For Daniella Karagach, it can feel daunting to craft another spooktacular Halloween-themed Dancing With the Stars routine like her spell-binding season 30 number with Iman Shumpert.
“There’s a lot of pressure. I feel like that dance is special because of everything that came with it,” Karagach, 33, exclusively told Us after the Tuesday, October 27, live show. “Iman is 6-foot-7 [and] I’m tiny. It worked, you know?”
Karagach and Shumpert, 36, received a perfect score in 2021 for their Halloween Night contemporary inspired by the horror movie Us. Karagach and the NBA champ ultimately clinched the mirrorball at the end of season 30.
After winning her first DWTS trophy, Karagach has attempted to deliver other one-of-a-kind Halloween themes with her subsequent celebrity partners.
“Every year I have a new partner [and] every year I have to work with my partner’s strengths, right?” she told Us. “It’s a lot of pressure, but I’m so grateful that people think so highly of that and people still remember it.”
She continued, “It’s the biggest honor, but at the same time, it’s definitely a lot of pressure. And every partner is different, and every year it’s going to be a different kind of theme. So, you know, it’s really fun, and I love getting to create dances like this. It’s just so fun to get into character.”
Karagach is currently partnered with Paralympian Ezra Frech, crafting a jazz routine inspired by 2020’s The Invisible Man on Tuesday’s show that was set to “Madness” by Ruelle. The duo earned a total score of 35 out of 40 from the judges.
“I definitely was not holding back. When I stepped onto the ballroom floor, [my skin irritation pain] was not even in my mind. I was just going all out,” Frech, 21, told Us, gushing over receiving a 9 from notoriously strict guest judge Shirley Ballas. “When you’re stepping into this art form and leaning into this process, there’s something about admiration and respect of the people who are the best to do it, and that is her.”
Frech added, “For her to give us a 9, for her to give us positive feedback, I went up to her at the end and just said, ‘I just have a lot of respect for her. I just think she’s amazing.’ And she’s helped make [Daniella] into who she is, and that’s the only reason I’m able to do the stuff on the dance floor today. It’s, like, the coaching tree that has given me any bit of help on the floor.”
Dancing With the Stars airs on ABC and Disney+ Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET.
