Speaker 1: Thanks, Welcome to Danielle with the Stars. I am Danielle Fischl,
Speaker 1: a TV director, a podcaster Forever Topanga, and a mom
Speaker 1: of two. Currently, though I am learning how to ballroom
Speaker 1: dance one step at a time. You will be seeing
Speaker 1: me on season thirty four of Dancing with the Stars,
Speaker 1: premiering September sixteenth on ABC and Disney Plus. And throughout
Speaker 1: the process, I am recording this podcast chronicling my journey,
Speaker 1: giving you the inside story of one celebrities quest for
Speaker 1: a Mirror Ball Trophy. So I am in the mix
Speaker 1: as we speak, practicing every day for the debut episode,
Speaker 1: a night that will mark the first time I've danced
Speaker 1: in front of an audience since I recited a poem
Speaker 1: for Corey and applied lipstick across my face on Boy
Speaker 1: Meets World at twelve years old. Not kidding, I am
Speaker 1: so excited for my very first Danielle with the Stars guest.
Speaker 1: He is one of the most beloved professional dancers from
Speaker 1: the show, first appearing on season twenty eight in twenty nineteen,
Speaker 1: and he is now paired with me for season thirty four.
Speaker 1: Please welcome to the podcast, Pasha Pashkov, Thank.
Speaker 2: You, Hi.
Speaker 3: First so I just realized Danielle with the Stars is
Speaker 3: still the DWTS. Correct, I see what she did?
Speaker 1: Oh wow, yeah, See we're smart around here. We know
Speaker 1: what we're doing. Okay. So my first question that I've
Speaker 1: wanted to ask since day one, but I figured doing
Speaker 1: it in the presence of thousands was probably a better idea.
Speaker 1: When we met on last Tuesday a few days ago,
Speaker 1: you had no idea who I was.
Speaker 3: Did you I did? Oh?
Speaker 1: You did?
Speaker 3: I did? Okay. So this is the thing, right, You
Speaker 3: have rumors obviously circulating around, you know, approximately who's going
Speaker 3: to be on the cast. Nothing he's ever confirmed. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but there are rumors.
Speaker 1: There are rumors circulators, right.
Speaker 3: So of course you started to dig into everyone, yes,
Speaker 3: doing your research. Yes. So when we had some people
Speaker 3: who got announced a couple of months before, of course
Speaker 3: you already know a little bit about them. We sat
Speaker 3: down to watch a few episodes of Secret Lives of
Speaker 3: Woman Wives when two cast members from that show.
Speaker 1: Game Let Me Leave It and Jen Affleck had been
Speaker 1: announced a few months ago from that show, Yes, Robert
Speaker 1: Irwin had been announced, and Alex correct, Yes, yes, so
Speaker 1: you did your research on that.
Speaker 3: We did the research, Yes, and then when we heard
Speaker 3: that you might be on the show, my wife went
Speaker 3: crazy because she's a huge fan and she's like every
Speaker 3: boy wanted to be with her, every girl wanted to
Speaker 3: be her. And she's like, you have to watch it
Speaker 3: because you haven't seen it, and she goes, I would
Speaker 3: love to watch it with you, because she's like it's
Speaker 3: been a while since I watched, and she's like, I
Speaker 3: would love to like relive that. So I literally binged
Speaker 3: watch like several episodes right away. So for me, like
Speaker 3: I knew exactly who you were when you walked into
Speaker 3: the room.
Speaker 1: Okay, so when I walked in, you were like expecting
Speaker 1: what you got.
Speaker 3: You weren't like who no, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah
Speaker 3: I knew exactly yeah yeah, and you exactly. And you're like,
Speaker 3: you know, like your character is so iconic and I
Speaker 3: don't know, I just like I can tell that you're
Speaker 3: loved by millions, you know. And there's so many people
Speaker 3: who were saying, oh my god, I literally grew up
Speaker 3: with her. That's how they feel. So I'm like, it's
Speaker 3: good to dance with someone you know that people can
Speaker 3: connect to like that, you know, And I'm sure there
Speaker 3: are things that we're going to use from the show
Speaker 3: or can use from the show.
Speaker 1: Yes, I'm hoping so so many great things are gonna
Speaker 1: be amazing, you know, little easter eggs or you know,
Speaker 1: little throwbacks that will make people, you know, relive those
Speaker 1: moments when they used to watch you on the a
Speaker 1: TV's so many people who work as an actor or
Speaker 1: in any sort of performer type thing, but especially actors
Speaker 1: sometimes get really offended when they're only known for one
Speaker 1: character and they're like, I've done more things. I just
Speaker 1: have never felt that way. I feel so lucky that
Speaker 1: Tapanga was the character I got to play. And even
Speaker 1: if I'm never known for anything else, like, what a
Speaker 1: massive blessing that I, at twelve years old, found a
Speaker 1: role in a character that I'll be known for forever.
