Dancing With the Stars judge Bruno Tonioli is weighing in on the ongoing debate regarding contestants with prior dance experience and their alleged advantage.
“It’s crazy. Let me explain,” Tonioli, 70, shared on the Monday, September 14, episode of SiriusXM’s Front Row on Radio Andy before detailing the difference between dance experience and ballroom experience. “It doesn’t matter, because ballroom and Latin are so specific. They’re very specific disciplines.”
The longtime judge continued, “In fact, they say if you’re a ballet dancer, ballet-trained, ‘Oh, she’s had ballet.’ It actually doesn’t help at all for Latin, because Latin is all ground, using the foot in a completely different way.”
Before DWTS’ Tuesday, September 15, season 35 premiere, some fans have questioned if contestants Jenna Dewan, Harry Shum Jr. and Julia Stiles have an upper hand due to their prior — and professional — dance experience.
Tonioli went on to explain that participants with hip-hop dance still don’t have much of an advantage when it comes to a ballroom performance.
“We know people that are very, very experienced in hip-hop and modern and whatever — it’s got nothing to do with ballroom,” he argued to host Lauren Smith. “In fact, it’s a disadvantage, because the posture, the way your frame is so specific to ballroom that it’s actually, sometimes, probably better to start from scratch.”
As a new group of celebrities make their DWTS ballroom debut on Tuesday evening, Tonioli wants to assure viewers that he will be serving critiques from the judges’ table with an open mind.
“Everybody, really, as far as I’m concerned as a judge, is the same. I will judge exactly what I see,” he said. “I guarantee you, we’ve had people that won and they’ve never, ever danced before. And we’ve had dancers that did win, but not because they were dancers, because they worked as hard as anyone else.”
Tonioli continued, “Everybody in this competition works extremely hard. Enjoy it.”
Despite Tonioli’s pledge to remain impartial, the debate regarding the perceived advantage some celeb contestants have over others is not going away anytime soon.
In a recent Instagram video, former DWTS winner Bobby Bones asked certain contestants to keep it real when it comes to their undeniable ballroom advantages.
“To watch some of the contestants go on and say, ‘No, it’s just not the same. It’s going to be hard for me too.’ It’s not,” he said on September 5. “It’s just a little insulting when people that have danced their whole life go, ‘Ah, it’s not really the same because I’ve never danced ballroom.’”
Bones, 46 — who won the Mirrorball trophy in 2018 alongside partner Sharna Burgess — continued, “They know where their arms and feet are without having to constantly look at them. They understand rhythm. They can hear the beat and know where a movement should land. They already have balance, flexibility, posture, body control and even spatial awareness. They know how to point their feet. They know how to extend to their fingertips and make a movement look complete. Things that, again, if you never danced, you have no idea what’s happening.”
Fans will be able to have their voices heard by voting for their favorite contestants when Dancing With the Stars premieres with a two-night event on ABC and Disney+ starting Tuesday, September 15, at 8 p.m. ET.
