Speaker 1: Hello, everybody. I am Daniel Fischel, TV director, podcaster, mom
Speaker 1: of two, and a multi time answer on Jeopardy under
Speaker 1: the name of my nineteen nineties family sitcom character to
Speaker 1: Panga Lawrence. But if you've been like millions of Americans
Speaker 1: over the past few months, then you might recognize me
Speaker 1: as a competitor on season thirty four of Dancing with
Speaker 1: the Stars, the reality competition show. I was just recently
Speaker 1: eliminated from making it all the way to the Elite
Speaker 1: eight and along the way. Even now that I've been
Speaker 1: ceremoniously removed, I am recording this podcast, creating a journal
Speaker 1: of sorts detailing my life changing journey from zero dance
Speaker 1: experience to some dance experience. Even if I didn't find
Speaker 1: myself hoisting the Len Goodman mirror Ball trophy above my
Speaker 1: head and victory, I do still have this here microphone.
Speaker 1: I've been talking with pros, former contestants, fellow season thirty
Speaker 1: four cast members, and wildly talented behind the scenes geniuses
Speaker 1: in order to further understand the worldwide phenomenon that is
Speaker 1: Dancing with the Stars, and this week I am chatting
Speaker 1: with one of the most crucial components of that machine.
Speaker 1: During my time on the show, so many aspects of
Speaker 1: how It's run is both fascinating and basically unbelievable. And
Speaker 1: as a part of the Celebrated Costumes division, she helps
Speaker 1: run a team that makes everyone dancing look like a
Speaker 1: million bucks, even when their footwork taps out around a
Speaker 1: few thousand.
Speaker 2: And keep in.
Speaker 1: Mind she is in charge of creating new costumes week
Speaker 1: after week for at one point over a dozen different couples,
Speaker 1: sometimes in theme, sometimes shinier than a Christmas tree, sometimes
Speaker 1: numerous looks per show, all in less than The pressure
Speaker 1: is immense, and yet every episode is filled with not
Speaker 1: only beautiful outfits, but choice is made with care and elegance.
Speaker 1: If you have only a few hours and need a
Speaker 1: donkey costume that is both TV ready and danceable, well,
Speaker 1: thankfully for allan, there's only one team on TV who
Speaker 1: can pull something like that off. You can't step in
Speaker 1: the ballroom without looking the part, which is why this
Speaker 1: week I am absolutely honored to be speaking with a
Speaker 1: true backstage legend of the show, someone who has proven
Speaker 1: to accomplish the impossible week after week, year after year.
Speaker 1: It's Emmy nominated costumer Daniella Schwentner.
Speaker 2: Daniella hold out, Hi, Hi, Hi technology working.
Speaker 1: No, you the fabulous, you were here, You're ready, you
Speaker 1: know exactly how to work the camera. You look gorgeous
Speaker 1: as per usual.
Speaker 2: I don't know about that. It's been a rough day
Speaker 2: to day, has it? You know this room? Bells?
Speaker 1: I do?
Speaker 2: I know that room.
Speaker 1: I've stood there in many a hamstring brace yes in Yeah,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I
Speaker 1: know just how grueling your schedule is as you approach
Speaker 1: the semifinals, but I would like the audience to understand
Speaker 1: this a little bit. How many costumes are you making
Speaker 1: for just this week with the twentieth anniversary of the
Speaker 1: show taking place Tuesday night.
Speaker 2: Well, you know, this is a mix now of things
Speaker 2: that we restructure, things that we shop, things that we make.
Speaker 2: So custom make is probably I don't I really don't know.
Speaker 2: It's it's double dances. So with seven couples, I think
Speaker 2: we are right now, so fourteen custom make from scratch,
Speaker 2: But then a lot of things that just need to
Speaker 2: be restructured, you know, and that's sometimes just as much
Speaker 2: work as making it from you know, scratch, because our
Speaker 2: stuff has rhinestones. Every alteration they have to peel of
Speaker 2: rhinestones off, you know, scripts have to be changed. So
Speaker 2: it's it's still a pretty big big.
Speaker 1: It's a big undertaking even if you buy something.
Speaker 2: Yeah, in the end, I think now we're looking at
Speaker 2: over two hundred costumes, you know, easily for just one week,
Speaker 2: you know, oh my gosh. Yeah, because we just had
Speaker 2: a show which unfortunately you left us. I know, I
Speaker 2: left you, guys. I was so sad, I know, and
Speaker 2: then the Christmas Special and now the twentieth where we
Speaker 2: have so many returning people. So it's it's definitely been
Speaker 2: a week.
Speaker 1: But yeah, we roll with it, and you and you
Speaker 1: somehow find found time to say, how about this Sunday
Speaker 1: at three pm? I can fit in a podcast. Maybe
Speaker 1: you have a you maybe you enjoy the pain.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I guess. So, yeah, this worked out kind of. Okay,
Speaker 2: we have a dress rehearsal in an hour, so I think, okay,
Speaker 2: half hour, I can sneak away.