Speaker 1: So anything we can do to lean into the nostalgia
Speaker 1: of that or the Tapanga of it all, or the
Speaker 1: boy meets World of it all, I am all four.
Speaker 3: But also that one character. It's not like it's a
Speaker 3: one two hour on movie. It's years and years and
Speaker 3: years you know of that character and character development, you know,
Speaker 3: and especially that that character starts at such a young
Speaker 3: age and you go all the way to marriage. You
Speaker 3: know what I mean. It's like it's your your whole chunk,
Speaker 3: a huge chunk of your life over there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: And it's been on what's seven seven.
Speaker 1: Seven years ninety three to two thousand and then when
Speaker 1: we did the reboot Girl Meets World, we did that
Speaker 1: for three years, so we even have you know, almost
Speaker 1: we have a decade, a decade of to Panga lore.
Speaker 1: I guess well, we are in New York right now,
Speaker 1: in the absolute whirlwind that is the Good Morning America announcement.
Speaker 1: How does this season or does this season feel any
Speaker 1: different to you than your previous five or six seasons?
Speaker 3: You feel? Okay, this is one of those shows where,
Speaker 3: no matter how many seasons you've been on, you can
Speaker 3: never possibly be fully ready because every time it's brand new.
Speaker 3: You have a brand new partner, with brand new personality, ability,
Speaker 3: story and everything. Right, So every time it's a brand
Speaker 3: new experience, right. And also the competition who are going
Speaker 3: against is brand new. Right when we used to compete
Speaker 3: in ballroom dancing. You know, we're the same partnership, We
Speaker 3: know who we're competing against for years right here. Every
Speaker 3: year it's a brand new show for us.
Speaker 1: I don't even think about that. Yeah, when you're competing
Speaker 1: in ballroom dancing, you're used to seeing the same faces
Speaker 1: every weekend. You know what their strengths and weaknesses are.
Speaker 1: Now on this show, like, you can do all the
Speaker 1: prep you can do for your own physical body, but
Speaker 1: by the time you arrive there, like depending on who
Speaker 1: your celeb is and who the other celebs are, everything
Speaker 1: changes exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and what you know, like what makes sense for
Speaker 3: us in terms of the song choices and the creative choices.
Speaker 3: So it's one of those things where I think you
Speaker 3: cannot possibly really prepare. But with every season, you feel
Speaker 3: that you're gaining more experience, you know, and that gives
Speaker 3: you more confidence going into a new season because you're like, Okay,
Speaker 3: I've done a few I know what to expect, I
Speaker 3: have my strategy, you know, So this helps I feel
Speaker 3: like going with that good baggage is helping mentally for sure.
Speaker 1: How important do you think song choices are?
Speaker 3: I think they are vital.
Speaker 1: Really, yeah, And do you think that's because the audience
Speaker 1: needs to be able to connect to the song or like,
Speaker 1: do you.
Speaker 3: Think both the audience and us, because first of all,
Speaker 3: we're the ones dancing, right, and if it is a
Speaker 3: song that is hard to dance to, you just don't
Speaker 3: feel like dancing to it, right, you know, you feel
Speaker 3: like you're forcing a dance onto a specific song. That's
Speaker 3: not a good start.
Speaker 1: No, it's not a good feeling.
Speaker 3: But then even if you find a song that you
Speaker 3: feel good dancing to, the audience needs to relate to
Speaker 3: it as well. Either they recognize it, or they just
Speaker 3: feel the vibe of the song, or you make them
Speaker 3: fall in love with the song that they've never heard.
Speaker 3: You know, that's an option too, But definitely, definitely for
Speaker 3: us and for the audience.
Speaker 1: Okay, you have been on the show now for several seasons.
Speaker 1: Does has this fan speculation and paparazzi gotten better or worse?
Speaker 1: I was shocked by the amount of attention and effort
Speaker 1: we had to put into maintaining a secret identity for
Speaker 1: you know, about a week. Are you used to that
Speaker 1: at this point that it feels crazy? Was it more
Speaker 1: this year than usual?
Speaker 3: No? We we do this every year since the beginning.
