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One “Dancing With the Stars” contestant recently confessed to needing hypnosis to get through the show. Find out why actress Jennie Garth had to resort to such extreme measures and what else she had to say about her experience dancing with her partner Derek Hough.
Garth Said The Pressure Was So High She Used Hypnosis As a Way to Cope
In an interview with Pop Culture, Garth recently talked about her experience on “Dancing With the Stars,” which she called “grueling” but “amazing.”
“[‘Dancing With the Stars’] put me way out of my comfort zone as far as being the center of the spotlight, and even though I’m an actress, that’s kind of not my personality to be a spotlight seeker, so that was a big challenge for me,” said Garth.
She then admitted she underwent some hypnosis to help her deal with the stress.
“I actually had to go through some hypnosis in order to be comfortable in that sort of high-pressure environment, but I learned a lot from it,” said Garth.
Many celebrities have said over the years that “Dancing With the Stars” was harder and more stressful than they were anticipating. In 2019, Sean Spicer told “ET Canada” that “Dancing With the Stars” had greater pressure than working in the White House.
“The show was worse… and I don’t mean worse in a bad way. I mean, how about this: it was greater,” said Spicer, adding, “I think it’s a combination of two things. One, yes, it’s way out of my comfort zone. And two is, when you’re dealing with incoming questions, you can figure out how to punt the question, divert it. When you’re out on a dance floor for a minute and a half, you have to go. And you can’t hide and you can’t defer to somebody else. And every step that you take, is going to be watched and viewed and judged.”
How Was it For Garth Working With Derek Hough?
Garth competed on season five, finishing in fourth place alongside her partner Derek Hough. In the interview, Garth said Hough was just as new to the show as she was, which made it extra hard for them because Hough was unfamiliar with “what the show needed and wanted.”
“It was still very new. It was actually Derek Hough’s first year as a dancer [on the show],” said Garth. “He had been working in London and they brought him over and literally he got off of the plane and started rehearsing with me and he kind of didn’t know what he was doing as far as choreographing what the show needed and wanted.”
Hough has echoed those sentiments. He previously cited that season as having “the worst thing that can possibly happen” to a professional dancer and their partner.
In week two, the couple was performing a quick step and Hough “slipped on her dress,” which resulted in him dropping her in the middle of the dance floor.
“One of the most embarrassing moments on ‘Dancing With the Stars’ for me was in my very first season, my second dance — this is a time when I’m like, ‘This is my chance, I’m gonna show what I got, here we go, this is my first time on TV doing this,’ and I dropped my partner Jennie Garth on live television,” Hough confessed to US Weekly.
But he added that “the good thing” about it was that he got the fall “out of the way real quick,” so it was “only up from [there].”
“Dancing With the Stars” season 30 is expected to premiere in September 2021 on ABC.
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