm sweating way more than usual.
I'm hydrating way more than usual because i have no choice.
(13:14):
I'm putting electrolytes in my water. I'm trying to do
all of the things, and I'm also eating very clean.
I have been eating brown rice, broccoli, asparagus, and then
either shrimp, chicken, or steak, or a little bit of
all of the above. But that's mostly what my diet
has consisted of. There have been a couple instances of
(13:37):
Chuck E Cheese pizza because when I've been with my boys,
we've gone to Chuck E Cheese and I thought, you
know what, it's okay. Have some chuck e cheese pizza.
So there have been some nights like that. But I'm
eating really clean and I'm, you know, spending a minimum
of four hours a day dancing, so I guess it
makes sense. But it's happening very quickly. My legs are
(13:58):
very toned, my arms are very toned, and we're not
even to the first live show yet, so I truly
cannot imagine what I'm going to look like when this
is done. But maybe I'll do a bodybuilding competition or something.
Who knows, you know, it's my year of Yes, why
why stop with just dancing? Why not just take it
one step further? Who knows what the future holds for me?
(14:22):
So we had the end of Summer soiree, which was amazing,
and then two nights later, this past Sunday night, I
was asked to present the award for Best Director of
a Reality Program and Best Director of a Documentary at
the Creative Arts Emmys, which is quite an honor. I
(14:44):
was very excited to be asked, and as someone who
was nominated for a Creative Arts Emmy for directing a
multiicam for Ravens Home, it felt very nice to be
a part of it. On this side where I got
to give someone an award, and I was on the
other side I lost. But on this side, I got
to give someone an award and I got to say congratulations,
(15:06):
and I got to hold the Emmy, which there was
a part of me that's I'm not usually superstitious, but
I was like, I don't want to hold an Emmy
until it's mine. But I had no choice. I was presenting,
so I had to do it. So if I never
win an Emmy, I'm gonna say it's because I held
the Emmy before I won. But anyway, I digress. I
also ran into Otsko, who is one of my favorite
(15:30):
comedians in the entire world. Between Otsco and Quinta, it
was quite a weekend of fangirling for me. Another person
who when I walked up to her and I had
no chill and no cool, and I was like, oh
my gosh, I'm such a big fan of yours. Can
I please take a picture? And she was like, girl,
I've been over here trying to figure out how I
(15:50):
was going to make this run and happen. And I
was like, oh, I just go right for no chill,
just immediate, Hi, I'm a fan please let me take
a picture with you, which I don't know. Maybe after
being in the business for thirty some odd years, I
should have a different, more cool approach, but I'm an
elder millennial. We have no coolness. We're just we're just
(16:13):
like real straight, straightforward with our nerdiness if I'm going
to be blunt, But I got to take some great
pictures with her, which meant a lot. I was hoping
to present an award to mister a Mere Questlove Thompson.
He was nominated for Best Director of a Documentary. Another
very deserving person won it. But I did get to
(16:34):
see Questlove in the holding room where they have the
presenters before they go out, and Questlove and I filmed
a TikTok that I'm very excited about. So yeah, it
was just a really super fun night. Great. I absolutely loved,
(16:55):
have loved my glam from beginning to end of this experience.
It's been so long since I've had to be in
front of the camera. Like, of course, I went to
The Wizards Beyond Waverley Place premiere and I did a
couple of interviews for that, but like, I'm not the
star of that show. I'm not even on that show.
I'm just a director of that show, so it has
I haven't felt like I've had to be the person
(17:17):
in front of the camera for a really long time.
And I have then had a couple of wardrobe fittings
with my wonderful stylist, Mimi. She's brought me a bunch
of stuff. We tried it all on. I picked like
twelve outfits that I was like, I love these, top
to bottom, I love these. This is what I'm going
to buy all of these. I'm going to keep them
in my closet and then when something comes up, I'm
(17:37):
going to have it. So for the Emmys, I did
not have a red carpet look planned and Mimi wasn't available,
and so I was like, oh, what am I going
to do? I have to find something. So I went
online and I went to Bronx and Banco, which is
a company that made the dress that I wore for
the iHeart Music Festival last year when I ran into
j Cole and you may have seen that video it
(17:58):
went viral of me seeing Jake and being thrilled to
see him. They made that super cute dress. It's like
white lace with shoulder pads and it was Mini. It
was so cute, so I know I like that brand.
So I went to the Bronx and Banco website and
I started looking at things, and then I found I
went to Nemen's and I went to sacks All online
(18:19):
to see who could ship stuff to me the fastest,
and I picked a dress that's this big production, I
mean feathers around my hands, deep plunging v in the front,
high slit shearer. And I was like, I this feels crazy,
but it arrived. I tried it on. I did not
have to make a single alteration to it. I did
(18:41):
order two sizes. I wasn't sure if I was going
to be a smaller an extra small, and I ended
up going with the extra small. Absolutely loved the dress.
