“Dancing With the Stars” judge Carrie Ann Inaba defended celebs with dance training after the Season 35 cast reveal, which included experienced dancers Jenna Dewan, Julia Stiles and Harry Shum Jr.
“What’s difficult — and I don’t think people realize this — is when you go from being a jazz dancer or a hip-hop dancer or all the other forms of dancing [to ballroom], the weight placement is so different,” Inaba explained to Entertainment Weekly Monday.
“It’s weird because your body has memory, so it remembers how to dance, and it thinks it already knows how to do these moves, but it doesn’t. It takes a lot of time to un-train the body to put your weight on the front more over your toes instead of back and down and grounded.”
Inaba insisted, “It’s not as easy as people think.”
After the ABC dance competition show revealed this year’s official lineup last week, contestants Dewan, Shum Jr. and Stiles’ castings caused some debate, since they all have previous experience and training.
When asked specifically about those stars, Inaba admitted they “have an advantage in some ways because they’ve got the rhythm and they’ve got the musicality and they know how to dance.”
The judge also noted that they have stronger skills when it comes to learning and remembering choreography compared to some of their counterparts.
However, Inaba also brought up the fact that “it’s been a few years since they’ve all danced.”
Dewan, notably, has over 25 years of extensive professional dance experience, primarily in commercial, hip-hop and contemporary styles. She has been a backup dancer for huge acts including Janet Jackson, Christina Aguilera, Justin Timberlake and Missy Elliott.
Additionally, she appeared in dance films like “Step Up” and on dance series like “World of Dance” and “Come Dance with Me.”
Shum Jr. also has an extensive dance background in hip-hop, commercial, and pop choreography. He was a backup dancer for major stars like Beyoncé, Jennifer Lopez, Mariah Carey and Jessica Simpson.
He also played dancer Mike Chang on “Glee” for six seasons, and appeared in several of the “Step Up” movies as well.
Many “DWTS” fans took to social media to comment on the advantage that Dewan — who is paired with Val Chmerkovskiy — and Shum Jr. — who is paired with Jenna Johnson — may have competing in this season.
“If Jenna Dewan wins #DWTS Season 35, I’m calling RIGGED. It’s completely unfair to the other contestants when Jenna is a professional dancer,” one wrote on X.
“Harry Shum Jr. on Dancing With The Stars doesn’t seem…fair??? Like he’s gonna easily win this, no?” another concerned fan wrote on X.
“Jenna Dewan and Harry Shum Jr. are two trained professional dancers. they had legit successful dance careers before they made it as actors. Not in ballroom but it’s still a very unfair advantage,” yet another added.
But others defended Shum Jr. and Dewan, noting that they are not the first celebs with dance experience to compete on “DWTS.”
“Remember Heather Morris? Nothing is guaranteed,” one fan wrote, referring to Shum Jr.’s fellow “Glee” star and pro dancer who came in eighth place in Season 24. “I’m rooting for [Dewan] and Harry. I want to see you goats tackle ballroom! 💃 🕺”
“I actually don’t have an issue with Jenna Dewan being on DWTS. She’s giving the other celebrities someone to actually compete with,” another agreed.
After all of the backlash, the actress spoke out and defended her casting, insisting that she does “not know how to ballroom dance.”
“Let’s be clear. It’s two different languages,” Dewan told Entertainment Weekly last week. “There’s parts of my dance training that’s helpful, obviously. I’ve learned choreography, I can perform, but there is a certain sense of unlearning for me.”
Chmerkovskiy defended his partner, adding that it’s “naive to think that this show is just about dance.”
Shum Jr. also spoke out against the haters, telling People, “I think everyone’s idea is like, ‘Oh, you dance, so you should be able to dance anything.’ And I mean, that’s just not true.”
He added, “There are hundreds of styles, not dozens, hundreds all over the world.”
As for Stiles, fans were skeptical of he casting because of her role in the 2001 film “Save the Last Dance,” in which her character, Sara Johnson, was an aspiring ballet dancer who gets into Juilliard.
Following Wednesday’s official cast reveal, Stiles, 45, shut down the notion that working on the dance film would give her a leg up in the competition.
“I think it’s a bit of a disadvantage,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “To be honest, I stopped taking dance classes after that movie because people expected me to be a great dancer.
The actress, who is paired with pro dancer Ezra Sosa, made it clear that for the past two decades, she has been strictly a “home dancer.”
“Making that movie, yeah, it was great training and it was a wonderful opportunity, but I felt very, very self-conscious and kind of tense. And I want to let that go.”
Season 35 of “DWTS” premieres with a two-night event starting on Sept. 15 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
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