Speaker 3: We've been hiding all the time, you know, leading up
Speaker 3: to the premiere. But I gotta say that I think
Speaker 3: in the past few seasons the show I feel like
Speaker 3: it had a rebirth, you know, and it got like this,
Speaker 3: new demographics, new audience, new fans, and there are definitely
Speaker 3: more eyes on us and definitely more attention, and it's
Speaker 3: closer attention. And that's why I think there were so
Speaker 3: many speculations and leagues online because people are really paying attention,
Speaker 3: and they are paying attention to every detail. You know,
Speaker 3: you pass by, they catch a photo you fully covered,
Speaker 3: but they see your ring and they know who's ring
Speaker 3: it is, you know, or they see bracelets and I
Speaker 3: mean minor obvious. They say, yeah, yeah, it's hard to
Speaker 3: hide this one, but yes, like so becoming more away
Speaker 3: and hiding, you know, onto the sleeve so people don't
Speaker 3: see you bracelets or something else.
Speaker 2: It's so crazy.
Speaker 1: So I am very, very very sore.
Speaker 2: I'm extremely achy.
Speaker 1: My neck is killing me. I feel a little better
Speaker 1: today than I did yesterday, but I've had to go
Speaker 1: get regular massages. I've had to be stretching. How how
Speaker 1: do you do this all the time? How do you
Speaker 1: stay in this kind of shape to be working this
Speaker 1: hard day after day, week after week.
Speaker 3: Well, I think when we used to compete, we were
Speaker 3: in this kind of like mold three hundred and sixty
Speaker 3: five this a year, So once you're in it, it
Speaker 3: feels like it's a norm, and I think you kind
Speaker 3: of get used to it. On Dancing with the Stars,
Speaker 3: you know, we have a three month season, then we
Speaker 3: have tour prep, then four months or three months tour,
Speaker 3: and then we have this huge gap between the tour
Speaker 3: and the season, right And of course everybody does the
Speaker 3: own thing. Somebody does something dance related, somebody does something
Speaker 3: not dance related. Personally, me, I do stuff that is
Speaker 3: not dance related. So for me right now, going back
Speaker 3: into the season, our first three or four rehearsals that
Speaker 3: we had so far, you know, I felt sore, like
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, I need to stretch,
Speaker 3: I need to warm up, I need to get back
Speaker 3: into I mean, I was trying to get back into shape,
Speaker 3: you know, to get ready. But no matter how much
Speaker 3: you work out, you know, you still building like big
Speaker 3: muscle groups, you know, like at the gym or whatever.
Speaker 3: Dancing is different because it's like you use these small
Speaker 3: little muscle groups that you don't really usually use at
Speaker 3: the gym, you know, and it's a brand new workout
Speaker 3: and I know it, and I go through this every time,
Speaker 3: but you do need a couple of weeks of adjustment
Speaker 3: to get back into it, just simply by dancing, dancing, dancing, dancing.
Speaker 1: I told Jensen, I said, the the little fibers at
Speaker 1: the base of my skull, all the way down to
Speaker 1: the little tendons in between my toes, all of the
Speaker 1: body parts in between their hurt. But yes, it's like
Speaker 1: it's like muscle groups I didn't even really know existed.
Speaker 1: So we've been practicing for one week, which is actually
Speaker 1: only meant four days of rehearsal. At this point, I
Speaker 1: need you to be very honest here, how am I doing?
Speaker 3: You're doing great? Okay, I was. You know, usually when
Speaker 3: we're starting, you know, we're starting with a two three
Speaker 3: week prep for the premiere, which is a lot longer
Speaker 3: than you know it will be during the season when
Speaker 3: we're going to have only a few days in between
Speaker 3: each show. So I kind of was going in like, okay,
Speaker 3: we're not going to rush. We'll take it slowly. You know,
Speaker 3: I'll get to know you see how you learn the choreo,
Speaker 3: and we'll go from there because we have some time.
Speaker 3: So I prepped the choreo, and what I was very
Speaker 3: happy about is that you picked it up and learned
Speaker 3: very fast. So for me, I was like, okay, that's
Speaker 3: a good sign. You know, if you can learn the coreer,
Speaker 3: you know in a couple of days, that means going
Speaker 3: into the season will be able to you know, learn
Speaker 3: the career and then still have time to clean and
Speaker 3: improve and work on our performance aspect, because I think
Speaker 3: the hardest thing is when you have someone as a
Speaker 3: partner who cannot remember the courrier, because then you know
Speaker 3: you're going into the performance first of all, really stressed
Speaker 3: out because you don't know if if they will remember. Yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, that's one thing, but also if it takes
Speaker 3: the entire week just to learn the choreo, then obviously
Speaker 3: you have no time to improve it, you know, to
Speaker 3: work on the performance aspect, on the some maybe technical
Speaker 3: things you know, to make it look sharper and cleaner
Speaker 3: and more exciting, because.