And then my best friend, one of my best friends
for since I've been twelve years old. Her name is
Jamie Hargreaves, and if you want to check her out
and see all of her beautiful jewelry, you can check
out on Instagram at Forever Fine Jewelry. And when I
(19:03):
tell you that it pays off to have a bestie
who works with diamonds, let me tell you it has
been very special. I call her I'm like, listen, I'm
presenting an award. Here's a picture of the dress I'm wearing.
What do you got? And she comes to my house.
She's got a bunch of different jewelry, she lets me
try it on. I pick the things that I think
are going to look best, and then I get to
(19:25):
borrow it for the night, and then she comes back
the next day and picks it up. So that has
been amazing. She's going to be working with me throughout
the season whenever there's an opportunity for me to wear
great diamonds or gemstones for different dances, for different red
carpet events, She's going to be on call. Also. My
hair and makeup team who I have had forever. My
(19:48):
hairdresser at Underscore Hair by Laurie Lori Heaps. She's the
one who did my fantastic original Topanga haircut back in
nineteen ninety five. She has been doing my hair ever since,
so truly, for twenty nine years, Laurie Heaps has cut
and colored my hair. She still does all my glam
(20:09):
for every event, and she's been killing it. So she
took care of my hair. My makeup artist Julie Cuomo,
who I met when I was hosting the show called
The Dish for the Style Network. She worked at G four.
She's been my makeup artist since then. I was twenty
seven then, so we're almost at, you know, twenty years there,
(20:30):
or at least at seventeen years. She is on Instagram too,
Julie the Number four makeup, that's Julie for makeup. I
do the same thing with them. I send them a
picture of what I'm wearing. They come up with inspo,
and then they send me pictures. They go, what do
you think about this? And the truth is I say
to them every single time, whatever you think. I trust
(20:51):
them so implicitly. I don't even need to have a
hand in it. I just know that if they like it,
I'm going to love it, and so I let them
do their thing, which is also what my relationship has
been like now with Pasha. I just whatever he says,
I listen to him. Whatever he wants to do, we do,
(21:12):
which includes social media. How is Pasha so good at
so many things? Our social media game has been on fire,
if I do say so myself. And seventy percent of
the ideas are Pasha's and they're all so funny. His
(21:34):
acting is so good. He's just killing it. And I
like how we're finding time to record the stuff we're recording.
I don't know. I will tell you we were both
so so excited about our construction TikTok to roadwork rapping
by asap Rock. We were we put in so much
(21:57):
effort into that TikTok that and we were we just
love it, and apparently none of you guys do, which
you know, it's fine, it's totally fine. You don't have
to like it. We did it for us, but it
would feel more validating if you guys liked it too,
because boy, we love it so much. It's so stupid.
It's so stupid. It's first of all, it's a great song.
(22:17):
It's a rap song about construction vehicles for children by
a very successful, very famous, legitimate rapper, asap Rock. And
then it's the two of us goofballs in a hard
hat and construction bests dancing if you want to call
it that on a construction site to the song that's
(22:39):
so dumb. Why isn't everybody loving it? I don't know.
Maybe we just have an odd sense of humor, but
at least you're liking all the rest of them, which
means a lot to us. We love reading your comments,
we love engaging with you. It's been just an absolute blast.
(23:05):
My notes for myself moving into the final week before
we go live, so we've got eight days before the
first live show. My big note for myself is I
have to take care of my body. I haven't been
as good about it as I wanted to be. I
(23:26):
have been rehearsing, and then we've had meetings, or we've
had glam or we've had interviews, and then events, and
then I come home and I want to be present
with my kids, and or I want to be present
with my husband. And then by the time it's like okay,
now's when you would take an ice bath, or now
is when you would get a massage or something. I'm
so tired. I've just been going to sleep, so I
(23:48):
probably haven't been stretching as much as I should be.
