Derek Hough has won the mirrorball trophy on Dancing With the Stars with Jennifer Grey from Dirty Dancing. Now he’s partnered with Bindi Irwin and the two are taking on the legendary lift in a performance of “(I’ve Had) The Time Of My Life” from the iconic movie. They even enlisted the help of Grey for some tips in their performance because producers wanted them to stick to the integrity of the original dance as much as possible. Tonight, their routine
was truly reminiscent of the film and gave us goosebumps to watch. They nailed the lift and created such nostalgia for women across the nation. It was insanely amazing. The judges gave them rave reviews and their hearts were touched.
Hough talked about his routine for this week in his TV Guide blog and said:
We have the rumba this week to Dirty Dancing. Normally, we can do our own versions of these dances, but they told us they want us to reflect the original as possible. We still have some freedom with it. The tough part is the lift, of course. I don’t normally do lifts and I never really have done those on the show. And this is a really difficult lift to do. We try every day and we’ve gotten really close. Yesterday, we went to a lake — and I use that term loosely. It was more of a smelly bog. It was in the Hills. There’s a little reservoir and it was so gross. The silt was like 3-feet deep. When you stepped in it, the bubbles popped. Believe me, I did not choose that location! But it was actually really fun.
Hough then talked about Grey’s involvement and her character’s similarities to celebrity partner Bindi Irwin. Hough explained:
Before you ask, yes, Jennifer Grey is giving us tips! She’s actually stopping by rehearsals today to check us out. We can’t disappoint her! I guess it was easy to give us Dirty Dancing because of my connection to Jennifer, but I think there are actually a lot of parallels between the movie and Bindi. Baby’s 17 in the movie and so is Bindi. Baby wants to change the world. That’s Bindi. Even Bindi’s laughs when she gets goofy are so Jennifer. She’s my Baby Bindi!
As for Grey, she was asked by Entertainment Weekly if we could ever see her perform that legendary lift again and she joked, “Watch it over and over again but never ask me to do it again because I’m too fucking old. I have a family and I want to live longer.”
(Instagram)
For more information on Bindi Irwin:
