'Dancing With the Stars' Alums Spill Show Secrets
Last year, on Season 25 of Dancing With the Stars, Vanessa Lachey was transformed into the spitting image of Snow White for Disney theme night. Backstage at Studio 46 at the CBS Studios, her 5-year-old son Camden stared at his mom's sparkling blue and yellow princess gown and black bob wig before she took the stage.
"Mommy, can I dance with you?" he asked Vanessa.
"I melted!" she said on Instagram, remembering the story.
A post shared by Vanessa Lachey (@vanessalachey) on Oct 17, 2017 at 7:26am PDT
Though we saw Vanessa and her husband Nick Lachey compete on the show week after week, Camden didn't make it on-camera. But Vanessa reveals to CountryLiving.com he sometimes showed up behind the scenes. "We brought Camden a couple times to the stage because he was little enough to give him an iPad that he could watch and enjoy," she says at the Pampers' #SleptLikeThis event in New York.
Camden's adorable dance moves were just one of many interactions that most fans don't get to see. But with nearly 14-hour shoot days, featuring rehearsals, interviews, and wardrobe fittings, a lot makes it to the cutting room floor for each week's two-hour episode.
The ABC reality series, which returns with an all-athlete season April 30, pairs celebrities with professional dance partners for up to 11 weeks of competition, or until they get eliminated. Dancers like Julianne Hough, Derek Hough, and Cheryl Burke have become household names partnering with actors, singers, athletes, and reality TV stars. Contestants have included everyone from Kim Kardashian and Candace Cameron Bure to now-Energy Secretary Rick Perry.
Although the series has been on the air for 26 seasons-since 2005-only the stars and pros who actually take part in it know exactly what it entails, and just how hard they work to fight for the trophy.
Last year, for more than a month straight, Vanessa spent her mornings waking up early, going to a rehearsal space, and strapping on her dancing shoes, determined to win the Mirror Ball trophy with her dance partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy.
Her youngest, Phoenix, was only 9 months old when she and her husband Nick signed up for the show. She'd sneak peeks at her smartphone's baby monitor in between dances. "Baby's napping, so mommy can dance," Vanessa remembers, with a big smile.
Thanks to a combination of coffee and practice, the 37-year-old made it to the seventh week of competition, even besting her husband, Nick Lachey, who was partnered with Peta Murgatroyd.
"It was a full-time job," Vanessa says. "I think, for us, it was an interesting challenge, because, for the first time, both of us really had to juggle our work schedules so that one of us is more present in the home life when one of us is working."
According to Vanessa, celebrities on the show are encouraged to practice with their professional dance partners at least three to four hours a day, and sometimes practices can happen to six days per week. "It's a minimum because you actually need that," she says. "Some people go even longer."
It's easy to assume celebrities learn a quick routine and spend the rest of the time getting the red-carpet treatment. But Vanessa and Nick say there's so much more that goes into a full day on taping on the ABC competition show.
"On shoot days, it's an all-day thing," Nick says. "About 14-hour days."
Vanessa adds: "They have to make every single one of those outfits, so there's at least two custom wardrobe fittings [each week]. Then there's interviews for all the packages, and then there's the packages [themselves]." Packages, or pre-taped segments, air before the celebrities take the dance floor and help narrate a personal story about the star.
Once rehearsals are over, it's up to the contestants and pros to pull out all the stops for the live show. And sometimes, taking the stage can come with its awkward moments after rumors of romances and fights have made it onto the pages of tabloids.
Mark Ballas, who participated on 19 seasons, has been linked to everyone from Bristol Palin and Katherine Jenkins to Sabrina Bryan, though Bryan was the only contestant he actually dated.
At a Charmin Restrooms event in New York, Ballas tells CountryLiving.com how much of what we see on television is reality and what is an illusion, created either by producers or the media, to help draw in viewers.
"I'd say about 98 percent [of the fights and romances] you read about are not true," he says.
Season 18 winners Chmerkovskiy and Meryl Davis slammed rumors they were dating after their run, and Vanessa Lachey denies to CountryLiving.com that she and Chmerkovskiy ever had a feud during their partnership, despite reports.
When he's not dodging rumors, Ballas is tasked with coming up with the memorable routines and concepts, which are often out-of-the-box fan favorites, but he admits he can't aways take all the credit. The pro says he sometimes enlists outside help to choreograph routines - a loophole that is not entirely breaking the laws of the ballroom rulebook.
"For the most part, we kind of do it ourselves. I'd say every now and then, to help out, it's always great to have a teacher come in," he says. On Season 21, fellow Dancing With the Stars pro Derek Hough helped Ballas choreograph a Charleston for actress Alexa PenaVega.
But most of the off-the-wall dance moves Ballas is known for come directly from him. "When you are with the contestants, only you really know how they move," he explains. "So, it's kind of up to you to represent them in the best light, and having an outside opinion of someone who is not involved in what's happening is not necessarily the best."
Ballas' creativity helped him and his partner, Lindsey Stirling, make it all the way to finals and take second place on Season 25. They beat out Vanessa and Nick for a spot in the finals, but the married couple has no regrets about their time on the show.
"I'm definitely glad that [Vanessa and I] did it together," Nick tells us. "But for me, it's obviously one of those things you check off the list and [say], 'I'm good.'"
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