I'm definitely starting cryotherapy. I did buy an ice bath,
like an inflatable ice bath that, thank goodness, mister Will
recommended to me. He sent me a link. He's like,
you're gonna need one of these, and I said, this
is an immediate purchase. So it helps to have best
(24:09):
friends that are super supportive. Speaking of best friends who
are super supportive, Will and Writer are both gonna come
to my first live show, which is really gonna mean
a lot to me to have them there. We only
get six family tickets, and so I think the first
week it's gonna be Jensen and my boys, my mom,
(24:32):
my dad, and my dad's wife. I would love if
my brother could be there. I would love if my
aunt and uncle Andy Joanne and uncle Pete could be there,
and that would, for that first week really make me
feel like my core, like my super support system is
(24:53):
there for me because I'm between Will and Writer, like
my two best friends and my family. But I don't
think I'm gonna be able to get nine tickets. Did
email and say, is there anyone who maybe isn't using
all their tickets? Maybe I could borrow some. There's also
a green room apparently that is a viewing room that
they said if you have young kids and you're worried
your kids aren't going to be able to sit and
(25:14):
stay still for two hours, they could watch from the
viewing room. But I don't want Jensen to have to
watch strictly from the viewing room, so I asked if
maybe Jensen and the boys stayed out there for my dance,
but then somebody took the boys back to the green room.
Could I have Like, could I have nine tickets but
three people are in the viewing room and six people
are on the floor, And then if they want to
switch at some point, they could switch. So I'm trying
(25:35):
to be creative and I know that they'll do their best,
but also I don't want it to be unfair. I
know that it would be unfair if they were like,
Danielle's going to get nine tickets and everyone else gets six.
But maybe if someone volunteers their tickets, maybe if they
don't need their three tickets, I could get them. If not,
I told them it's no big deal. I'll split them
between week one and week two. I will I honestly,
(25:56):
I'd break down in hysterical tears. I would break down
in hysterical tears if I go home on week one.
So please, I beg of you. Please vote Danielle to
two one, five, two three. Yeah. I haven't memorized because
you guys have left it in the comments A couple
of times. I'm like thanks, So I'm gonna start handing
it out to people. I need a business card anyway.
Thank you guys for listening to this episode of Danielle
(26:17):
with the Stars. It has been a true joy to
be dancing and recording this podcast. At the same time,
we have some really great guests coming up that I
can't wait for you to hear about. And I'm going
to be recording my next solo episode before you know it.
My next guest is actually Sabrina Brian, a two time
(26:40):
competitor on Dancing with the Stars. She competed originally in
two thousand and seven and then she was in the
All Star season. How do I sign up for an
All Star season? When does that happen? Also? How do
I sign up for tour? I'm just guys, I'm not
gonna be able to do anything else. I don't know
if you understand. So while I was at the Emmys,
(27:01):
I ran into Whitney Levitt and Jen Affleck. They were
also presenting an award. They were presenting an award for
Best Hair and Makeup. And it's so fun to run
into your fellow Dancing with the Stars competitors at all
these different events. It's so nice to see each other
outside of our element. Because now our element is workout
(27:22):
clothes and in the studio, and we barely get to
see each other when we're in the studio because we arrive.
Like I told you, there's these three timeframes for rehearsals,
so everyone is either arriving around the same time at nine,
But then you walk to your room, you stretch, and
you're basically locked in your room for the next four hours.
But in the in between, like at the you know
(27:43):
you rehearse from nine to one. You exit your room
at one o'clock. Now all the people who are rehearsing
one to five start arriving. There's a little snack area
near the bathrooms. Everyone sits and socializes and talks and
gives each other hugs and says, how's it going, how
are you feeling? What are you doing to take care
of yourself? We get pulled into each other's rooms to
(28:05):
shoot tiktoks. I helped Whitney and Mark shoot the end
of their best friend TikTok that they posted a few
days ago, which was really cute. Mark came in just
to talk to us. Mark and Pasha are like brothers,
so Mark came in before Whitney was there. The other
day and just spent about ten minutes chatting with us
and telling us about how what his choreography stuff is like,
(28:25):
and he said that he's not super fast. He's like
I like to be slow and sometimes things change. And
you'll hear more about that when you hear my interview
with Sabrina Bryan as well, because she talked a lot
about how he would occasionally change things and just to her,
it just felt like he was comfortable doing that because
he knew she could handle it, so it was actually
(28:47):
a big vote of confidence for her. Thank you all
for listening to this episode of Danielle with the Stars.
You can follow us on Instagram Danielle with Stars. Make
sure to follow us there like all of our content,
and then also check out our dedicated feed for Danielle
with the Stars. You can go there and get all
of the episodes like and please subscribe and give us
(29:10):
a five star review unless you don't like us, in
which case, don't leave a review. Just pretend you never
heard it. And remember to vote for me on Dancing
with the Stars starting September sixteenth and live every Tuesday
after that until your votes send me home. So let's
keep it going. Tell eleven twenty five people love you, guys,
(29:33):
thanks for being here. Danielle with the Stars Produced and
hosted by Danielle Fischl. 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. It is podcaster, TV director, and mom of two,
but forever known to most as Tapanga from the nostalgic
TGIA favorite Boy Meets World. Currently, though, I am deep
in the process of learning how to ballroom dance for
season thirty four of Dancing with the Stars, and still
I have absolutely no experience in the field. I'm not
(00:36):
even sure I should be doing this. But one thing
I am sure of. I will be keeping you updated
in the form of this podcast, Danielle with the Stars,
chronicling my entire journey to place a mirror ball on
my shelf and show it off to everyone whoever enters
my home. Wa. I have started week two of training
(00:59):
for Dancing with the Stars. I have so many updates
for you. We have been so busy. Before I started
the show, everyone said to me, Oh, just you wait,
this schedule is gonna be insane, and I thought I
had a pretty good understanding of how it was going
to be, and even hearing like, oh, you rehearse for
(01:19):
four hours a day, six days a week, and I thought, yeah,
that sounds like a long time. And I thought, but
you know, four hours a day is not that bad.