Speaker 1: Perfect have my radio on so in case some emergency
Speaker 1: emergency happens. But okay, I want to start at the
Speaker 1: very beginning. Were you a kid who was making dresses
Speaker 1: for your dolls? When did you start to have an
Speaker 1: eye for fashion.
Speaker 2: I was more the kid who told her grandmother but
Speaker 2: all a little bit. I didn't necessarily all make them myself.
Speaker 2: But my grandma was a seamstress, and so I did
Speaker 2: grow up with sewing and all. But I always was
Speaker 2: a little bit like my ideas were a little bigger
Speaker 2: than what I could sew myself. So I very early
Speaker 2: on had people help me with that process because I'm
Speaker 2: more the idea person. I draw it, you know, as
Speaker 2: you know, I find the fabriak, I figure out with
Speaker 2: you guys the rope map of what we're doing, and
Speaker 2: then I have we have a fantastic team here, you
Speaker 2: know if fought who cuts everything and puts it together
Speaker 2: for me in the workroom, and then the ladies who
Speaker 2: you know helped put it together and rhinestone and so
Speaker 2: it's a big it's a big group of people who
Speaker 2: help with this here.
Speaker 1: You know, Yes, and your relationship and friendship with a
Speaker 1: thought is one of my most favorite memories and experiences
Speaker 1: of my time on Dancing with the Stars. The way
Speaker 1: you two work together with so much respect and admiration
Speaker 1: for one another and the exchange of ideas. I just
Speaker 1: love both you ladies so much. Okay, So I love
Speaker 1: that you are basically the big idea person and you
Speaker 1: don't so much consider yourself to be the technician, the
Speaker 1: actual person able to make your dream come true. Although
Speaker 1: you do know how to sew, but that's not what
Speaker 1: you don't spend your time doing that so much anymore.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think, you know, I think my career always
Speaker 2: took me into the design area, and then there were
Speaker 2: people who were just you know, you have to do
Speaker 2: something over and over to be really good at it,
Speaker 2: you know. I mean, yes, there's a lot of people
Speaker 2: who can do things, but to be really good, you
Speaker 2: have to do it a lot. And I have a
Speaker 2: team that is really good. So and there's also on
Speaker 2: a show like this, no time, you know, between all
Speaker 2: the meetings we have to do in the fabric shopping
Speaker 2: in the fittings and and you know, the sketches and
Speaker 2: talking to everybody about the sketches. You know, there's not
Speaker 2: enough hours in the day for one person to do everything,
Speaker 2: you know, So we I mean, obviously there's you know,
Speaker 2: Steven leads the boys, I lead the girls, and and
Speaker 2: we you know, then you have to delegate. There's fantastic
Speaker 2: shoemakers that help us out. There's a man's tailor, there's women's.
Speaker 2: You know, there's so many difficult hands on deck, all hands,
Speaker 2: a lot of hands on every hand is needed.
Speaker 1: You know, yes, how did this become a career for you?
Speaker 1: Did you go to school for.
Speaker 2: I did that? I did know. I always wanted to
Speaker 2: be in fashion, and I always was, you know, drawn
Speaker 2: to that. I went to school for it. I got
Speaker 2: a fashion design and Merchandising degree, which really means not
Speaker 2: that much when you get in the real world. But
Speaker 2: I actually started as a stylist, and you know, one
Speaker 2: day I decided I wanted to know more than just
Speaker 2: purchasing clothes, and you know, I wanted to actually know
Speaker 2: how to create them. And I was lucky I ended
Speaker 2: up on shows that allowed that to learn that. And
Speaker 2: then I landed here with with no dance experience whatsoever.
Speaker 2: You know, I was like, I didn't know a possible
Speaker 2: from a chart show and I started here. I was like,
Speaker 2: what's that? You know, I'm sure you learned the dance
Speaker 2: has taught a lot, and I learned a lot, and
Speaker 2: you know, so it was an interesting journey to be
Speaker 2: here where I am now.
Speaker 1: And you actually started on scripted shows. Right, it was
Speaker 1: one of your first shows, Charmed, which is a pretty
Speaker 1: costume heavy show.
Speaker 2: Yes, that was my first show that I designed. Towards
Speaker 2: the end, I took it over from another design. Eventually
Speaker 2: I supervised and then I designed it. Yeah. It was,
Speaker 2: you know, another one where I really got to learn
Speaker 2: how to you know, make a fantasy costume, things that
Speaker 2: aren't just out there, you know, just gone to shop
Speaker 2: a banjee or you know whatever crazy demon our producers
Speaker 2: back then came up with. So yeah, So that was that.
Speaker 1: And so you joined Dancing with the Stars in two
Speaker 1: thousand and nine. How did this opportunity come about to you?
