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Cheryl Burke: Terrell Owens Needs to ‘Lead Me’ Completely This Week on ‘DWTS’

Cheryl Burke Terrell Owens Dancing With The Stars
Cheryl Burke and Terrell Owens on 'Dancing With The Stars.'Eric McCandless/ABC Via Getty Images

Dancing With the Stars pro Cheryl Burke is blogging exclusively with Us Weekly about her quest to take home the season 25 Mirrorball Trophy with partner Terrell Owens! Check back each week for her latest update on the competition.

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Every week keeps getting better and better for Terrell, and it was so exciting to receive our first 10 from Shania Twain! Of course I would have loved a 10 from Len [Goodman], because that’s what our dance was about, but I love that the judges are slowly seeing improvement in Terrell. It’s an amazing feeling making our way to the top of the leader board. He has worked very hard for that. No matter how far we go in this competition, it’s really been a journey for Terrell.

I thought he did an amazing job with the Jive. For me, I really wanted him to look cool and masculine, and the song and story helped. Even though there were so many moving parts, we were able to tell the story. I have to say, on Sunday and Monday there were a lot of mistakes, so I was very nervous going in to the live show. When it was over and he nailed it, I kept saying, “Oh My God, I’m so happy it’s over!” I said it in a good way though. I was happy that everything went smoothly, and I’m so proud of Terrell for holding his composure instead of freaking out that we were in the bottom.

It’s not a great feeling finding out we were in the bottom before we had to dance but that didn’t affect anything. He’s a competitor — this is what he does, so I think that’s the main reason he did such a good job. He was fighting and wanted to prove to himself that he deserved to be there, and if anything, he got the audience behind him. He’s not ready to go yet and I think he proved that.

This week is Halloween week, which is always fun, but now we have to do two dances. We have a team dance and an individual dance. We are on Team Monster Mash and Terrell is our team captain. Drew Scott is the captain for the other team. They picked the captains based on the lowest scoring couple from the whole season. Drew picked Victoria [Arlen], Vanessa [Lachey] and Frankie [Muniz], and Terrell picked Lindsay [Arnold], Jordan [Fisher] and Nikki [Bella]. We have an amazing team, and I’m shocked that we have the top 4 scoring couples on the leader board from last week!

No tricks, just treats. #teamgetchapopcorn 🍿

A post shared by Cheryl Burke (@cherylburke) on

The Group dance is to the song “Monster Mash” and we are getting pretty creative. We are working extra hard to do something that has never been done before. The challenge is, the last half of the dance the celebrities have to dance 20 seconds alone. They are out there on their own and they have to sell it. We have to learn two dances in the same amount of time that we normally have, so this is a challenge in itself. We will be judged as a group and whatever that score is will be added to the score for our solo dance.

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For our solo dance, we are dancing a Tango to “Super Freak,” so we are back to ballroom where we have to maintain frame. The Tango is a different type of dance where you need to be sharp and precise. This is a very masculine dance and I need Terrell for the first time to lead me across the whole floor every single step. We start the dance by trick or treating, then he comes into a house where I am, and then we Tango. The biggest challenge is, if he leads me or jerks me the wrong way, we end up stepping on each other.

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Terrell has made my 20th season very special, and I hope people who had a bad perception of him before changed their minds now that they have seen him on this show. It’s an added bonus when someone like Terrell comes on Dancing with the Stars, who is perceived as a cocky, arrogant guy. I love being able to change people’s perception of someone. I think if any show can bring that out, it’s Dancing with the Stars. Each week, Terrell is letting his wall down and he loves being here. He feels humbled by this experience, and it’s so beautiful to see him blossom.

Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC Mondays at 8 p.m. ET.

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