Let me tell you something. Four hours a day of
high physical exertion is so much time. And I get
(01:41):
to my practices early. Pasha and I stretch because boy,
if you are not warmed up, you could really do
some damage to your body. So, you know, we also
do like a lot of morning rehearsals we have. So
the way the rehearsal schedule is broken up is you
either pick nine am to one pm, or you pick
one pm to five pm, or you pick five pm
(02:03):
to nine pm. So when I first got that schedule
and they were like, let me know what your preferences
are for rehearsals, I was like, oh, I'm definitely a
nine to one or a one to five. As a
matter of fact, I can never do five to nine,
I said. And now that I'm looking back on it,
I'm like, ooh, maybe I need some five to nines
because at least, if you're working out and you're dancing
(02:24):
from five pm to nine pm, you have an entire
day to get warm. When you have a nine am rehearsal,
I'm waking up at my normal five thirty six o'clock,
making my kids lunches, getting my bag together that I
need to do, taking a shower, putting on my workout
clothes and then getting there and like trying to warm
up your body so that you're ready to dance is
(02:45):
not a quick process. So we get there early so
that we can stretch and make sure we're keeping our
bodies healthy, and then it's still just hard. Like I
have a cryotherapy appointment after I record this podcast. I've
never done cryotherapy. I ordered one thousand dollar compression boots
(03:10):
for my legs. I listen, that may sound insane. It
sounded insane to me when I went to go order them,
and I thought, You're only going to be doing this
for a couple of months. Is this a worthwhile investment?
And with the way my hamstrings feel right now, it
was an immediate yes, this is worth the investment. So
(03:33):
I have been going to get massages, not at like
nice spa places. I'm talking about places where it's someone
with an elbow and they're just jamming that elbow into
every muscle of your body, high up into my neck,
high into my hamstrings. Just an absolute painful experience. With
(03:57):
that said, I've never had so much fun in my
entire life. It is the best thing I've ever done.
I am already sad that this means it's going to
be over at some point. I'm completely obsessed with it.
I have already told Jensen that I'm not sure how
(04:19):
we're going to work this out, but I'm pretty sure
I have to be a full time dancer now. And guys,
when am I going to find time to record podcasts?
I don't know, but dance is my number one priority
next to my children. Uh. It's the greatest thing I've
ever done. I wake up every single day excited to
get into the studio. I'm so lucky that Pasha is
(04:44):
my pro dancer. When I tell you that, at this stage,
we're on like day eight of rehearsal and we've now
shown the dance to a couple of people, and everyone's like, wow,
you guys have done all of that in a week.
And Pasha is so quick to like give me a
compliment about that I'm a fast learner and that I'm
(05:07):
coordinated and that I am flexible. Like he's so fast
to give me the compliments. It has nothing to do
with me. He is so smart about the way he teaches.
He's told me right from day one. He's like, we're
going to learn in layers. You're going to learn the
space layer. Then once you have the space layer down,
(05:27):
I'm going to teach you another layer. And I told
him that my goal was for us to have one
day of tweaks. We've already had a few days of
just fine tweaking. And that doesn't mean I'm close to
perfection yet. I'm definitely not. I still have places to
grow and lots of things to get right. But he's
been so methodical about the way he has taught me.
(05:50):
I feel like it just all makes sense. I'm no longer.
There are things that when I first started remembering the
steps was all I could think about. But then I
would have this look on my face that was, you know,
kind of like RBF. But that's because I was thinking
so much. I was just like and then I'm like
day three. He said, all right, now, you're gonna count
(06:13):
and I went what He said, Yeah, I've been doing
the counts all this time out loud, one, two, three,
and four, and I was like, wait, no, no, I've been
listening to you, but I haven't been paying attention enough
for me to do it out loud. And he said,
then I'll do it with you, and he did it
with me a few times. Through the whole dance. Then
the next day he was like, it's on you all
by yourself, and I got that down. By the time
(06:36):
that day was over, I felt really confident with that,
which was great because then that night when I go
to bed, I was able to close my eyes and
without having to watch the video of our dance, just
by the counts, I was able to close my eyes
and imagine every step of the dance. And then if
there was a moment where I was like, wait, what
(06:56):
do I do there? Then I could go look at
the tape and be like, ah, that's that one. I
need to remember that to that step. So by the
time we like then we accomplished that goal, I could
count the whole thing. And then the next thing he
said was now I need you to show it on
your face and to like let go of your brain.