Speaker 1: Just remembering the steps is actually like twenty percent of
Speaker 1: what ends up coming through with the dance, Like just
Speaker 1: knowing the moves is not enough. So I know, I
Speaker 1: said to you and are like on our first day
Speaker 1: that my goal was that every week we had at
Speaker 1: least one day where you got to be super nitpicky
Speaker 1: that we felt like we knew it, You knew that
Speaker 1: I knew it so well that you could be like
Speaker 1: that pinky is not where it should be. Like, I
Speaker 1: wanted at least a full day for you to just
Speaker 1: nitpick me. So that's still my goal. I'm still going
Speaker 1: to maintain that, even though we're not going to have
Speaker 1: three weeks every time, I still want to have at
Speaker 1: least half a day where you can be nitpicky with me.
Speaker 1: So anyone who's watched the show over the last several
Speaker 1: years will know that you have maybe been given some
Speaker 1: challenging partners. How do you stay positive when you are
Speaker 1: maybe showing up every week knowing that your partner isn't
Speaker 1: as fully invested in it as you would like them
Speaker 1: to be.
Speaker 3: Well, the thing is, and I realized that pretty quickly,
Speaker 3: is that we as pros. Yes we're not guaranteed that
Speaker 3: we're going to be back next season, but if we are,
Speaker 3: there is a chance for us to do the show
Speaker 3: for several seasons, right, and like this is my seventh
Speaker 3: season for example, Right, so I got a chance to
Speaker 3: always redo if, like you know, if I have a
Speaker 3: not a good experience or not a good result or
Speaker 3: whatever it is, right, But if you look from the
Speaker 3: celebs perspective, there's only one chance you do the show
Speaker 3: once and that's it, right. So the inspiration behind it
Speaker 3: is that when they leave the competition, no matter the result,
Speaker 3: no matter what, I want them to look back at
Speaker 3: it and say, I had the best experience. I had
Speaker 3: the time of my life, and I will remember this
Speaker 3: as a positive experience no matter what. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 3: and I'll have something to look back on, you know
Speaker 3: that's live online probably forever, and be proud of it.
Speaker 3: So that's what motivates you, because you understand that this
Speaker 3: is their only chance to do specific I mean they
Speaker 3: do other things, but specifically this. Yeah, there's only one
Speaker 3: time you get to do this, So I just want
Speaker 3: them to have the best time.
Speaker 1: Oh well, you're really good at that because you do
Speaker 1: make it very fun. I was telling Jensen how much
Speaker 1: I laughed when I said, you said very good after
Speaker 1: I did a dance and I said, oh no, it
Speaker 1: was mid. I could definitely do better, and you said,
Speaker 1: then stop giving me this mediocre and do better.
Speaker 2: And then you said, what if that's the only thing
Speaker 2: we started diagnosing?
Speaker 1: I thought, because you are not that way at all.
Speaker 1: It was so funny to me though you have a
Speaker 1: very you have such a great personality. You make learning
Speaker 1: very easy, You make learning very fun. So it's so
Speaker 1: nice that to hear that you make sure everybody has
Speaker 1: a great experience, because of course they do. So season
Speaker 1: thirty two with Ariontomatics, you have your best finish in
Speaker 1: your first perfect thirty and getting to the finals and
Speaker 1: then you guys placed third. How did that season feel
Speaker 1: different to you? Did it feel good from the very beginning?
Speaker 3: It did feel good from the very beginning. Yes, I
Speaker 3: think we had a good connection from the start. I
Speaker 3: think Arianna came in from obviously a very public and
Speaker 3: you know, huge sandal. Yeah and you say sandal scandal, yes,
Speaker 3: so like did you say sandal? So what happened is
Speaker 3: I felt like she came in with this fighter energy,
Speaker 3: you know, there was like fire underneath her feet, and
Speaker 3: I felt like she had something to prove, you know,
Speaker 3: and that like showed up in her work ethic and
Speaker 3: how she showed up you know, like every day. So
Speaker 3: for me, I felt from the beginning like she's here
Speaker 3: for the right reason. She's here you know, with some
Speaker 3: kind of an intention and we're going to use that
Speaker 3: to fuel the entire season.
Speaker 1: Great, ooh, I love that. If you had to give
Speaker 1: just one routine as an example something of yours, someone
Speaker 1: wants to see your favorite dance front to back, what
Speaker 1: would you suggest? And is it one where you're dressed
Speaker 1: like a tiger with Carol Baskin?
