Former DWTS Pro Teases 1 Celebrity Could Get Her to Return to Dance on the Show

Heavy/ABC "Dancing with the Stars" pro dancers perform on stage.

Julianne Hough hung up her “Dancing With the Stars” dancing shoes 15 years ago, but there’s one way she’d consider a return to the ballroom competition floor.

In August 2024, the two-time mirrorball champion turned DWTS co-host spoke to “Good Morning America” about future “dream” contestants on the ABC dancing competition. And she also confirmed there’s one celebrity who could tempt her to return as a pro dancer.

Hough, 36, named “Thor” actor Chris Hemsworth as her dream contestant. The 41-year-old Marvel Cinematic Universe star competed in “Dancing With the Stars Australia” in 2006, where he landed in fifth place with pro partner Abbey Ross.

Of casting Hemsworth for the U.S. version, Hough cracked, “I know I’m hosting but, yo, if he comes back, I might dance!”

Hough’s dream probably won’t come true. In a 2024 interview with Vanity Fair Hemsworth admitted he wasn’t proud of his DWTS past. “I just kind of felt like a fool,” the Australian actor admitted during the outlet’s lie detector segment.

Julianne Hough Did Not Want To Be ‘Pigeonholed’ as Just a Dancer

Starting with season 4, Hough won back-to-back DWTS seasons with Apolo Ohno and Helio Castroneves in 2007. She stepped away from the show after season 8 in 2009. At the time, she wanted to focus on her career as a country music singer.

In an interview with American Noise, Hough said that at age 15 she left London, where she studied dance as a child, because she knew if she stayed there her “whole life would be dancing.” “And I knew I wanted to be a country singer,” she said.  She ultimately met her future music manager while on the “Dancing With The Stars: Live tour.”

“When I first decided to do ‘Dancing With The Stars,’ I was very nervous because I didn’t want to get pigeonholed as just being a dancer,” she added. “But I knew that the way the music industry is these days, it’s hard to get exposure. …So I thought, you know what, I love to dance. What a great opportunity to get this amazing exposure and hopefully further my singing career along [the way].”

More recently, Hough described her occupation in another way. On August 12, Hough appeared on her ex-boyfriend Ryan Seacrest’s podcast, “On Air With Ryan Seacrest” where she defined herself as a “creator.”

“I do so many different things I think I’m just a creator,” she said when asked how she describes her job. “I like to generate ideas, and I like them to feel like they’re multi-layered. You can have you know this lane, this lane this lane. Like whether it be, like a sensorial experience. So, like whether it’s music or acting or dancing, I want somebody to experience the creativity in all ways.”

Julianne Hough Said Being a DWTS Co-Host Was a ‘Full Circle Moment’ For Her

While she stopped dancing on DWTS, Hough served as an extra judge for six seasons between 2014 and 2021. In 2023, she was named the co-host of DWTS alongside Alfonso Ribeiro.

She told Variety she has come “full circle” on the ABC dancing show. “The door has always been open for me to join or come back in any capacity because ‘Dancing with the Stars’ is my family,”  Hough told the outlet in 2023. “The door was never, ever closed.  …When the idea of coming back to host came around, it was truly a full circle moment. I’ve now been a part of the show in every role — being a professional dancer to judge to now hosting.”

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