Stop dancing with your brain, start dancing with your heart.
(07:18):
And I was like, okay. And you'd think, having been
an actor for the majority of my life that that
would be super easy for me, but my little acting
chops needed to be dusted off. They had been on
a shelf for a long time. I was still also
just in my head thinking about the steps thinking about
(07:39):
having a long neck, which does not come naturally to me.
I am a typing shoulders up in my ears like
this type of person, and I've had to learn to
elongate my neck. So I'm still I was still a
little bit in my head. But after a full day
of him telling me I need more intensity, I need
to see more intensity, yesterday was a day that I
(08:01):
was like, I got it now. And then today he
brought in an audience, our troop members who are incredible
and amazing. I got to meet all of them today.
So he brought in the troop, and it was his
goal was to see whether or not having an audience
threw me off, because when you're doing the live show
(08:23):
and there's a five hundred people in the audience watching you,
they clap in weird places, they hoot and holler, somebody
goes whoa, and like, if you've only been doing your
dance in a quiet room with you and your pro,
that could really throw you off. So he brought in
the Troop, who were very vocal. And when I tell you,
I came alive in front of that audience. It felt different,
(08:46):
it looked different. We recorded it. Pasha was so happy
like he had a huge smile on his face. He
was like, that was your best performance yet, which felt
really good, and I feel very proud. I'm still very achy.
(09:15):
Like I said, I can't wait to get to cryotherapy.
But it's also been a very exciting week. We have
had a lot of events. This past Friday, we had
the Hulu End of Summer Soiree, which was so much fun.
Pasha and I got to walk the red carpet. I
got to meet Quinta Brunson, who if you guys understood
(09:37):
what a fan I was of hers, it was There've
only been like a couple times, truly, like a handful
of times in my life where I have lost my
cool around someone. One was Michael Keaton to j Cole three.
Quinta Bronson, I like fully saw her. I was like,
I grabbed Pasha's arm. I was like, before we leave tonight,
I have to get a picture with Quinta. Then I
(09:59):
got to talk to her on the red carpet. Was
very excited. She is apparently a fan of mine, which
blew my mind. She is lovely and smart and kind
and cool and calm, and I was none of those things.
We had a great time at that party. The red
carpet was wonderful. We got to talk to a lot
of different outlets, and then when we were done with
(10:21):
the red carpet, we were all very sweaty because don't
ask me why they did this, but they set the
red carpet up directly in the sun and we were
all just melting. But it was still great, great interviews,
great people. And then we turned the corner and we
went inside and the Shifting Gears cast and producers were
(10:44):
standing there taking a group picture and I waited for
their picture to be done, and then I wiggled my
way in there and we all just screamed upon seeing
each other. They had asked me to direct one of
their episodes for season two and I had said yes,
and then I ended up agreeing to do Dancing with
the Stars, and so I had to back out of
(11:04):
my episode of Shifting Gears for the time being. And
so they understood. They knew why they're so supportive. They
were so excited to see me, and I was so
excited to see them. So I got to talk to
everybody about what this experience has been like. Kat Dennings
is just a true gem of a human being. And
(11:24):
she's so excited for me, so I'm really hoping that
she'll come and watch me in the ballroom one week,
along with a bunch of the other cast as well.
So that was great. Then we took a really beautiful
Dancing with the Stars portrait in the People Portrait room
and it's a very cute picture. It looks like a
(11:45):
family portrait, looks like the two people in the middle
or the matriarch and the patriarch, and then there's like
a bunch of grandkids around. It was really nice. So
we took that group picture with all the pros and
all the celebs that were there, and then also Dina
Katz and Conrad from the BBC, so that was incredibly fun.
(12:06):
The food was really good there. There was carmel gelato
at the end of the night, which I hope Pasha
doesn't mind that I'm blowing up a spot, but I
will tell you that Pasha ate three bowls of carmel gelato.
He offered me one every time he had one, and
I was like, I'm good with the one, and if
I'm being honest, I probably would have definitely had a second,
(12:28):
but I chose not to because boy, I'm getting into
dancer shape. It's happened very quickly. I'm not trying to
lose weight. I'm not opposed to it. I was looking
forward to getting into good shape. But I did not
come into this going I'm going to lose pounds. I
(12:49):
just was like, I'm going to work as hard as
I possibly can, and whatever happens to my body happens
to my body. But I know I'll be fitter and
stronger by the time this is over. I have lost
five pounds in eight days now. A lot of that
is probably water weight. I'm sweating way more than usual.