Speaker 2: You know? It was actually funny enough. I think it
Speaker 2: was partially s Steven because Stephen was an intern on
Speaker 2: Charmed with me. And then I left town for New
Speaker 2: Mexico and did a show there for three and a
Speaker 2: half years, and then I came back and I was like,
Speaker 2: I need a job, and he was like, well, it's
Speaker 2: not a design job. I actually started as a key
Speaker 2: on this show, which was not I had been designing
Speaker 2: for I don't know how many years, probably eight years
Speaker 2: at that point, but I had lost sort of my
Speaker 2: contacts here in town, and everybody was telling me I
Speaker 2: was committing career suicide because you don't go backwards in Hollywood.
Speaker 2: And I was like, well, but I learned something, and
Speaker 2: you know, learning something is always better than sitting at
Speaker 2: home waiting for a phone call. Yes, so I ended
Speaker 2: up joining this team, and I don't know, it happened
Speaker 2: that they needed a designer for the Chooster Show and
Speaker 2: you're of us, and they're like, you're a designer, design it,
Speaker 2: and then eventually I became, you know, it became part
Speaker 2: of the girls designing the whole thing.
Speaker 1: I love that. I love that, you know, because sometimes
Speaker 1: it is you'll get advice from people and you think, oh,
Speaker 1: am I doing the wrong thing, but your instincts told
Speaker 1: you no, and also your desire to work and to
Speaker 1: learn something, and you thought, okay, worst case scenario, I
Speaker 1: go and work on a show and it's it's not
Speaker 1: up to my standard of what I have been doing
Speaker 1: for the last eight years, but I'm going to learn
Speaker 1: something new. I'm going to enjoy it, and then look
Speaker 1: what happens. Like that's such a good lesson for people
Speaker 1: to trust your instincts sometimes, you know, I think.
Speaker 2: So because I really look back on that decision, and
Speaker 2: it was I really never think that way, you know,
Speaker 2: But listening to others, you're like, is this really bad
Speaker 2: if I do this? You know, people think I go
Speaker 2: really backwards, But for me, it was like I'm always
Speaker 2: intrigued when I learned something new, and this was not
Speaker 2: a jeans and T shirt show, you know, I was like,
Speaker 2: obviously something, if nothing else, just how to rhinestone, which
Speaker 2: I did back then, I'm of rhinestoning, and yeah, I
Speaker 2: think that's the thing, you know, And now looking back,
Speaker 2: I mean eighteen years on the show, I'm like, my
Speaker 2: life would have gone a totally different direction if I
Speaker 2: hadn't taken the.
Speaker 1: Show right exactly, life changing moment for you right there,
Speaker 1: real fork in the road. Okay, I wanted to speaking
Speaker 1: of the rhinestoning, I have seen some of the rhinestoning
Speaker 1: taking place outside. I think, is it really every individual
Speaker 1: hand place and glued rhinestone?
Speaker 2: Yes, every single one is placed and yeah by hand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that is must be the most time consuming work.
Speaker 2: Well, we have gotten pretty good at it. You know,
Speaker 2: we have a system down. We use glues ve enges
Speaker 2: in our girls. So again, as something you do a lot,
Speaker 2: you get very good and fast ed, you know so.
Speaker 2: But yeah, obviously that's a big element of the show,
Speaker 2: which is why we have to push the girls through early.
Speaker 2: As you know, when you come for your first fitting,
Speaker 2: things don't look all that great yet they're just about
Speaker 2: to get a shell on you. To get a you know,
Speaker 2: make sure we have a guideline because we need at
Speaker 2: the back end so much time to write stone it
Speaker 2: so it does look beautiful, you know. That is what
Speaker 2: takes our costumes then out of like the ordinary into
Speaker 2: the spectacular. You know, it's the stones.
Speaker 1: So speaking of that that first fitting, let's go through
Speaker 1: a typical week for you, and I know the week's change,
Speaker 1: especially as you get later into the season and now
Speaker 1: there become you know, group dances and two dances and
Speaker 1: three dances. Let's start kind of at the beginning of
Speaker 1: a season. What does a week look like for you?
Speaker 1: At the very beginning? How does how does the week start?
Speaker 1: You get the idea for the theme?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, we we obviously we are in team
Speaker 2: with the producers. I mean, there is a creative normally
Speaker 2: given to us that kind of explains what the story
Speaker 2: should be, what lighting we're doing, what maybe what story
Speaker 2: we want to convey, you know, in the first in
Speaker 2: the beginning, you know, normally we want to introduce our talent,
Speaker 2: you know, the new celebrities that come on. If they
Speaker 2: I mean, if they're a sports person, we want to
Speaker 2: not given not to the sport therein for example, or
Speaker 2: you know for everybody, or you had, like eventually on
Speaker 2: the show a number where it was a not to
Speaker 2: your show, and so you know, so every week has
Speaker 2: those elements, and then you do the research or you
Speaker 2: talk to you know, you and your partner, and there's
Speaker 2: there's so much dialogue involved until we get to a
Speaker 2: costume because we you know, there's the music, there's a
Speaker 2: story we want to tell, there's what producers want it
Speaker 2: to look like. Then we need to think for the women,
Speaker 2: what skirts right for you? What can you do and
Speaker 2: not do in that? What is your choreography? Then it's
Speaker 2: normally for me, a sketch you know that I show
Speaker 2: you and we look at a fabric that I think
Speaker 2: is right for what we talked about, and then it
Speaker 2: goes through the motions, it gets cut, it gets put together,
Speaker 2: it gets fit for the first time. Then after the
Speaker 2: first time, it goes back it gets you know, fine
Speaker 2: tuned to the point where we start winstoning it and
Speaker 2: then we fit it again then and dances.
