Dancing With the Stars pro Cheryl Burke is blogging exclusively with Us Weekly about her quest to take home the season 25 mirrorball trophy with partner Terrell Owens! Check back each week for her latest update on the competition.
Last week, we got our highest score yet and earned our first 9, which was so exciting! Terrell was shocked, as you could see from the expression on his face, when he received that score.
Going in to the week, I didn’t think we would get our first 9 doing a quickstep. That dance was so intricate and complicated, and the now music is getting longer. I’m very proud of Terrell for not only getting through the quickstep, but he also had amazing frame and didn’t miss a step during the routine.
Unfortunately getting a 9 and two 8s does not put us on top of the leader board. I don’t want to see a 7 anymore. Eights are like 7s this season because everyone is so talented. We are still in the middle of the pack and we need to get out. We really have to start getting 9s and 10s and step it up this week if we want to be a contender for the mirrorball.
I was so excited that we were safe last week, but I was also shocked by the elimination of Sasha. Terrell’s jaw dropped. He had no idea that Sasha would go home that early. I thought Sasha was definitely top 4 or 5 and she just kept getting better and better each week. It goes to show that anyone can go home despite the scores.
This week, the theme is Night at the Movies. We aren’t dancing to a specific movie; we are dancing to movie genres. Every week is a new challenge, and this week we have the jive, which is a difficult dance. I think this is going to be Terrell’s most difficult dance so far. I say that every week, but this one really is hard. It’s super fast and on top of that, we have to tell this story, which is a hard to do while jiving.
Last week, Terrell thought the quickstep was quick, and the jive is even quicker. It’s superfast footwork, and we have another challenge where every couple has to stay in character throughout the dance.
Every couple is getting a certain role where we have to tell a story from beginning to end, and our role is that we are two spies. We are dancing to one of my favorite songs, “Feel It Still” by Portugal. The Man, so I’m really excited about it. We are telling a story through our dance, and we want the audience to understand what our mission is as spies. Other couples have themes like romance and action, so it will be interesting to see everyone stay in character.
There are so many different moving parts and we are going from one scene to another, then back to the first scene, so there is a lot happening. He really needs to know this routine from beginning to middle to end. Our dance actually continues through the judges’ comments, which has never been done before.
So far, rehearsals have been really intense but great. This dance is completely different from anything we have done before. Terrell has done mainly ballroom dances, and of course his frame needs to be perfect for that. The jive has a lot more freedom, but in a way is more difficult because not only do we have to work on the lower half of the body, we have to work on the upper half, and we need to make sure he doesn’t look stiff.
His frame doesn’t really come in handy too much for the jive. He finally got the frame down and now we have to start moving more of his upper body. Another challenge we are running in to with this dance are his big feet! They are huge, and he needs to be able to move them quickly!
We are over halfway through the season and we are both pretty tired. Terrell really loves the show and he is in it to win it. He is starting to see his potential and doesn’t want to go down on the leader board. He truly loves this show and he wants to be here, and I’m just so proud of him.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.