I'm hydrating way more than usual because i have no choice.
(13:14):
I'm putting electrolytes in my water. I'm trying to do
all of the things, and I'm also eating very clean.
I have been eating brown rice, broccoli, asparagus, and then
either shrimp, chicken, or steak, or a little bit of
all of the above. But that's mostly what my diet
has consisted of. There have been a couple instances of
(13:37):
Chuck E Cheese pizza because when I've been with my boys,
we've gone to Chuck E Cheese and I thought, you
know what, it's okay. Have some chuck e cheese pizza.
So there have been some nights like that. But I'm
eating really clean and I'm, you know, spending a minimum
of four hours a day dancing, so I guess it
makes sense. But it's happening very quickly. My legs are
(13:58):
very toned, my arms are very toned, and we're not
even to the first live show yet, so I truly
cannot imagine what I'm going to look like when this
is done. But maybe I'll do a bodybuilding competition or something.
Who knows, you know, it's my year of Yes, why
why stop with just dancing? Why not just take it
one step further? Who knows what the future holds for me?
(14:22):
So we had the end of Summer soiree, which was amazing,
and then two nights later, this past Sunday night, I
was asked to present the award for Best Director of
a Reality Program and Best Director of a Documentary at
the Creative Arts Emmys, which is quite an honor. I
(14:44):
was very excited to be asked, and as someone who
was nominated for a Creative Arts Emmy for directing a
multiicam for Ravens Home, it felt very nice to be
a part of it. On this side where I got
to give someone an award, and I was on the
other side I lost. But on this side, I got
to give someone an award and I got to say congratulations,
(15:06):
and I got to hold the Emmy, which there was
a part of me that's I'm not usually superstitious, but
I was like, I don't want to hold an Emmy
until it's mine. But I had no choice. I was presenting,
so I had to do it. So if I never
win an Emmy, I'm gonna say it's because I held
the Emmy before I won. But anyway, I digress. I
also ran into Otsko, who is one of my favorite
(15:30):
comedians in the entire world. Between Otsco and Quinta, it
was quite a weekend of fangirling for me. Another person
who when I walked up to her and I had
no chill and no cool, and I was like, oh
my gosh, I'm such a big fan of yours. Can
I please take a picture? And she was like, girl,
I've been over here trying to figure out how I
(15:50):
was going to make this run and happen. And I
was like, oh, I just go right for no chill,
just immediate, Hi, I'm a fan please let me take
a picture with you, which I don't know. Maybe after
being in the business for thirty some odd years, I
should have a different, more cool approach, but I'm an
elder millennial. We have no coolness. We're just we're just
(16:13):
like real straight, straightforward with our nerdiness if I'm going
to be blunt, But I got to take some great
pictures with her, which meant a lot. I was hoping
to present an award to mister a Mere Questlove Thompson.
He was nominated for Best Director of a Documentary. Another
very deserving person won it. But I did get to
(16:34):
see Questlove in the holding room where they have the
presenters before they go out, and Questlove and I filmed
a TikTok that I'm very excited about. So yeah, it
was just a really super fun night. Great. I absolutely loved,
(16:55):
have loved my glam from beginning to end of this experience.
It's been so long since I've had to be in
front of the camera. Like, of course, I went to
The Wizards Beyond Waverley Place premiere and I did a
couple of interviews for that, but like, I'm not the
star of that show. I'm not even on that show.
I'm just a director of that show, so it has
I haven't felt like I've had to be the person
(17:17):
in front of the camera for a really long time.
And I have then had a couple of wardrobe fittings
with my wonderful stylist, Mimi. She's brought me a bunch
of stuff. We tried it all on. I picked like
twelve outfits that I was like, I love these, top
to bottom, I love these. This is what I'm going
to buy all of these. I'm going to keep them
in my closet and then when something comes up, I'm
(17:37):
going to have it. So for the Emmys, I did
not have a red carpet look planned and Mimi wasn't available,
and so I was like, oh, what am I going
to do? I have to find something. So I went
online and I went to Bronx and Banco, which is
a company that made the dress that I wore for
the iHeart Music Festival last year when I ran into
j Cole and you may have seen that video it
(17:58):
went viral of me seeing Jake and being thrilled to
see him. They made that super cute dress. It's like
white lace with shoulder pads and it was Mini. It
was so cute, so I know I like that brand.
