Dancing With the Stars contestant Amber Glenn gave Grammy Night her all — but fans noticed that she appeared stunned by judge Carrie Ann Inaba’s foot lift critique during week nine.
“I just know that, especially towards the end, my toe was burning,” Glenn, 27, exclusively told Us on Tuesday, November 10, after Inaba, 58, said that Glenn’s foot apparently came off the ground at one point during a paso doble routine to “Bring Me to Life” with partner Pasha Pashkov.
The Olympic gold medalist explained that she’s been dealing with a toe problem, but is unsure if it led to the ballroom mishap.
“I’ve had to tape my toe every single day. I’ve had to put Band-Aids on it. I had to put tape on it,” Glenn said. “And at one point, my shoe, like, the top of my shoe folds it inwards onto it, and I was nervous to step onto it because it was, like, [ouch].”
Glenn noted that once she hit the dancefloor, the rest was a blur.
“But hey, you know, in the performance, adrenaline’s high. I don’t know,” she told Us.
Glenn’s reaction to Inaba’s criticism was evident during judging and she made a shocked face caught by the cameras.
“I was so in the moment, I was like, ‘Yeah!’ And then to hear that, I was like, ‘Oh,’” she recalled. “It wasn’t even like, ‘Oh.’ I was just like, ‘Aw. Aw, man.’”
Despite Inaba’s foot critique, Glenn and Pashkov’s fiery paso doble was a hit with judges and fans alike.
They earned a score of 28 out of 30 before earning two more bonus points for winning their dance-off against Pashkov’s wife, pro Daniella Karagach, and her celebrity partner, Ezra French.
Pashkov, 40, and Glenn’s score along with fan votes pushed them through to next week’s season 35 semifinals and the pair couldn’t be more proud of their performance.
“I am not dancing alone, I am dancing with my partner, and I had such a great time with Pasha out there today,” Glenn told Us. “I think we both really loved this dance because we loved this song, and being able to learn this paso was, like, one of the things I was really looking forward to most in this competition. And it lived up to the expectations.”
She gushed, “I had such a great time, and I’m excited to keep learning new dances, especially next week.”
The dynamic duo teased that Pashkov’s choice to go shirtless might’ve helped them out a bit as well — and there is plenty more where that came from.
“We both showed off muscles last week, but I showed off a little more because mine was, like, cut, so I got to show off my abs last week,” Glenn explained.
Pashkov chimed in, joking, “And it is a competition,” to which Glenn replied, “It is a competition between us who gets to show off the most muscles each week.”
While Pashkov admitted that Glenn “normally wins” the contest between them based on her sexy costumes, he “jumped on” the chance to show off his abs this week.
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