Speaker 3: Is it a two part question? Answer? Well, you know what,
Speaker 3: let's put it this way. It's a definitely a very
Speaker 3: recognizable moment, and it's definitely an icebreaker in a lot
Speaker 3: of my conversations. When people start talking to me at
Speaker 3: the restaurants or something, they're like, hey, because guess what
Speaker 3: that thing Tiger king was so huge at the moment. Yeah,
Speaker 3: it was. That was the COVID year, right, Yeah, so
Speaker 3: I feel like everybody knew about it. Everybody tweeted about
Speaker 3: it when we danced. I remember Lady Gaga posting a
Speaker 3: story and saying welcome to twenty twenty. So so yeah,
Speaker 3: so yes, what, I would not change a thing?
Speaker 1: Okay, great, I love that.
Speaker 3: But is that the routine that I'm super proud of? Well,
Speaker 3: let's put it in the top three.
Speaker 1: Okay, do you have a top one?
Speaker 3: Yes? Top one was a fox trut with Arihanna in
Speaker 3: the semi final. Okay, and that was the perfect thirty,
Speaker 3: the first perfect thirty, But that was not the reason
Speaker 3: it was not. It's just like one of those where
Speaker 3: everything aligned, where it looked good, it felt good, we
Speaker 3: had time, good time practicing it, choreographing, we had a
Speaker 3: good song, there were a lot of musical things that
Speaker 3: were able to show off that like choreographically, really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3: So it was one of those where like, you know,
Speaker 3: everything in line and it felt good, looked good, and
Speaker 3: got a good score. So it's like perfect thirty across
Speaker 3: the board.
Speaker 1: You can't touch that now.
Speaker 2: I am very vocal in.
Speaker 1: Admitting that I have no real dances experience going into
Speaker 1: the show. Does that put us at a total disadvantage?
Speaker 1: Who's the partner you've had who's had the most experience.
Speaker 3: I don't think I had anyone who had a dance experience. Okay, yes,
Speaker 3: I don't think I had anyone. Everybody had something different
Speaker 3: to offer. Kate Flannery, she came from like she's an actress,
Speaker 3: but I think she did like theater and yeah something
Speaker 3: in college, so she had a little bit of like
Speaker 3: that you know, she was good, very musical, so we
Speaker 3: use that and Arianna again musical theater. So there was
Speaker 3: a some sum but it's not really dance experience, you know.
Speaker 3: But the good thing about it that I do like now,
Speaker 3: it's always challenging, right when you go against someone who
Speaker 3: does have dance experience. But at the same time, I
Speaker 3: always say, you know, if we have to look at things,
Speaker 3: you know, glass half full, when you're coming in with
Speaker 3: no dance experience, we can start fresh. There are no
Speaker 3: bad habits. Yeah, right, so we can like start fresh
Speaker 3: and learn things the right way. That's a good thing.
Speaker 3: But as long as they're at least some basic things
Speaker 3: in place, like having some rhythm, having rhythm, you know,
Speaker 3: being able to hear the beat and the music, being balanced,
Speaker 3: being coordinated, because things like, yes, you can teach the
Speaker 3: dance steps, but it's very hard to teach coordination if
Speaker 3: somebody is not coordinated right, or like if you're not balanced.
Speaker 3: Balance is not something you can teach in a week, right,
Speaker 3: Coordination is not something you can teach in a week.
Speaker 3: So I feel like as long as there are some
Speaker 3: like basic fundamental things that are there, then the rest
Speaker 3: the rest you can work with.
Speaker 1: I found that there are like there's really two camps
Speaker 1: when it comes to thoughts on dance experience, one who
Speaker 1: think it's totally fine for people with years of dance
Speaker 1: experience to compete on Dancing with the Stars, and then
Speaker 1: the other camp that really thinks celebrity should come in
Speaker 1: not really knowing much of anything and learn how to dance.
Speaker 1: Do you think it's fair to come in with dance experience?