So I went to the Bronx and Banco website and
I started looking at things, and then I found I
went to Nemen's and I went to sacks All online
(18:19):
to see who could ship stuff to me the fastest,
and I picked a dress that's this big production, I
mean feathers around my hands, deep plunging v in the front,
high slit shearer. And I was like, I this feels crazy,
but it arrived. I tried it on. I did not
have to make a single alteration to it. I did
(18:41):
order two sizes. I wasn't sure if I was going
to be a smaller an extra small, and I ended
up going with the extra small. Absolutely loved the dress.
And then my best friend, one of my best friends
for since I've been twelve years old. Her name is
Jamie Hargreaves, and if you want to check her out
and see all of her beautiful jewelry, you can check
out on Instagram at Forever Fine Jewelry. And when I
(19:03):
tell you that it pays off to have a bestie
who works with diamonds, let me tell you it has
been very special. I call her I'm like, listen, I'm
presenting an award. Here's a picture of the dress I'm wearing.
What do you got? And she comes to my house.
She's got a bunch of different jewelry, she lets me
try it on. I pick the things that I think
are going to look best, and then I get to
(19:25):
borrow it for the night, and then she comes back
the next day and picks it up. So that has
been amazing. She's going to be working with me throughout
the season whenever there's an opportunity for me to wear
great diamonds or gemstones for different dances, for different red
carpet events, She's going to be on call. Also. My
hair and makeup team who I have had forever. My
(19:48):
hairdresser at Underscore Hair by Laurie Lori Heaps. She's the
one who did my fantastic original Topanga haircut back in
nineteen ninety five. She has been doing my hair ever since,
so truly, for twenty nine years, Laurie Heaps has cut
and colored my hair. She still does all my glam
(20:09):
for every event, and she's been killing it. So she
took care of my hair. My makeup artist Julie Cuomo,
who I met when I was hosting the show called
The Dish for the Style Network. She worked at G four.
She's been my makeup artist since then. I was twenty
seven then, so we're almost at, you know, twenty years there,
(20:30):
or at least at seventeen years. She is on Instagram too,
Julie the Number four makeup, that's Julie for makeup. I
do the same thing with them. I send them a
picture of what I'm wearing. They come up with inspo,
and then they send me pictures. They go, what do
you think about this? And the truth is I say
to them every single time, whatever you think. I trust
(20:51):
them so implicitly. I don't even need to have a
hand in it. I just know that if they like it,
I'm going to love it, and so I let them
do their thing, which is also what my relationship has
been like now with Pasha. I just whatever he says,
I listen to him. Whatever he wants to do, we do,
(21:12):
which includes social media. How is Pasha so good at
so many things? Our social media game has been on fire,
if I do say so myself. And seventy percent of
the ideas are Pasha's and they're all so funny. His
(21:34):
acting is so good. He's just killing it. And I
like how we're finding time to record the stuff we're recording.
I don't know. I will tell you we were both
so so excited about our construction TikTok to roadwork rapping
by asap Rock. We were we put in so much
(21:57):
effort into that TikTok that and we were we just
love it, and apparently none of you guys do, which
you know, it's fine, it's totally fine. You don't have
to like it. We did it for us, but it
would feel more validating if you guys liked it too,
because boy, we love it so much. It's so stupid.
It's so stupid. It's first of all, it's a great song.
(22:17):
It's a rap song about construction vehicles for children by
a very successful, very famous, legitimate rapper, asap Rock. And
then it's the two of us goofballs in a hard
hat and construction bests dancing if you want to call
it that on a construction site to the song that's
(22:39):
so dumb. Why isn't everybody loving it? I don't know.
Maybe we just have an odd sense of humor, but
at least you're liking all the rest of them, which
means a lot to us. We love reading your comments,
we love engaging with you. It's been just an absolute blast.
(23:05):
My notes for myself moving into the final week before
we go live, so we've got eight days before the
first live show. My big note for myself is I
have to take care of my body. I haven't been
as good about it as I wanted to be. I
(23:26):
have been rehearsing, and then we've had meetings, or we've
had glam or we've had interviews, and then events, and
then I come home and I want to be present
with my kids, and or I want to be present
with my husband. And then by the time it's like okay,
now's when you would take an ice bath, or now
is when you would get a massage or something. I'm
so tired. I've just been going to sleep, so I
(23:48):
probably haven't been stretching as much as I should be.
