For a closer look at one of the most popular shows on network television, USA TODAY sent a reporter to train and salsa with pro Brandon Armstrong.
Watch USA TODAY reporters train with ‘Dancing with the Stars’ pros
USA TODAY’s Anna Kaufman steps into the ballroom to train with “Dancing with the Stars” pros.
LOS ANGELES – In the world of journalism, reporters rarely dress in the costumes of their subjects. you are not a storythe general doctrine dictates.
But every once in a while, you give yourself a few blisters and ditch it for the chance to dance in dazzling heels. At least, that’s what I thought as I sat on the sun-drenched floor of the Dancing with the Stars studio and was handed a plastic bag filled with movies of various sizes.
The show, which pairs celebrity contestants with ballroom dancing professionals, is a Moby Dick for network television, a linear program that has been on the air for 20 years and is riding a wave of ratings. What’s more? The wind driving Season 34 is made up of Gen Z and Millennial viewers.
I’m here for a crash course in the mirrored show’s rehearsal space.
A few days later, as I enter the ballroom for a performance, I find myself cursing the long car trip when this idea is born after a heated debate among friends about which reality show would work.
Clear eyes, blistered ankles, undefeated
But when Brandon Armstrong, the pro assigned to me, stepped into the rehearsal space in front of the entrance to the Ballroom of Fate, I marveled at the height of the heels I was tasked with dancing. If there’s an invisible Mr. Congeniality contest going on on set, Armstrong will definitely take home the crown.
He greeted me like an old friend and instantly helped erase some nightmare scenarios from my intermittent sleep the night before.
He assures us that our dance, salsa, includes some lifts, which aren’t very soothing, but adds, “If the going gets tough, I’ll just lift your little butt up and we’ll gyrate for Jesus.” When I told him I wasn’t a dancer, he insisted, “I’ll make you look like one.” After all, it’s his job.
That fact becomes very clear as we analyze the 8 counts. Armstrong paints a picture of encouragement by elongating the vowel in “yes” to express awe, providing atmospheric sound effects for each action, and light-heartedly cracking jokes between instructions.
Even though my time on set was strictly scheduled, I was shocked at how freely people talked to me. This was in stark contrast to the tightly controlled access to news outlets I was accustomed to.
During rehearsals, Armstrong appeared not to be wrapped in cellophane. He spoke candidly about the increasing pressures of creating social media alongside his traditional professional duties, his concerns over the conflict in Sudan and Palestine, and the 80-year-old contestant who ruined his chance on night one.
The same candor was evident in the hair and makeup trailer. Zena Green and Kimi Messina, veterans of the show, semi-glamorously told me that many of the male contestants use body makeup to contour their abs. They also revealed that “showmances” are sometimes seen breaking out behind the scenes between contestants and professionals.
Showmances that are particularly interesting to viewers are rich and varied.
Deena Katz, a longtime Dancing with the Stars casting director, is similarly honest when talking about her tendency to fall in love with her partner. “I think it’s great. It brings you really close,” she said, adding that she sometimes pairs people together precisely because she thinks there might be a spark.
“You don’t plan for it. Sometimes my gut says so, but… sometimes you just don’t know when it’s going to happen,” she says.
What makes a good ‘DWTS’ contestant? Lack of ego
Back in the studio, Armstrong and I landed a six-step turn in the middle of the choreography, destroying what little confidence we had built up. I’m starting to understand the risks as he lets me join so many times.
My rotation is sloppy and I’m adding an extra step. And all the grand investigative plots quickly melt away, from “Small Town Girl Stops a Massive Move” to “How to Lose Your Dignity in 10 Days.”
Mr. Armstrong keeps us on an even playing field by shaping his teaching to my questions and disarming me with jokes about my personal life. She has been a dancer since she was 10 years old and has been performing in the show for nearly a decade, but she has yet to win the coveted Mirror Ball trophy (she and partner Chandler Kinney placed third last season).
At one point, Mark Ballas, one half of the season’s leading couple, showed up to rehearsal. We met an hour earlier when we stopped by for a practice session with “Mormon Wives” star Whitney Leavitt. Leavitt echoed his advice: “Don’t hold back.”
“Throw yourself headlong into it,” he says. Armstrong said it in seconds.