Speaker 3: I think that those camps why they're like that is
Speaker 3: because I think originally when the show started, I feel
Speaker 3: like majority of celebs that were on the show where
Speaker 3: without any dances, okay, And I think like the whole
Speaker 3: point and all the stories were about how they're learning
Speaker 3: from scratch, right, and I'm talking like a big majority
Speaker 3: of the celebs didn't have the dance experience, and then
Speaker 3: it became a mix, right, And then that's when I think,
Speaker 3: like the there was like a little division, and I
Speaker 3: think that it's I think it's impossible, you know, to
Speaker 3: have like a great cast, you know, for a season,
Speaker 3: and have fourteen couples and make sure that everybody has
Speaker 3: zero of any experience, you know, because even if it's
Speaker 3: not dance experience, I feel like there are still things
Speaker 3: that already different from the get go, Like, for example,
Speaker 3: an athlete is coming in with a different set of
Speaker 3: skills than an actor, right, or somebody who is used
Speaker 3: to performing in front of the live audience versus somebody
Speaker 3: who's used to where you can do several takes, or
Speaker 3: let's say even like if we compare the athletes, like
Speaker 3: if you compare football players versus basketball players, right, Like,
Speaker 3: there are a lot of football players on the show,
Speaker 3: and you could tell that they were very, very light
Speaker 3: and quick on their fead, right, so when they were
Speaker 3: doing the jives and quick steps, they were always phenomenal, Right,
Speaker 3: And then I don't know, like I feel like, you know,
Speaker 3: everybody comes in already, not really even because everybody comes
Speaker 3: in with different set of skills from different fields of life.
Speaker 3: But on top of that, now we also have like
Speaker 3: some people who actually come with dance experience. So yes,
Speaker 3: but at the same time, we have to remember that
Speaker 3: at the end of the day, it's not just the judges,
Speaker 3: is the audience exactly, And then if the audience wants
Speaker 3: to see a non dancer improve, then you will have
Speaker 3: the advantage.
Speaker 1: That's right, exactly, It's up to them to decide. A
Speaker 1: big story this year is the return of Mark ballas
Speaker 1: a prior champion and a bit of an icon on
Speaker 1: the show. What are your strategic feelings about this big
Speaker 1: news this season? Are you and Mark close?
Speaker 3: Mark and I have very close So he's like our brother.
Speaker 3: His mom was mine and Denny's teacher main teacher. So
Speaker 3: a lot of people on the show, Derek, Julianne, Mark,
Speaker 3: Danny and I we were all trained by Mark's mom. Yeah,
Speaker 3: she's a legend in the Bordern world. She goes by
Speaker 3: a nickname the Latin Queen. Oh, sorry, the Queen of Latin.
Speaker 3: My bad. I think the Queen of Latin because Latin dancing.
Speaker 3: And yeah, so she's uh, she's incredible and because of that,
Speaker 3: we have very very close connection with Mark.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's so great.
Speaker 3: And our kids have play dates tois Oh how many
Speaker 3: kids does he have one?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: And his name is Banksy and he's I think half
Speaker 3: a year younger than Nikita.
Speaker 1: Nikita so cute. So based on the partnerships that we
Speaker 1: know for this season thirty four, who are you you
Speaker 1: considering to be our biggest competition ourselves?
Speaker 3: Is this a very is this a very politically correct answer,
Speaker 3: Yes it is no, but honestly, yeah, it's honestly ourselves,
Speaker 3: you know. I think the biggest thing is the distraction
Speaker 3: by the competition, not keeping your eyes on your own
Speaker 3: paper are the biggest mistakes we can do, you know,
Speaker 3: because every week is going to be different. Every week
Speaker 3: people will have different dance styles, you know, and one
Speaker 3: week you have room, but somebody has a quick step,
Speaker 3: next week you have a quick time, somebody has a
Speaker 3: positive doubles. So it's hard to compare directly to begin
Speaker 3: with because of different styles and everything. And yeah, you
Speaker 3: can get carried away and get too much in your head.
Speaker 3: So I think the biggest competition is ourselves and just
Speaker 3: like staying focused on doing our personal best and then
Speaker 3: the rest is going to be up to the universe
Speaker 3: and the audience.
Speaker 1: Yes, judges, now to a very important question. Is your
Speaker 1: life going to be easier or harder for you now
Speaker 1: that you are partnered with Danielle and married to Daniella.
Speaker 3: Well, I think it's you said that you don't go
Speaker 3: like your your short is either Danielle, so sorry your
Speaker 3: d or you just go by the full name Danielle. Well,
Speaker 3: the fun fact is my wife's name in passport actually
Speaker 3: spelled with an ead as well. Yes, yes, so she
Speaker 3: was supposed to be Daniella from the get go. That's
Speaker 3: what her mom wanted and they misspelled it and she
Speaker 3: has never changed it. So everywhere and to everyone, she's Daniella,
Speaker 3: and no one ever calls her by the full name. Ever.
Speaker 3: She always goes by Danny. So, but her passport name
Speaker 3: is exactly like yours. You have double l yeah, yeah,
Speaker 3: so it's spelled exactly the same. Yeah, everything the same. Yeah,
Speaker 3: but it's so so you go as d or Danielle
Speaker 3: and she's Danny so yeah, so at.