Speaker 1: And you are always working on more than one week
Speaker 1: at a time, because that first sketch and meeting happens
Speaker 1: at least one full week before the week you're talking about.
Speaker 1: But plus, when you're in production, you're actually doing the
Speaker 1: fittings for the current outfit that you're wearing. So there's
Speaker 1: never a time where you're not thinking about multiple costumes
Speaker 1: for every single celebrity.
Speaker 2: Yes, for every girl dance and every female celebrity. That
Speaker 2: that's true, and Dad was Dad. We're kind of used to.
Speaker 2: What was the challenge this time was we had this
Speaker 2: Christmas special also, so it was times when we had
Speaker 2: three shows in our heads, and you know that it
Speaker 2: gets a little confusing at times. You're like, but show,
Speaker 2: what are you talking about? What show are you talking
Speaker 2: about right now? Oh wow?
Speaker 1: And you of course obviously know all the materials that
Speaker 1: make those costumes also danceable, because we're also limited by
Speaker 1: the fact that we have to be able to move.
Speaker 1: And so you know, thankfully you've been doing this long
Speaker 1: enough that everything's made in a way that even though
Speaker 1: you are very sucked in. You can still dance in it,
Speaker 1: you can still breathe in it. There's usually room for
Speaker 1: a mic pack, which is everyone's favorite conversation, where's the
Speaker 1: mic pack going? Fun little tidbit for our listeners. Most
Speaker 1: of the time, the pack itself is in your near
Speaker 1: your butt, very very very close to your your butt,
Speaker 1: and then occasionally, for whatever reason, it can't be near
Speaker 1: your butt, it is in your breast, like in your
Speaker 1: bra area, which is not everyone's favorite spot. Although I
Speaker 1: actually preferred it to the one in my butt. I
Speaker 1: did not like the butt.
Speaker 2: Back like you like, what's the least offensive place exactly.
Speaker 1: So Also, I know this is not a very sexy topic,
Speaker 1: but networks don't love spending tons of money, even on
Speaker 1: a massive hit show like Dancing with the Stars, So
Speaker 1: you still have to make all of this costuming for
Speaker 1: all of these people happen within a budget, right, Yes,
Speaker 1: But I.
Speaker 2: Have to say that's been really good on the show
Speaker 2: for okay, because I think everybody understands that besides the
Speaker 2: dance and the dancer, the only other thing you really
Speaker 2: see full on all the time is the costume. And
Speaker 2: also it really does help the dance, so much, you know,
Speaker 2: and when you have a beautiful flowing walt skirt versus
Speaker 2: you know, I mean, we really do spend on the
Speaker 2: good fabric there and the stes and rather than you know,
Speaker 2: our producers are very good that way. They understand that
Speaker 2: we really do need to make it look beautiful, you know,
Speaker 2: because a big part of the beauty is how it
Speaker 2: moves and how it fits and how it looks on
Speaker 2: you guys. You know that's great good. I'm so glad.
Speaker 1: I'm so glad they're not waving a check book over
Speaker 1: your head, going you can't do this. I will say
Speaker 1: I never felt that way in any of in any
Speaker 1: of the fittings. I never felt like there was something
Speaker 1: we wanted or asked for and the response was anything
Speaker 1: other than yes, we can do that. Speaking of which
Speaker 1: I had to give you credit on my on my podcast.
Speaker 1: I know you heard it a while back. There was
Speaker 1: when we did for the Cha Cha I we originally
Speaker 1: Daniella wanted to have straps on the dress and she
Speaker 1: wanted it to feel feel different than my promo hot
Speaker 1: pink dress that I had worn. And I loved my
Speaker 1: promo dress so much, and it was a halter and
Speaker 1: so I reached out to Danielle and I was like,
Speaker 1: can we do a halter? I just felt like that
Speaker 1: was so comfortable and I loved the way it looked,
Speaker 1: and she was like, yes, we can do that, and
Speaker 1: she told me her reasons why she wanted to do
Speaker 1: the straps, and I was like, I think I still
Speaker 1: want to do a halter. She said okay, And then
Speaker 1: the night of the show, I put that dress on
Speaker 1: and it weighed so many rhinestone pounds and it just
Speaker 1: was completely hanging on me and we all watched it
Speaker 1: during dress rehearsal and I immediately took it off and
Speaker 1: said I was wrong. I was wrong, Danielle, I apologize.
