Author: Abby Graham
A few nights ago, “Dancing with the Stars Live” took over the Paramount Theater, and I truly don’t think I’ll ever recover. As someone who has spent the past 13 years obsessing over this show—watching, analyzing, screaming when my favorites got robbed—seeing the DWTS pros live was already a dream come true. But what I didn’t expect was to get pulled on stage by Pasha Pashkov, dance my heart out in front of a crowd, and leave with a free cowboy hat. We’ll get to that in a minute.
Stephen Nedoroscik co-hosted the show, and while he may be an Olympic gold medalist, he was no match for the absolute hilarity of the DWTS cast. Gleb Savchenko decided it was his mission to educate Stephen on what it means to be a dancer, dramatically demonstrating how he “wakes up, lives, and breathes dance” like a ballroom philosopher who likes to live without a shirt on. But Stephen had his own tricks up his sleeve; at one point, he pulled out a pommel horse routine in the middle of the stage, and the entire theater lost its mind and had everyone chanting his name.
The pro cast lineup was stacked—Emma Slater, Alan Bersten, Brandon Armstrong, Britt Stewart, Daniella Karagach, Gleb Savchenko, Pasha Pashkov, Rylee Arnold, and Ezra Sosa. And then, mid-show, we got Ezra Sosa’s Official Pro Initiation Ceremony. Was it a performance? Absolutely. Did they treat it like a sacred rite of passage? Also yes. It was peak DWTS humor, finished with dramatic music and official graduation where Ezra said he learned “Nothing…” which was an homage to his season 33 star and criminal, Anna Delvey.
And then, Alan Bersten, who moonlights as an actor now won an Oscar (pictured below) because of his performance in “The Weeping Waltz!” I think “The Donkey And Me” should have won, but that’s just me. It was so dramatic and emotionally charged. He fully embodied an Oscar winner, and he even got pulled off-stage. A true Hollywood actor!
But moving on to the actual dancing. Every routine was incredible, but my personal favorites were “SexyBack” and “Brit and the Boys.” “SexyBack” was smooth, sharp, and soooo hot—a number where everyone on stage looked uh-may-zing. And then the best pro (in my humble opinion), Brit performed “Brit and the Boys” which was pure magic, the kind of performance that made you want to stare until your eyes gave out. The DWTS pros have an insane ability to make choreography look both impossible and completely effortless at the same time; every number they do just proves how talented they are.
And then, the moment that will live in my mind forever: I got pulled up on stage. Pasha Pashkov invited me to dance the DDD (Desert Dance Down) with him, and I blacked out from excitement. The lights, the crowd, being able to dance with the cast—I was starstruck, dancing in front of an entire theater. And then, as if the night wasn’t already the greatest thing to ever happen to me, they gifted me a cowboy hat. A free cowboy hat. I have never known true joy like this. I may be wearing the hat now and have not taken it off since Daniella Karagach gave it to me.
This night was everything. I have spent years watching DWTS, getting way too invested in eliminations, defending my favorite pros like it was my job, and creating fake emails to vote for my favorites, and last night, I finally got to experience the magic live. The talent, the humor, the unexpected pommel horse routines— I felt like a kid in a candy store. If you ever get the chance to see “Dancing with the Stars Live,” GO!! You’ll scream, you’ll laugh, you might even cry (Alan Bersten definitely will), and if you’re lucky, you just might end up on stage, dancing with the cast!
Abby Graham I KXSU Music & Arts Reporter