Speaker 1: Least no matter where you go, whether you're at work
Speaker 1: or a yeah, yes.
Speaker 3: Like someone, Yeah, you don't even hear like I thought,
Speaker 3: but this we have we have two weekneys.
Speaker 1: Yes, we have a Jenna and a Jenna, yes, and
Speaker 1: we have Danielle and Danielle.
Speaker 3: Yes. Yes, So it's like a lot of close names.
Speaker 3: But I think, because you know, I never haven't I
Speaker 3: haven't heard this year yet somebody, you know, like say
Speaker 3: the name and I'm like, who are they talking to?
Speaker 3: Because everybody nobody calls Danny by.
Speaker 1: Her full name exactly, So that'll be easy for you.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: In twenty twenty three, you and Danny were in the
Speaker 1: finals together, and you guys were the first married couple
Speaker 1: to ever make it to the finals.
Speaker 3: Right, Yes, to the finals together?
Speaker 1: Yes, okay, what was that like competing against your beautiful wife?
Speaker 3: It was interesting because leading up to the final, in
Speaker 3: every single package and every single OTF, in every single
Speaker 3: interview that we did, press everything, that was the question.
Speaker 3: You know, everybody's like, oh, you guys are going to
Speaker 3: go against each other, and how do you feel and everything. Well,
Speaker 3: the thing is, we choreograph everything together. Yeah, we choreograph
Speaker 3: and we help each other. Right, We come from rehearsals
Speaker 3: and we show each other the videos from the rehearsals,
Speaker 3: and we want to hear each other's feedback. So we
Speaker 3: bet we've been like that right entire time. So it
Speaker 3: doesn't again, it doesn't feel like a competition. And again
Speaker 3: this is sounds like a politically correct answer, but it's
Speaker 3: truly how it is, Like we just truly support each other,
Speaker 3: you know, unconditionally, and the goal is for both to
Speaker 3: do their personal best with their partners in that finale
Speaker 3: and then the rest again is already not up to us. Yeah, right,
Speaker 3: So it didn't feel like a competition maybe because the
Speaker 3: last second we're helping each other. You know, quick, what
Speaker 3: do we do here? Oh? I want to know.
Speaker 1: I want to hear all of Danny's feedback. Just give
Speaker 1: her my number, just have her text me be like
Speaker 1: Pasture just showed me the video. Here are my notes.
Speaker 1: What do you two do after a live show? To
Speaker 1: wind down?
Speaker 3: We eat burgers, pizza, pasta, ice cream, a way footies.
Speaker 3: We love to eat. And of course, you know, throughout
Speaker 3: the season you want to fit into your costumes nicely,
Speaker 3: and so you kind of like have to watch what
Speaker 3: you eat. But then this is our because you know,
Speaker 3: like the live show day is long. You know, we
Speaker 3: have early cold times. I mean you'll experience it very soon.
Speaker 3: You know. We have camera blocking, we have dress rehearsal.
Speaker 3: It's nonstout the whole day. So by the time you
Speaker 3: actually do the live show, you already danced several times,
Speaker 3: and you've been there the whole day, and you've been
Speaker 3: in your hair and makeup and costume and everything. So
Speaker 3: once that show is done, we have the press line
Speaker 3: and then this is when you can finally without and
Speaker 3: relaxed and we feel like it's a reset to go
Speaker 3: into the next week, so we need to like go
Speaker 3: and do something where we don't think about the show.
Speaker 3: We don't think about out the corrio for the you know,
Speaker 3: I mean, the core is down for the next dance,
Speaker 3: but like we don't, we don't think about anything show related,
Speaker 3: and we we just go and we grab you know,
Speaker 3: our favorite food, whatever we in a mood for that night,
Speaker 3: and yeah, we just enjoy ourselves.
Speaker 2: Good for you.
Speaker 1: I mean, there's I honestly, having just done four days
Speaker 1: of rehearsal, there's nothing could sound worse than trying to
Speaker 1: dance on like a full stomach. So on those show days,
Speaker 1: I can only imagine that, like, not only are you
Speaker 1: working such long hours, you're just kind of grazing. You're
Speaker 1: like a couple of nuts here a banana, because like
Speaker 1: all the bouncing around on a full stomach sounds terrible.
Speaker 3: And you also, you on one hand, you want to
Speaker 3: be hydrated, but on the other hand, with those costumes,
Speaker 3: you know, it's not so easy to jump in and
Speaker 3: out of them. We need to go to the bathroom.
Speaker 3: So it's a it's got to be balanced.
Speaker 1: What do you think your strength is as a partner.