Speaker 1: I need to have straps put on this. And within
Speaker 1: an hour I had a dress that had the straps
Speaker 1: that Daniella originally wanted on the dress, and it fit
Speaker 1: and worked so much better. So never never doubt you.
Speaker 1: You You've been doing this a very long time. You
Speaker 1: know what you're doing. Uh, And I just I wanted
Speaker 1: to apologize again for thinking I knew better.
Speaker 2: Oh please, though you didn't calculate in that that dress
Speaker 2: weigh seven thousand more pounds than the Troma dressed because
Speaker 2: I was all beaded fringe, and those are our heaviest dresses.
Speaker 2: And especially when you move, you know, and you start
Speaker 2: moving with beaded fringe, it just pulls poles and poles
Speaker 2: and poles. Yes, that is true. That was an easy fix.
Speaker 2: And you know the I mean, we do try to
Speaker 2: make everybody. You know, if somebody really loves something, I
Speaker 2: will always give it a try until you can see
Speaker 2: maybe that it doesn't work. Then we fix it, and
Speaker 2: then you fix it.
Speaker 1: Then you go, okay, I already had those straps made up, Danielle,
Speaker 1: I was ready to go. Do you look forward to
Speaker 1: the theme weeks every week? Does the having a theme
Speaker 1: help you with creativity or does it sometimes feel a
Speaker 1: bit like a burden?
Speaker 2: Yes? And no exactly. I mean, I think theme weeks
Speaker 2: are good sometimes because they give us all a roadmap.
Speaker 2: There's not so much like, oh, we could do this
Speaker 2: or that or the other. You know, it's where you
Speaker 2: when you when you design for an individual dancer, because
Speaker 2: there's so many options you could go with, you know,
Speaker 2: so the the theme weeks definitely limit that down. But
Speaker 2: I personally I am not a fan of copying anything,
Speaker 2: you know, so that's why sometimes I don't love that
Speaker 2: when I have to copy with another designer, design doesn't
Speaker 2: feel like as fun to me, you know, And especially
Speaker 2: when it's like like Disney, where it's really supposed to
Speaker 2: be correct, you know, like look like that character, so
Speaker 2: you're copying pretty exact. That is that has its other
Speaker 2: child challenges. You know. It's kind of like you look
Speaker 2: at a color for ten times a day and you're like,
Speaker 2: is it really to write blue? Is really to write blue?
Speaker 2: Is it a little shade? Darker, lighter than you know?
Speaker 2: So that has that challenge. But I mean both, you know,
Speaker 2: the show has both and both we you just roll
Speaker 2: roll with that, with all of it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I want to talk to you a little bit
Speaker 1: about Prince Week because I was very excited that if
Speaker 1: I made it to Prince Week, we were doing bat
Speaker 1: Dance we were going to do and I was so
Speaker 1: excited about it because in the video for bat Dance,
Speaker 1: Prince is wearing a purple joker suit, and I just
Speaker 1: knew I was going to be able to hand over
Speaker 1: that inspiration to you and that you were going to
Speaker 1: come up with something incredible for that week. So what
Speaker 1: are you what aspects of Prince Week in particular, are
Speaker 1: you looking forward to what inspiration are you taking?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, it was he also had such a
Speaker 2: strong looked as like looks of we just really associate
Speaker 2: with with him, so we're trying to, of course take
Speaker 2: an essence from all of that. So it's fun because
Speaker 2: it's it's taking a very creative personality and persons and
Speaker 2: in trying to you know, put a spin on it
Speaker 2: for dance room stars, which is always just an aspect
Speaker 2: of that. So you take an element, you know. So
Speaker 2: that's fun because there's so many elements. You know, sometimes
Speaker 2: when we have a theme week or an artist that's
Speaker 2: a little bit more limited. But I think we have
Speaker 2: no limitations there really because there were so many different
Speaker 2: cool looks that totally can use as inspiration and build
Speaker 2: you know, build off of. So I think that's the
Speaker 2: best part about it is that we don't land in
Speaker 2: just one color theme or you know how we do
Speaker 2: sometimes with certain theme weeks, like with Wicked we ended
Speaker 2: up in all green pretty much, right, I don't think,
Speaker 2: So this is a lot more you know, there's a
Speaker 2: lot more versatility in the looks that we can emulate
Speaker 2: there or take as a base for inspiration.
