Summer House‘s Ciara Miller spoke out after some Dancing With the Stars viewers claimed she wasn’t smiling enough during the premiere.
“I promise to smile from here on out,” Miller, 30, captioned a TikTok on Thursday, September 17, which showed her continuously smiling during rehearsals with pro Brandon Armstrong.
Miller received an outpouring of support in the comments section, with some social media users noting that the Bravo star seemed nervous before dancing on live TV. Armstrong, meanwhile, praised how Miller reacted to the criticism, writing, “Elite work here Ciara.”
Miller was cast on season 35 of Dancing With the Stars following a highly publicized scandal involving her ex West Wilson, who started dating her former friend and costar Amanda Batula earlier this year.
“Tonight’s dance means more to me than I can really put into words. Obviously Whitney, but these lyrics have carried real weight for me this season of my life,” Miller wrote via Instagram on Wednesday, September 16, before performing her first dance of the season. “This has been a wild year … full of wins, full of falls, and I’m so deeply grateful to everyone who sent me a kind word along the way. You have no idea how much those moments mattered.”
Miller and Armstrong, 32, ultimately earned 15 out of 30 points for their foxtrot to “Exhale (Shoop Shoop)” by Whitney Houston. The dance also caused judge Carrie Ann Inaba to shed a few tears while giving feedback.
“I live so much of my life in front of a camera, but I still hold a lot closer to keep to myself. There were days and nights with my friends, behind closed doors, that were hard -really hard- to get through,” Miller continued in her social post. “And I’m eternally grateful to them, because without them, I wouldn’t be walking out on this stage tonight.”
The post concluded: “So tonight, this dance is for my village who have held me up, and allowed me the space to exhale. No lights. No cameras. Behind closed doors. And let me beat the dead horse lol. I want this dance to be the closing of one chapter – and the beginning of something so special and new.”
Miller later spoke to Us about having a few Summer House costars cheering her on in the ballroom on the big night, saying, “Pretty much everyone from my cast has texted me tonight and I am so happy that Mia [Calabrese] and Lindsay [Hubbard] were able to sit out in the audience tonight. It meant the world to me to be able to have them [be here], because I feel like throughout this entire year, they really have been, like, such rocks in this craziness and I feel like we’ve been through so much.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