Speaker 3: My strength as a partner, I think I can pull
Speaker 3: out the best of war what you have to offer.
Speaker 3: And I think I come from a very old school
Speaker 3: training bottom dancing, where the belief is that the leader
Speaker 3: is the frame and the follower is the picture, right right,
Speaker 3: So you present, you gotta be there for her, and
Speaker 3: you present her and you make her shine. So since
Speaker 3: this show is obviously about the celebrity, you know, learning
Speaker 3: how to dance, so for me, I feel like because
Speaker 3: I was trained like that and that was my mentality
Speaker 3: instead of like look at me, you know, and I'm
Speaker 3: the solo beautiful dancer. For me, it was always about
Speaker 3: framing my partner, even when I used to compete back
Speaker 3: in the day and with dancing with Danielle Denny. He's
Speaker 3: gonna say Danielle full name. Wow. Really, I'm even myself
Speaker 3: already losing track over here. But so for me, I
Speaker 3: feel like I can frame my partner beautifully and make
Speaker 3: her shine. So hopefully that's gonna be the case.
Speaker 1: Do you think you have any weaknesses?
Speaker 3: A lot of them. But I'm not gonna I'm not
Speaker 3: gonna I'm not gonna tell no, I'm not gonna tell anybody,
Speaker 3: you know what I mean, giving away like open an
Speaker 3: open book over here, giving up all my cards.
Speaker 1: What would you say? My strength as a partner.
Speaker 3: Is your strength? You're oh, actually a lot of strength
Speaker 3: right away. First of all, in terms of physicality, you
Speaker 3: are in great shape, great flexibility, great balance, very strong,
Speaker 3: very strong. In terms of mental you're coming in with
Speaker 3: the right focus. So far, we had four days of rehearsals.
Speaker 3: You were in that room for four hours working NonStop,
Speaker 3: super focused and memorizing things very well. So you know,
Speaker 3: very very focused. That's mental. And then personality wise, I
Speaker 3: think you are just a joy to be around. I
Speaker 3: love your you know, like your eyes are shining, big
Speaker 3: smile all the time. So I think your strength is
Speaker 3: going to be everybody falling in love with just with
Speaker 3: that spark.
Speaker 1: That you have.
Speaker 2: Thank you.
Speaker 1: Now you can tell everyone my weaknesses because it's their
Speaker 1: mind and so you don't have to worry about protecting me.
Speaker 3: What are my weaknesses? Okay, you said that your neck
Speaker 3: is stiff. Stiff neck. So and we have week one. Oh, actually,
Speaker 3: hold on, I'm not sure if I'm supposed to reveal.
Speaker 1: We'll just that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, we have deep week one and for that dance,
Speaker 3: which can be several dances, you need very sharp head movements.
Speaker 3: So therefore we need to make sure that that stiff
Speaker 3: neck is not stiff anymore. There's another weakness that you
Speaker 3: told me yourself, that you said every time like you
Speaker 3: get tenseled something and goes into the shoulders. And of
Speaker 3: course in dancing, we have to have long neck and posture.
Speaker 3: So that is one thing that we're definitely gonna have
Speaker 3: to improve and work on, but I have no doubt
Speaker 3: we'll get there pretty fast.
Speaker 1: Okay, all right, final question, what are your goals for
Speaker 1: us this season? I may not have dance experience, but
Speaker 1: you know I'm in it with the goal of trying
Speaker 1: to win it. Yes, So what are your goals for
Speaker 1: us this season?
Speaker 3: I want to create as many memorial dances as possible
Speaker 3: because I think, and when I say as many, the
Speaker 3: more weeks obviously including the finality, the more dances. So
Speaker 3: as many many memorial dances as possible, and I hope
Speaker 3: that we get to do a freestyle. Yeah. So fun.
Speaker 1: Pasha, thank you so much for being here for being
Speaker 1: my first guest. I'm so excited that this news is
Speaker 1: out now and we can share it with everybody because
Speaker 1: I know it was really art secret.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was not fun, hiding, not fun at all.
Speaker 1: Well, now the world knows, so thank you for being
Speaker 1: here with us, and I'll see you at the party
Speaker 1: in a little bit.
Speaker 3: Yes, bye bye.
Speaker 1: Danielle with the Stars Produced and hosted by Danielle Fischell.
Speaker 1: Executive producers Jensen Carp and Amy Sugarman, Executive in charge
Speaker 1: of production, Danielle Romo, Producer, editor and engineer Tara Sudbosch.
Speaker 1: Theme song by Justin Siegel. Follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Danielle with Stars and vote for me