Speaker 1: Now every year there are different theme weeks added, and
Speaker 1: they change and everything, but one thing that pretty much
Speaker 1: remains constant is Halloween Week. What is your feeling on
Speaker 1: Halloween Week? Do you love it? Do you feel like
Speaker 1: you have a lot of creativity that week?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I do. I mean again a little bit after
Speaker 2: eighteen years, you've done a lot for looks, you know,
Speaker 2: which is on one hand grade because we can build
Speaker 2: off those again. You know, like that's something that I
Speaker 2: feel like I'm learning to do now, is how can
Speaker 2: it take something I've done already and modified into something
Speaker 2: that it's new and which helps a lot because then
Speaker 2: you don't have to you know, you don't have to
Speaker 2: start so much from scratch, but you can use your
Speaker 2: time to elaborate on something like you know, our when
Speaker 2: we started our skeletons a little more basic. Now they
Speaker 2: are real bondes and different. You again, the learning process.
Speaker 2: You know, I love Halloween because it's you know, it's
Speaker 2: it's fun and the looks are like a little bit
Speaker 2: easy for us. Again when you have like something given
Speaker 2: me know what a skeleton looks like? We know what
Speaker 2: you know what those characters normally need to be whereas
Speaker 2: you know, sometimes the hardest is something where you're completely
Speaker 2: on your own with a look. Okay, I just want
Speaker 2: a sexy Argentine tango, but that can be a million things,
Speaker 2: you know, Like then I need to really think, who
Speaker 2: are you? What is your body? What do you like
Speaker 2: on yourself? What have I learned about you? Or the
Speaker 2: last few weeks of knowing you? You know, so I
Speaker 2: will maybe give you a halta like I did in contempores,
Speaker 2: because I know that dress will work that way, so
Speaker 2: you know, you just but I feel I do more
Speaker 2: thinking when it's something original, you know, when it's something
Speaker 2: that somebody doesn't tell me, Oh it has to look
Speaker 2: like like this Disney character or like this Halloween character
Speaker 2: or something. You know. I feel like we're more creative
Speaker 2: when we don't have those guidelines.
Speaker 1: And so then what does happen to these beautiful costumes,
Speaker 1: these one of a kind costumes when the season is over?
Speaker 1: Where do they go? Where do ballroom costumes go to rest?
Speaker 2: They go into a storage area which is rather large,
Speaker 2: and we keep most of it, I mean, because as
Speaker 2: I said, you know, it's it's as we learn how
Speaker 2: to build on things that exist, you know, with all
Speaker 2: these teen dances group dances, we can bring things back
Speaker 2: and modify them and you know, give them a new
Speaker 2: life rather than it would be a shame. These costumes
Speaker 2: are so time consuming, so expensive to make, it would
Speaker 2: be horrible to just get rid of them. So of
Speaker 2: course we all have you know, another life. We have
Speaker 2: a dance and the stars tour, they go on that,
Speaker 2: and then obviously we use things because it's the only
Speaker 2: way to make the show happen, is you know, at
Speaker 2: least we use a fully stone bodies and put a
Speaker 2: different scord on it.
Speaker 1: Or some of course, have you ever had an idea
Speaker 1: for a theme on the show, maybe something they haven't
Speaker 1: done yet, but as a costumer you would just die
Speaker 1: to work on.
Speaker 2: No, I actually haven't think you Spoto like we should
Speaker 2: do maybe a fashion designer inspired, you know now like
Speaker 2: Chanel and like there's you know, har money and that's
Speaker 2: a great idea, Utia. I mean, obviously there would be.
Speaker 2: It would be very fun to you know, go into
Speaker 2: these different looks of these designers and make those like
Speaker 2: something else since we're already looking allotted fashion for the show,
Speaker 2: you know, because that's the that's the fun part. We
Speaker 2: have kind of married fashion with dance more and more.
Speaker 2: M So it'd be fun to maybe look into the
Speaker 2: you know, into the different fashion houses that maybe take
Speaker 2: inspiration from what their signature looks are.
Speaker 1: Oh, that's such a great idea.
Speaker 2: I love that.
Speaker 1: Is there one costume in particular that you look back
Speaker 1: on and you think, I cannot believe we pulled that off?
Speaker 2: No, there's many and many every week. I feel that sometimes,
Speaker 2: but I honestly not even kidding. No, I think these
Speaker 2: years now are better. There were many years when I
Speaker 2: had to learn about you know, you made mistakes and
Speaker 2: things didn't work and you know that stuff. I feel
Speaker 2: like there were definitely times when fixing something that I
Speaker 2: just had to learn that that doesn't work for dance,
Speaker 2: or that is not as good as I thought in
Speaker 2: my head it would be. I think that were more
Speaker 2: the times where we scrambled. Now, I feel we know more.
Speaker 2: You know, we won't do certain things anymore because you
Speaker 2: know they'll get us in trouble.
Speaker 1: Yeah. While researching I was looking at some of the
Speaker 1: costumes over your years on the show, and one of
Speaker 1: my favorites was Lindsay Sterling and Mark Ballast for their
Speaker 1: quick step dressed as butterflies.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, that heard one.
Speaker 1: Dress was so beautiful. Do you have any favorites that
Speaker 1: come to mind right away when you think of favorite costumes?