I'm definitely starting cryotherapy. I did buy an ice bath,
like an inflatable ice bath that, thank goodness, mister Will
recommended to me. He sent me a link. He's like,
you're gonna need one of these, and I said, this
is an immediate purchase. So it helps to have best
(24:09):
friends that are super supportive. Speaking of best friends who
are super supportive, Will and Writer are both gonna come
to my first live show, which is really gonna mean
a lot to me to have them there. We only
get six family tickets, and so I think the first
week it's gonna be Jensen and my boys, my mom,
(24:32):
my dad, and my dad's wife. I would love if
my brother could be there. I would love if my
aunt and uncle Andy Joanne and uncle Pete could be there,
and that would, for that first week really make me
feel like my core, like my super support system is
(24:53):
there for me because I'm between Will and Writer, like
my two best friends and my family. But I don't
think I'm gonna be able to get nine tickets. Did
email and say, is there anyone who maybe isn't using
all their tickets? Maybe I could borrow some. There's also
a green room apparently that is a viewing room that
they said if you have young kids and you're worried
your kids aren't going to be able to sit and
(25:14):
stay still for two hours, they could watch from the
viewing room. But I don't want Jensen to have to
watch strictly from the viewing room, so I asked if
maybe Jensen and the boys stayed out there for my dance,
but then somebody took the boys back to the green room.
Could I have Like, could I have nine tickets but
three people are in the viewing room and six people
are on the floor, And then if they want to
switch at some point, they could switch. So I'm trying
(25:35):
to be creative and I know that they'll do their best,
but also I don't want it to be unfair. I
know that it would be unfair if they were like,
Danielle's going to get nine tickets and everyone else gets six.
But maybe if someone volunteers their tickets, maybe if they
don't need their three tickets, I could get them. If not,
I told them it's no big deal. I'll split them
between week one and week two. I will I honestly,
(25:56):
I'd break down in hysterical tears. I would break down
in hysterical tears if I go home on week one.
So please, I beg of you. Please vote Danielle to
two one, five, two three. Yeah. I haven't memorized because
you guys have left it in the comments A couple
of times. I'm like thanks, So I'm gonna start handing
it out to people. I need a business card anyway.
Thank you guys for listening to this episode of Danielle
(26:17):
with the Stars. It has been a true joy to
be dancing and recording this podcast. At the same time,
we have some really great guests coming up that I
can't wait for you to hear about. And I'm going
to be recording my next solo episode before you know it.
My next guest is actually Sabrina Brian, a two time
(26:40):
competitor on Dancing with the Stars. She competed originally in
two thousand and seven and then she was in the
All Star season. How do I sign up for an
All Star season? When does that happen? Also? How do
I sign up for tour? I'm just guys, I'm not
gonna be able to do anything else. I don't know
if you understand. So while I was at the Emmys,
(27:01):
I ran into Whitney Levitt and Jen Affleck. They were
also presenting an award. They were presenting an award for
Best Hair and Makeup. And it's so fun to run
into your fellow Dancing with the Stars competitors at all
these different events. It's so nice to see each other
outside of our element. Because now our element is workout
(27:22):
clothes and in the studio, and we barely get to
see each other when we're in the studio because we arrive.
Like I told you, there's these three timeframes for rehearsals,
so everyone is either arriving around the same time at nine,
But then you walk to your room, you stretch, and
you're basically locked in your room for the next four hours.
But in the in between, like at the you know
(27:43):
you rehearse from nine to one. You exit your room
at one o'clock. Now all the people who are rehearsing
one to five start arriving. There's a little snack area
near the bathrooms. Everyone sits and socializes and talks and
gives each other hugs and says, how's it going, how
are you feeling? What are you doing to take care
of yourself? We get pulled into each other's rooms to
(28:05):
shoot tiktoks. I helped Whitney and Mark shoot the end
of their best friend TikTok that they posted a few
days ago, which was really cute. Mark came in just
to talk to us. Mark and Pasha are like brothers,
so Mark came in before Whitney was there. The other
day and just spent about ten minutes chatting with us
and telling us about how what his choreography stuff is like,
(28:25):
and he said that he's not super fast. He's like
I like to be slow and sometimes things change. And
you'll hear more about that when you hear my interview
with Sabrina Bryan as well, because she talked a lot
about how he would occasionally change things and just to her,
it just felt like he was comfortable doing that because
he knew she could handle it, so it was actually
(28:47):
a big vote of confidence for her. Thank you all
for listening to this episode of Danielle with the Stars.
You can follow us on Instagram Danielle with Stars. Make
sure to follow us there like all of our content,
and then also check out our dedicated feed for Danielle
with the Stars. You can go there and get all
of the episodes like and please subscribe and give us
(29:10):
a five star review unless you don't like us, in
which case, don't leave a review. Just pretend you never
heard it. And remember to vote for me on Dancing
with the Stars starting September sixteenth and live every Tuesday
after that until your votes send me home. So let's
keep it going. Tell eleven twenty five people love you, guys,
(29:33):
thanks for being here. Danielle with the Stars Produced and
hosted by Danielle Fischl. 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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