Nyle nailed it. Dancing With the Stars pro Peta Murgatroyd and her celebrity partner, Nyle DiMarco, may have just won the Mirrorball Trophy thanks to their killer freestyle routine on part one of the season finale on Monday, May 23.
Murgatroyd, 29, and the deaf model, 27, earned a perfect 30 for their final season 22 performance. They danced to Disturbed’s cover of Simon & Garfunkel’s 1964 song “The Sound of Silence,” which drew tears from both the audience and judges.
“I have to say, in 22 seasons, that is the best dance I’ve ever seen,” Carrie Ann Inaba said. Fellow judge Bruno Tonioli added that he had chills.
DiMarco opened up about the moving performance after the show. “I think we couldn’t have had a better night. I think every week I’m able to bring my story out, and tonight it was really a personal story,” he told Us Weekly backstage. “The deaf community really goes through a lot, and I’m really trying to explain how to raise a deaf child, but we keep being ignored.”
“I’m happy that we were able to make it happen,” he continued. “There are 70 million deaf people in the world and only two percent have access to education and sign language. Seventy-five percent of parents don’t sign to their deaf kids. So that’s a serious thing, and I’m trying to get people to hear us out.”
Murgatroyd, meanwhile, began to tear up thinking of their DWTS journey. “It’s been three intense months, and it’s been such an amazing experience,” she told Us. “I’ll always look back on this and think, ‘I would do that again in a heartbeat.’ It’s incredible.”
Murgatroyd and DiMarco had some stiff competition this year. The other finalists include Val Chmerkovskiy and his partner, Good Morning America’s Ginger Zee, and Mark Ballas and UFC fighter Paige VanZant.
DWTS‘ season finale airs on ABC Tuesday, May 24, at 8 p.m. ET.
Watch Murgatroyd and DiMarco’s freestyle in the video above!