Speaker 2: Well, there were there were some that stand out just
Speaker 2: because they were kind of first on the show. You
Speaker 2: know we did we did a dress actually for Sadie
Speaker 2: robertson Long time back that we said it was all
Speaker 2: rhinestones into a long skirt. So it was we we
Speaker 2: counted was over twenty five thousand stones.
Speaker 1: Oh my oh god.
Speaker 2: We were like, that's probably our most rhinestone dress ever,
Speaker 2: which I think we have surpassed at this point, but
Speaker 2: that stood out. I mean, I feel like the first
Speaker 2: Flamenco pass. So we did stand out. You know, every
Speaker 2: time you did we did something new that we hadn't
Speaker 2: done before. That stands out in my mind a little
Speaker 2: bit because we had to learn how to how does
Speaker 2: that get put together? That's more thoughts doing, but also
Speaker 2: what fabric do we use for that? You know, once
Speaker 2: you have done it, you know all that worked or
Speaker 2: it didn't work, and next time I won't do that anymore.
Speaker 2: The first time you do any outfit is always you know,
Speaker 2: you're like you have to learn something about it. Yeah. Absolutely.
Speaker 1: The Lend Goodman tribute in twenty twenty three was also
Speaker 1: such a tall task for you, and you made an
Speaker 1: absolutely beautiful moment with the costuming. What was that assignment
Speaker 1: like for you?
Speaker 2: Well, you know, truthfully, that wasn't that hard because it
Speaker 2: was it was a traditional ballroom number, you know, which
Speaker 2: is something we did for a long time on the show,
Speaker 2: and then we stopped doing it for a little bit.
Speaker 2: So if it was fun to bring that back out,
Speaker 2: and as I said, we had bases that we could
Speaker 2: you know, add feathers to and just dress up. So
Speaker 2: it's actually a little easier than people think it was.
Speaker 2: You know, it looked brand and beautiful, but because we
Speaker 2: were able to use existing things and just stress them
Speaker 2: up and make them more spectacular, it was actually, you know,
Speaker 2: it was almost better than starting from scratch with that
Speaker 2: because it looked much richer once you added feathers and
Speaker 2: more stones, and you know, you elaborated on address that existed.
Speaker 2: It just took that into that world that made it
Speaker 2: so special. I think.
Speaker 1: So this Tuesday night, you have been handed another important
Speaker 1: task to celebrate twenty years of Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 1: This podcast is going to be released after the show,
Speaker 1: so you can feel free to spoil things. It won't
Speaker 1: air until after. Talk about what everyone saw on what
Speaker 1: was a very special night. How do you approach something
Speaker 1: so bad like the twentieth anniversary of Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 2: Well, I think, you know, we have people come back
Speaker 2: from the past, which is really great. I think again,
Speaker 2: it's more volume. Derek is choreographing that opening, So I
Speaker 2: work with Derek a lot, so I kind of know
Speaker 2: what he likes, you know, overall, and I think it
Speaker 2: took just one zoom to kind of figure out the
Speaker 2: direction because we had to jump on it really fast
Speaker 2: because we had to make like, I don't know, twelve
Speaker 2: feather skirts, and you know, it was things that we
Speaker 2: couldn't even handle out of our department here. It had
Speaker 2: to go to other places. So then I try to
Speaker 2: find ways where somebody can follow a pattern, you know,
Speaker 2: rather than having to develop something. So it worked out
Speaker 2: actually kind of well too for us, because we had
Speaker 2: something here that I knew would work, and then we
Speaker 2: just copied that in another workroom. And then it's just
Speaker 2: you know, going through the motions and getting it, making
Speaker 2: some and pulling some and you know, it's it's what
Speaker 2: we do. It's it wasn't necessarily more work than other
Speaker 2: other weeks. Maybe more because it's more bodies a little bit,
Speaker 2: but overall again, I mean for us, every week has
Speaker 2: been right, every week thing like that. So we're just
Speaker 2: a lot of bodies to dress that is, you know.
Speaker 2: Then it becomes actually more of a logistical problem too,
Speaker 2: because they all have you all have to rehearse and
Speaker 2: when do we fit it? You know, when do we
Speaker 2: get people so we can put things on their bodies
Speaker 2: so we can keep moving. That I think is the
Speaker 2: highest challenge when there's so much going on that everybody's
Speaker 2: so busy they can't come see us. And the further
Speaker 2: we push it close to you know, going life, the
Speaker 2: less time we have to fix it, make it, change it,
Speaker 2: whatever it needs for it to be good, you know.
Speaker 2: So that's the biggest stress. I feel that was the
Speaker 2: stress of this week to get the Christmas special organized thing,
Speaker 2: get the twenty is also at the same time organized
Speaker 2: and having all this parallel going and trying to fit
Speaker 2: it and see when somebody was available, like I'm throwing
Speaker 2: U s onn you right now. Yeah, it wasn't even
Speaker 2: full outfits anymore. It was like this top and then
Speaker 2: for another time. Because it all was in the morek summer,
Speaker 2: I'm like, Okay, this is how we're doing it this week.
