Getty From left to right, Gleb Savchenko, Lauren Alaina, Alan Bersten, Hannah Brown, Kel Mitchell, Witney Carson, Sasha Farber and Ally Brooke at "Dancing with the Stars" Season 28 Finale.
ABC’s “Dancing With the Stars” returns for season 30 on September 20, 2021, and that means cast announcements are being made. Now, fans know exactly which pros will be returning to the ballroom for the upcoming season.
The pros will join judges Derek Hough, Carrie Ann Inaba, Bruno Tonioli and Len Goodman in the ballroom as well as host and executive producer Tyra Banks.
Though the names of the professional dancers leaked earlier this week, we now officially know that the list is accurate and the following pros will be returning to the ballroom, per ET Online.
Returning Female Pros
Grooving our way into premiere month like 🔥 @derekhough
There will be eight professional female dancers in the ballroom this season.
Here are the female professional dancers for season 30 of “‘Dancing With the Stars”:
- Britt Stewart
- Cheryl Burke
- Daniella Karagach
- Emma Slater
- Jenna Johnson
- Lindsay Arnold
- Sharna Burgess
- Witney Carson
Returning Male Pros
There will be just seven male professional dancers this time around.
Here is who you will see on the show:
- Alan Bersten
- Artem Chigvintsev
- Brandon Armstrong
- Gleb Savchenko
- Pasha Pashkov
- Sasha Farber
- Valentin Chmerkovskiy
What Celebrities Have Been Cast?
The first two celebrities to appear on season 30 of “Dancing With the Stars” will be Olympic Gold Medalist Gymnast Sunisa Lee and entertainer JoJo Siwa. Both were announced as part of the cast in late August 2021.
Some fans have pointed out that JoJo Siwa has a background in dance due to her time as a professional dancer and her being a cast member on “Dance Moms,” but Siwa says that might actually make things harder for her in the ballroom.
Siwa guest-hosted Entertainment Tonight and shared that she thought her dance background would make people judge her more harshly.
“I’m not gonna hide that I’m a dancer,” Siwa also said during the segment. “I was a dancer my whole life. Am I very out of practice? Absolutely. I perform all the time, but it’s different, you know? I don’t have to strengthen my legs, and ballroom is different.”
She added, “I’ve never taken ballroom. It’s gonna help me in a way, but it is also a disadvantage. Because I guarantee you the judges are one hundred million percent gonna judge me harder than they do everybody else.”
Since then, it has been confirmed that former “Bachelor” Matt James will be part of the “Dancing With the Stars” season 30.
Kenya Moore is also a celebrity contestant this time around. Moore has been a cast member on “The Real Housewives of Atlanta” for 10 seasons, and she’s likely built up quite the following on the reality show, which will lead to an interesting season of “Dancing With the Stars” if the fan base follows her to the ballroom.
The next name that leaked as a contestant was Amanda Kloots, who had a rough 2020. Her husband, Nick Cordero, died from complications due to the coronavirus on July 5, 2020. She has since been working through her grief alongside their son Elvis.
Finally, we also know that Olivia Jade Giannulli will be a contestant for the upcoming season of “Dancing With the Stars.” Giannulli is the daughter of actress Lori Loughlin, who went to prison following a college admissions scandal that put Giannulli in the public eye in a negative sense.