“It’s a mentality issue. If[contestants]come in and think, ‘I’ve got this,’ they’re going to struggle,” he says. “They have to be excited about learning.”
I try to convey that feeling in the last hour of training. Remember, you are here to report on the process, not to save yourself from embarrassment. However, this thought causes real admiration for celebrities who have overcome this.
To be sure, this is a valuable PR exercise, and a relatively tenuous environment for stars who want to share their stories. But it’s also an act of courage to dedicate months of your life to training for hours a day most days of the week, all the while battling the risk of a serious camera failure.
It is that quality that makes the show a success. Fans need look no further than Andy Richter, this season’s breakout star, for proof of that. Richter has avoided elimination week after week, not because his samba is incandescent, but because it’s refreshing to see a star stripped of his usual affection. He’s miles outside of his comfort zone and provides an authentic perspective on what it’s like to venture that far later in life.
“Whenever there’s a viewer at home who thinks they can’t do it, it’s a great example for America to have someone on the show who says, ‘Look, I’m doing this, so you can do it, too,'” Katz says.
“DWTS” is also a meritocracy at first glance. Fans vote for their favorite dance duo and their metrics are combined with the jury’s scores.
“To me, it’s very reflective of real life,” Armstrong says. “You can choose to run away, but ultimately you will have to pay the rent.”
Everything falls apart under the ballroom lights on ‘Dancing with the Stars’
When the rent was due on Monday morning, I was sitting in my hair and makeup trailer, squeezing together a salsa and getting ready to perform under the disco ball before rehearsal time was over.
Green expertly applies false eyelashes, thick foundation, and a desert brown eye look, while Messina gets to work layering tight curls on top of my head. It looks flashy, but this is by design. If you don’t turn it up to 10 under lights and cameras, “you’ll look like you don’t have anything,” Green says.
Sprayed with water, I was ushered into a mini-rehearsal space outside the ballroom, where I would hear the stars practicing feverishly the next night during a commercial break. Shortly after being told we had 30 minutes to practice, someone popped up and told Armstrong and I that we would be ready in 10 minutes.
USA TODAY reporter Anna Kaufman stands on the DWTS ballroom floor.
After days of preparation, Anna Kaufman gets her shining moment as she dances on the ‘DWTS’ ballroom floor.
When I walk into the ballroom, my heart races to the baby’s toes, even though they look smaller than they look on camera. Unlike the celebrities (and the Los Angeles Times reporter who was equally enamored with the show in 2009), I won’t be facing a live studio audience. But not only the background, but also the appearance of professional people in the audience stirs my nerves.
I woke up in a state of skepticism, but the stage lights quickly erased my confidence, and after three passes through the taped performance, I felt deflated. During the lift, my hand wandered into Armstrong’s face and my movements felt jerky.
But that’s the show. The next night, when I returned to watch the real stars dance, I saw them practicing last-minute exercises backstage, watching them by the sink, next to the snack table, everywhere, feeling the urge to take steps to make sure they remembered all their wrist movements.
But when the lights come on, I wonder how many of you, like me, miss a step you played perfectly in rehearsal, or spend too much time in your head instead of in your body, and watch the instant replay and kick yourself.
But when I finally watch parts of the video again, my feelings are mixed. There were some of the same mistakes I made, but there was something else as well. There are rare moments when I achieve my goals, but it’s really emotional to see the elegant shape of my body that I take to work every day and point out every little detail in the mirror.
From my behind-the-scenes perspective, “Dancing with the Stars” seems to be popular right now for the same reason it didn’t feel awkward when the stars spoke to me. They weren’t afraid of controversy because the show wasn’t built around controversy.
Cameras are always rolling at the filming location. Even in rehearsal alone, Armstrong pointed out some things I hadn’t noticed. If you’re a diva, it’s on tape. But while many reality shows have become fertile ground for expressing larger tensions in America and spilling over into cultural and romantic debates, “Dancing with the Stars” is uninteresting.
“We’re not here to make fun of you or badmouth you, and there are certainly things that happen on camera behind the scenes that we don’t show,” Katz says. “Unlike other shows, the producers aren’t waiting for it.
“It’s not controversial. I don’t want to be political. I think there’s enough of that in the world,” she added. “I think it’s really important to know that you can just sit back, smile and enjoy yourself for two hours on a Tuesday night.”