Speaker 2: This week is going to be piece by piece.
Speaker 1: Yeah wow, you mentioned being you know, knowing Derek pretty
Speaker 1: well and working closely with Derek.
Speaker 2: Are there certain.
Speaker 1: Pros that are very hands on about the costumes both
Speaker 1: for them and their partner and others who are a
Speaker 1: little more like, you're the expert, do whatever you want?
Speaker 1: And if so, who are some of the more involved partners.
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's definitely Derek Mark Val very involved,
Speaker 2: you know. Then others are more like, you know, like
Speaker 2: day La at asthmo duo thing. It depends, though, I
Speaker 2: think it's I try to have a dialogue with everybody before,
Speaker 2: you know. I'd never like to do a costume for
Speaker 2: a celebrity women, for example, without checking with the pro
Speaker 2: boy what's right for their dance because there's so many skirtstars.
Speaker 2: I mean for the girls, the biggest part is the
Speaker 2: skirt style. Am I doing the right thing for your choreography,
Speaker 2: for your story, for what you want to express? If
Speaker 2: I give you a soft flow, if skirt and you
Speaker 2: want edgy, and yeah, then we're not. Like, it's not
Speaker 2: going to work. And I need to know that, you know,
Speaker 2: so I need to talk to the pro boys normally
Speaker 2: all of them to some degree, to understand what are
Speaker 2: you doing, what's right for your dance, what's right And
Speaker 2: then I hope a lot of them trust me now
Speaker 2: that I know what's right for their celebrity, for their body,
Speaker 2: for you know that we're trying to make them understand.
Speaker 2: You know, we're working with a person and they have
Speaker 2: to like it on themselves, and they have to look
Speaker 2: good in it, and they're body has to look good
Speaker 2: in it, so you know, it's a lot.
Speaker 1: Of moving parts. Finally, the show has somehow found a
Speaker 1: whole new audience and here we are in the middle
Speaker 1: of a very unexpected renaissance for Dancing with the Stars.
Speaker 1: As someone who has been there and seen it all firsthand,
Speaker 1: why do you think Dancing with the Stars has been
Speaker 1: able to speak to so many generations?
Speaker 2: Well, I think it's you know, first of all, it's
Speaker 2: just really beautiful to the dancing music and you know,
Speaker 2: the costume and everything. It is a little bit of
Speaker 2: a fantasy world and most people do like dance and
Speaker 2: music together. I think it's also we had, of course
Speaker 2: a cast that came on lately that is heavily influencing
Speaker 2: the younger generations, you know, so that brought a lot
Speaker 2: of people I see, And I just think the reality
Speaker 2: of it all, that this is a true reality show.
Speaker 2: You can't fake it. You can't if you're not good
Speaker 2: at dancing, or if you don't put in the time
Speaker 2: to get good at it, and if you don't, if
Speaker 2: the audience can't tell that you put in the time
Speaker 2: to learn, and like, look at your journey. You know,
Speaker 2: there's so much people have to learn and invest of
Speaker 2: time and energy to be good at this show and
Speaker 2: good at a dance and look good and have a
Speaker 2: good performance. So I think people like to see that
Speaker 2: because it is real. That's not something you can just
Speaker 2: show up for and do. You have to actually really
Speaker 2: be involved and do all the steps to get good
Speaker 2: at it. And I think people like that they see that,
Speaker 2: and it keeps it fresh and it keeps it interesting,
Speaker 2: and you see people's journey and they have a good
Speaker 2: week and a bad week, and it's just it's the
Speaker 2: realness of it all. I think that really draws people in.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think you're right. I mean being well to
Speaker 1: see where someone starts on day one and the attitude
Speaker 1: or the energy that they have on day one versus
Speaker 1: by week seven or week eight, and you see now
Speaker 1: how far they've come in the relationship with their pro
Speaker 1: and how that's developed. And yeah, it is like you,
Speaker 1: it's impossible to not get sucked into the real story
Speaker 1: of everyone who's on the show, and obviously you are
Speaker 1: such an enormous part of that of showcasing us in
Speaker 1: all the most beautiful, fantastic light. And so from the
Speaker 1: bottom of my heart, just thank you so much for
Speaker 1: the time we got to spend together and all the
Speaker 1: wonderful work that you did for me. In particular, I'm
Speaker 1: just so grateful. And I loved every single one of
Speaker 1: my costumes. You already know that. I've already talked to
Speaker 1: you about how I managed to have all those in
Speaker 1: my closet. So we will talk about that more when
Speaker 1: the season is over. I'm not going to bother you
Speaker 1: with it before then. Danielle, thank you so much for
Speaker 1: being here with me.
Speaker 2: Thank you for having me law 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 Sudebosch.
Speaker 1: Theme song by Justin Siegel. Follow us on Instagram at
Speaker 1: Danielle with Stars and vote for me