ABC 'Dancing WIth the Stars' season 22 cast
In a recent interview, “Dancing With the Stars” professional dancer Alan Bersten dished about the athletes who have been on the show, including Von Miller and Antonio Brown being super competitive with each other. He also said that one of them was “more nervous” about “Dancing With the Stars” than playing in the Super Bowl.
Miller Was Super Nervous About ‘Dancing With the Stars’
In an interview with “The Gamer Hour,” Bersten said that Miller confessed to being incredibly nervous about the show.
“I remember Von Miller was telling us, ‘Yo, I’m more nervous to dance than I was at the Super Bowl.’ You get one minute to do your thing and if you mess it up, you mess it up. There’s no redos,” said Bersten.
Miller, an NFL linebacker, was a contestant on season 22 of “Dancing With the Stars” alongside professional partner Witney Carson. They finished tied for 7th place.
Also on his season was fellow NFL player Antonio Brown, a wide receiver. Brown was partnered with Sharna Burgess and they finished tied for 4th place. Bersten said the rivalry between Miller and Brown was kind of amazing.
“We have so many … football players, basketball players, and what’s so interesting is how much they love it. We had Antonio Brown and Von Miller on in the same season and they made it so competitive between each other. It was so fun seeing them like ‘who would practice the longest’ and ‘who would get a better score that week?’ And it’s like you guys are football icons and you’re practicing a dance step that I helped you learn,” marveled Bersten.
He Thinks Athletes Are Oftentimes Natural Dancers
Bersten said it’s not a huge surprise that athletes tend to do pretty well on “Dancing With the Stars” because they are so in tune with their bodies and are also in peak physical condition.
“I think a lot of the physicality happens with lifting … any athlete knows their body well enough to kind of stay away from those freak accidents … it is a lot of physical activity.”
Athletes are so popular on “Dancing With the Stars” that season 26 was actually a season made up entirely of athletes. Figure skater Adam Rippon won, but NFL player Josh Norman came in second place.
In fact, pro dancer Cheryl Burke has said she prefers athletes to any other type of celebrity partner.
“I love athletes. I have always said this, I prefer athletes over any other type of celebrity because you guys just know what to do,” Burke told the Bella twins on an episode of their podcast. “You don’t just stop rehearsing when we say rehearsal’s over. You marinate in it and you come back the next day and you just get it. Emmitt [Smith] didn’t care that I was a girl barking at him, he was totally fine. There was no ego and that’s sometimes the challenge, when they don’t know what they’re signing up for sometimes and then you have this little girl barking at you literally like eight hours a day. It’s hard.”
“Dancing With the Stars” season 30 is expected to premiere in September 2021 on ABC.
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